1 Chronicles 8:29

And at Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon; whose wife's name was Maachah:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

THE FAMILIES OF GIBEON, ESPECIALLY THE ROYAL HOUSE OF SAUL

(1Chronicles 8:29-40).

1Chronicles 8:29-38 recur at 1Chronicles 9:35-44.

(29) At Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon.—His name (Jehiel) has been accidentally omitted. (See 1Chronicles 9:35.) The verb dwelt is plural, “they dwelt;” a sufficient indication that the “father of Gibeon” merely represents the original population of that place under a collective name. Maachah would be a place in the neighbourhood.

Gibeon.—Now el-Jib, about eight miles north-west of Jerusalem.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-40 Genealogies. - Here is a larger list of Benjamin's tribe. We may suppose that many things in these genealogies, which to us seem difficult, abrupt, and perplexed, were plain and easy at that time, and fully answered the intention for which they were published. Many great and mighty nations then were in being upon earth, and many illustrious men, whose names are now wholly forgotten; while the names of multitudes of the Israel of God are here kept in everlasting remembrance. The memory of the just is blessed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These dwelt in Jerusalem - Jerusalem was partly within the limits of the tribe of Benjamin Joshua 18:28; but we do not hear of Benjamites inhabiting it until after the return from the captivity 1 Chronicles 9:3; Nehemiah 11:4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28. These dwelt in Jerusalem—The ordinary and stated inhabitants of Jerusalem were Judahites, Benjamites, and Levites. But at the time referred to here, the chiefs or heads of the principal families who are enumerated (1Ch 8:14-27) established themselves in the city after their return from the captivity.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The father of Gibeon, i.e. the chief or ruler of the Benjamites dwelling there.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And at Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon,.... The builder of the city, and prince of the inhabitants of it, which was in the tribe of Benjamin, Joshua 18:25 whose name was Jehiel, 1 Chronicles 9:35,

(whose wife's name was Maachah;) of which name were many, see 1 Chronicles 2:48.

Geneva Study Bible

And at Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon; whose wife's name was Maachah:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29–32 (= ch. 1 Chronicles 9:35-38). The Genealogy of Jeiel

29. the father of Gibeon] R.V. the father of Giboon Jeiel; cp. 1 Chronicles 9:35, R.V.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 29-40. - These verses are occupied with the immediate ancestors and posterity of Saul. And apparently the same account, minus some of its deficiencies, is repeated in the next chapter, vers. 35-44. The two may be taken together here, and the latter will help the interpretation of the former. Verse 29. - The father - i.e, the chief - of Gibeon. (For Gibeon, see Joshua 9:3, 7-18; Joshua 10:2; Joshua 11:19; Nehemiah 7:25; Nehemiah 3:7.) The father of Gibeon (1 Chronicles 9:35) was Jehiel (יְעִיאֵל; Chethiv spells with vau; not יְחִיאֵל, 1 Chronicles 15:24). Of Jehiel by this name we do not elsewhere read. And even if it were on other grounds possible to identify the person with the Abiel of 1 Samuel 9:1 and 1 Sam 14:51, it is not possible to identify the names. Compare the similar remarkable omission of the name of the "father of Gibea" (1 Chronicles 2:49), an omission to be filled very possibly by this same name Jehiel. 1 Chronicles 8:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

_ - 1 Chronicles 8:29-38 recur in 1 Chronicles 9:35-44 (see on that passage).

1 Chronicles 8:29-32

The ancestors of Saul. They dwelt mainly in Gibeon, but a branch of them were settled in Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 8:32.f. In Gibeon, now El Jib, two hours north-west from Jerusalem (see on Joshua 9:3), dwelt the father of Gibeon, with his wife and his sons. The plural ישׁבוּ is used because there dwelt there, besides the father of Gibeon, also his wife and his sons. The father, i.e., the lord and possessor of Gibeon, was called, according to 1 Chronicles 9:35, Jehiel (יעיאל, Keth. יעואל), and his wife Maachah, a not uncommon female name (see on 1 Chronicles 2:48). The descent of Jehiel from Benjamin is not given. In 1 Chronicles 8:30 eight names are given as those of his sons, while in 1 Chronicles 9:36. ten are mentioned, the latter statement being correct; for a comparison of the two passages shows that in our verse two names have been dropped out, - Ner between Baal and Nadab, and Mikloth at the end, which must have originally stood in our register also, - for in 1 Chronicles 8:32, 1 Chronicles 8:33 their descendants are mentioned. זכר is called in 1 Chronicles 9:37 זכריה. These names are evidently those of actual sons of Jehiel who were progenitors of fathers'-houses (groups of related households), but in the case of only two is the race descended from these further noticed. In 1 Chronicles 8:32 we have that of the youngest Mikloth, who begat Shimeah, called in 1 Chronicles 9:38 Shimeam. These also (viz., Shimeah and his family) dwelt in Jerusalem אחיהם נגד, "before their brethren," i.e., over against them, and אחיהם עם, "with their brethren." The brethren are the other Benjamites in the first clause, those dwelling outside of Jerusalem and inhabiting the neighbouring country as far as Gibeon (1 Chronicles 8:30); in the second, those dwelling in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 8:28). From this it is clear that of the descendants of Abi-Gibeon only that branch which was descended from Mikloth went to Jerusalem.