| Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 2:1-55 Genealogies. - We are now come to the register of the children of Israel, that distinguished people, who were to dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations. But now, in Christ, all are welcome to his salvation who come to him; all have equal privileges according to their faith in him, their love and devotedness to him. All that is truly valuable consists in the favour, peace, and image of God, and a life spent to his glory, in promoting the welfare of our fellow-creatures. Pulpit CommentaryVerses 21-24. - The first interruption to the record of Caleb's posterity is now occasioned by a resumed reference to Hezron, who at the age of threescore took to wife (as it seems from ver. 24) Abiah, sister to Gilead, daughter of the eminent man Machir, who was Manasseh's oldest son by an Aramitess concubine (1 Chronicles 7:14). Two sons of Hezron by Abiah are given (the latter of them a posthumous child), but the elder having a son called Jair tracked, no doubt as one who became famous by the number of cities he took. He was thus connected on the father's side with a great family of Judah, and on the mother's with a great family of Manasseh. He is probably not the Jair of Judges 10:3, with his "thirty sons, thirty ass colts, and thirty cities." And יָאִיר (Ἰάειζος, Mark 5:22) is not יָעִיד of 2 Samuel 21:19; 1 Chronicles 20:5. Evident stress is laid on his maternal descent. Thus (Numbers 32:41) he is styled son of Manasseh, and hence also the explanation of the last clause of ver. 23, infra, all these belonged to the sons of Machir the father of Gilead. Some of the cities alluded to are the Havoth-Jair (Numbers 32:41; Deuteronomy 3:14; Joshua 13:30), Englished as the "groups of dwellings of Jair," on which see interesting note in Stanley's 'Sinai and Palestine' (edit. 1866), vocabulary, pp. 526, 527. They lay in the trans-Jordanic district Trachonitis, the modern El-leyah and Jebel-Hauran. It is not possible to harmonize exactly the numbers of the cities given here with those in passages quoted above; nor is the translation of ver. 23, Authorized Version, very certainly the correct one. E. Bertheau, in his 'Die Bucher der Chronik erklart; 15. Kurzgef. exegetisches Handbuch. z. A.T.,' translates, "And Geshur and Aram took the Havvoth-Jair from them with Kenath and her daughter-towns, sixty cities." "Took" is supposed to mean here "retook," or "recovered." Though this suits the Hebrew syntax better, it does not suit so well our immediate context; nor have we any other information of such re, covering of them. Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead,.... Which Machir was the son of Manasseh, and Gilead was his grandson, Numbers 26:29 the Targum is,"but he enticed a virgin, the daughter of Machir;''which suggests, that he committed fornication with her, though he afterwards married her; her name is not mentioned; to me it seems to be Abiah, 1 Chronicles 2:24 and whom the Targum there calls the daughter of Machir: whom he married when he was sixty years old; the Targum is sixty six; this seems to be his last wife: and she bare him Segub; the same name with the youngest son of Hiel, who rebuilt Jericho, 1 Kings 16:34. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary21. Hezron … daughter of Machir the father of Gilead—that is, chief of that town, which with the lands adjacent was no doubt the property of Machir, who was so desirous of a male heir. He was grandson of Joseph. The wife of Machir was of the tribe of Manasseh (Nu 26:29).
1 Chronicles 2:21 Parallel Commentaries 1 Chronicles 2:21 NIV 1 Chronicles 2:21 NLT 1 Chronicles 2:21 ESV 1 Chronicles 2:21 NASB 1 Chronicles 2:21 KJV Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible |