⁶And these are the sons of Ehud; these are the heads of fathers’ houses of the inhabitants of Geba, and they carried them captive to Manahath:
6. Ehud] Ehud (the deliverer of Israel from Moab) was descended from Gera (verse 5; Judges iii. 15).
Geba] Compare vi. 60.
they carried them captive] an utterly obscure phrase, most probably due to textual error. It is a plausible suggestion that the phrase is a corruption of proper names commencing the list which we should expect to follow the preceding words: “these are the heads of,” etc. Hogg, Jewish Quarterly Review xi. 102 ff., therefore conjectured the names “Iglaam and Alemoth”; and similarly in verse 7, in place of the equally obscure words “he carried them captive; and he,” he would read “and Iglaam begat.”
⁷and Naaman, and Ahijah, and Gera, he carried them captive; and he begat Uzza and Ahihud.
7. Naaman, and Ahijah, and Gera] perhaps to be deleted, as a repetition of verse 5.
⁸And Shaharaim begat children in the field of Moab, after he had sent[¹] them away; Hushim and Baara were his wives. ⁹And he begat of Hodesh his wife, Jobab, and Zibia, and Mesha, and Malcam; ¹⁰and Jeuz, and Shachia, and Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of fathers’ houses.
[¹] Or, sent away Hushim and Baara his wives.
8, 9. Again the Hebrew text appears to be in disorder, and the verses in consequence are so obscure that conjectures are all precarious.
Hushim] is elsewhere the name of a man. Hence verse 11 below should perhaps read And Hushim begat....