Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/119

Rh according to the heads of their fathers' houses, mighty men of valour, seventeen thousand and two hundred, that were able to go forth in the host for war. Shuppim also, and Huppim, the sons of Ir, Hushim, the sons of Aher. The sons of Naphtali; Jahziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shallum, the sons of Bilhah. The sons of Manasseh; Asriel, whom his wife bare: (his concubine the Aramitess bare Machir the father of Gilead:

and commerce by sea. It would be astonishingly out of place in a genealogy of Benjamin, but is appropriate in one of Zebulun (cf. Gen. xlix. 13 "Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea").

11. able to go forth] the total number of warriors is here 59,434; cp. 50,000 in xii. 33; and cp. Num. i. 37, xxvi. 41.

12. Shuppim also, and Huppim] for the spelling cp. viii. 5, Num. xxvi. 39, and Gen. xlvi. 21. These Benjamite names are an addition, and illustrate the tendency referred to above in the note on Benjamin and Ehud, ver. 10.

12 b.&emsp;

Ir] Cp. ver. 7, Iri. But see following note.

Hushim, the sons of Aher] In Aher (lit. "another") some commentators find the word Dan. More probably Ir is a corruption for Dan, and the word Aher an error for "one" (the differences are small in Heb.). Following the indication of Gen. xlvi. 23 and the LXX., read therefore the sons of Dan, Hushim his son, one.

13.&emsp; (= Gen. xlvi. 24).

13. Jahziel Shallum] In Gen. Jahzeel  Shillem.

14—19.&emsp;

A difficult section. The text is much disturbed in vv. 14, 15; and there is hardly any material available for the illustration of vv. 16, 17.

14. Asriel, whom his wife bare: (his concubine the Aramitess bare] Cp. Num. xxvi. 31. Probably, however, the name is due to an error of dittography. Read simply as mg., following LXX., whom his concubine the Aramitess bare; she bare, etc.

his concubine the Aramitess] The inhabitants of Gilead were thus in part Arameans (Syrians) by descent. A different tradition is preserved in Gen. l. 23.