¹⁷And Abigail bare Amasa: and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.
17. the Ishmaelite] 2 Samuel xvii. 25, “the Israelite,” an error yielding no satisfactory sense.
18–24 (compare verses 42–55.)
Descendants of Caleb.
¹⁸And Caleb the son of Hezron begat children of Azubah his wife, and of Jerioth: and these were her sons; Jesher, and Shobab, and Ardon. ¹⁹And Azubah died, and Caleb took unto him Ephrath, which bare him Hur.
18. Caleb] a clan dwelling in southern Judea, and probably distinct from Judah in the time of David (1 Samuel xxv. 3, xxx. 14). Other references to them or rather their reputed founder Caleb ben Jephunneh the Kenizzite (Numbers xxxii. 12; Joshua xiv. 6, 14; 1 Chronicles i. 36, where see note on Kenaz) point to an original connection with the Edomites. Their importance in these lists is explained by the fact that they were incorporated in Judah, and, after the exile, occupied townships close to Jerusalem (verses 50–55) “forming possibly the bulk of the tribe in post-exilic Judah, since the Chronicler knows so few other families” (Curtis, Chronicles p. 89). See also W. R. Smith, Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 279 ad fin.
begat children of Azubah his wife, and of Jerioth] the Hebrew seems to be corrupt. Read perhaps begat children of Azubah, his wife, daughter of Jerioth; or took Azubah the wife of Jerioth. The name Azubah = forsaken is significant: see the note on verse 42, Caleb, ad fin.
²⁰And Hur begat Uri, and Uri begat Bezalel.
20. Bezalel] the Chronicler is naturally pleased to give prominence in his list to Bezalel, who in Exodus xxx. (P) is mentioned as the artificer of the Tabernacle.
²¹And afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead; whom he took to wife when he was threescore years old; and she bare him Segub.
21. The table of Caleb is broken off at this point to introduce verses 21–23 a statement of further descendants of Hezron (verse 9) by another wife, the daughter of Machir. The interruption is not unnatural, for it is convenient to refer to Hezron’s “son of old age” immediately before the notice of his death (verse 24).