Bertheau would identify three of the sons of Elpaal - Meshullam, Heber, and Ishmerai - with Misham, Eber, and Shemer, 1 Chronicles 8:12, but without any sufficient reason; for it is questionable if even the Elpaal whose sons are named in our verses be the same person as the Elpaal mentioned in 1 Chronicles 8:12. Of these descendants of Elpaal, also, nothing further is known, and the same may be said of the nine sons of Shimhi, 1 Chronicles 8:19-21; of the eleven sons of Shashak, 1 Chronicles 8:22-25; and of the six sons of Jeroham, 1 Chronicles 8:26, 1 Chronicles 8:27, although some of these names are met with elsewhere singly. The concluding remark, 1 Chronicles 8:28, "These are heads of fathers'-houses," refers, without doubt, to all the names from 1 Chronicles 8:15 or 1 Chronicles 8:14 to 1 Chronicles 8:27. "According to their generations - heads" is in apposition to the preceding, as in 1 Chronicles 9:24, but the meaning of the apposition is doubtful. The word ראשׁים can hardly be repeated merely for emphasis, as the old commentators understood it, in harmony with the Vulgate principes inquam, for why should this word be so emphasized? Bertheau thinks that "according to their births - heads" is to be taken to mean that those who are enumerated by name are not the heads living at the time of the preparation of this register, but the individual families, with the name of their progenitor after whom they were named in the genealogical lists. But how this meaning can be found in the words in question, I at least cannot understand. Can the individual families be called אבות ראשׁי, "heads of fathers'-houses"? The families are the fathers'-houses themselves, i.e., they are made up of the groups of related households comprehended under the name fathers'-houses. These groups of related households have, it is true, each of them either head, but cannot possibly be themselves called heads. The meaning seems rather to be that the persons named in the family registers, or registers of births, are introduced as heads (of fathers'-houses); and the reason why this is remarked would seem to be, to prevent those who are enumerated as the sons of this or that man from being regarded simply as members of fathers'-houses. The further remark, "these dwelt in Jerusalem," is manifestly not to be taken to mean that the heads alone dwelt there, while the households that were subordinated to them lived elsewhere; for it signifies that they dwelt in Jerusalem with the households which composed their respective fathers'-houses. That the households dwelt there also is not stated, merely because the register contains only the names of the heads.

1 Chronicles 8:28 Parallel Commentaries

smelt

Joshua 15:63 As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out...

Joshua 18:28 And Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, Gibeath, and Kirjath; fourteen cities with their villages...

Judges 1:21 And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem...

Nehemiah 11:1,7-9 And the rulers of the people dwelled at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots...

Jerusalem Jerusalem, the ancient capital of Judea, is situated in long.

35 deg.

1 Chronicles 8:20 And Elienai, and Zilthai, and Eliel,

. min. E. lat.

31 deg.

47 min

47 sec. N.; and, according to the best authorities,

136 miles S.W. of Damascus,

34 miles S. of Shechem or Nablous,

45 miles E. of Jaffa,

27 miles N. of Hebron, and about

20 miles W. of Jericho. The city of Jerusalem was built on hills, and encompassed with mountains (

Psalm 125:2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from now on even for ever.

) in a stony and barren soil, and was about sixteen furlongs in length, say Strabo. The ancient city of Jebus, taken by David from the Jebusites, was not large, and stood on a mountain south of that on which the temple was erected. Here David built a new city, called the city of David, wherein was the royal palace. Between these two mountains lay the valley of Millo, filled up by David and Solomon; and after the reign of Manasseh, another city is mentioned, called the {second.} The Maccabees considerably enlarged Jerusalem on the north, enclosing a third hill; and Josephus mentions a fourth hill, called Bezetha, which Agrippa joined to the former: this new city lay north of the temple, along the brook Kidron. See note on

1 Chronicles 9:34 These chief fathers of the Levites were chief throughout their generations; these dwelled at Jerusalem.