The first of these points could be (and has usually been) explained by the elision of some letters; for the words “the sons of” (Bᵉnê) in Hebrew writing most closely resemble “Ben” the first syllable of Benjamin. For a few other minor difficulties tentative suggestions have been put forward, but are very unsatisfying, whilst for most of the features noted above, and especially for the most important of them, no proper explanation can be given on the supposition that the list really is a genealogy of Benjamin. It is therefore most probable that the view urged by Curtis, Chronicles, p. 127, should be adopted. He finds in these verses the genealogy of Zebulun, the absence of which otherwise is a striking feature of the genealogies in these chapters. The letters which are now taken to be the first part of the word Benjamin should be read Bᵉnê (i.e. the sons of), and the following letters are a corruption of Zebulun, which was originally followed by the names of Zebulun’s three sons, Sered and Elon and Jahleel, as given in Genesis xlvi. 14. The changes involved by this suggestion may seem violent in English, but they are by no means so in the Hebrew, and moreover it must be understood that they all follow inevitably or at least most naturally upon the slight initial error whereby “the sons of Zebulun” was corrupted into “Benjamin.” The development and details of Curtis’ reasoning cannot be set forth except in connection with the Hebrew text, and it must therefore suffice here to indicate the one essential point, and to remark that the convincing feature of his hypothesis is that it furnishes a clear and natural explanation of all the difficulties noted above.
⁶The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher, and Jediael, three.
6. Bela, and Becher, and Jediael] Contrast viii. 2. Read, following Genesis xlvi. 14, Sered and Elon and Jahleel.
⁷And the sons of Bela; Ezbon, and Uzzi, and Uzziel, and Jerimoth, and Iri, five; heads of fathers’ houses, mighty men of valour; and they were reckoned by genealogy twenty and two thousand and thirty and four.
7. the sons of Bela] Contrast viii. 3; and read instead the sons of Sered. These are differently stated in viii. 3–5.
⁸And the sons of Becher; Zemirah, and Joash, and Eliezer, and Elioenai, and Omri, and Jeremoth, and Abijah, and Anathoth, and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher. ⁹And they were reckoned by genealogy, after their generations, heads of their fathers’ houses, mighty men of valour, twenty thousand and two hundred.
8. Becher] Read Elon.
Anathoth, and Alemeth] both names of places in Benjamin; vi. 60 (45, Hebrew, “Allemeth”); Jeremiah i. 1. These are the only place-names in the list, and they are admittedly Benjamite: as to the significance of this fact see note on Ehud, verse 10.
¹⁰And the sons of Jediael; Bilhan: and the sons of Bilhan; Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud, and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tarshish, and Ahishahar.
10. Jediael] or rather Jahleel.