Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Chronicles 4:28
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
The ancient dwelling-places of the Simeonites, which they received within the tribal domain of Judah at the division of the land by Joshua; cf. Jos 19:1. \- There are in all eighteen cities, divided into two groups, numbering thirteen and five respectively, as in Jos 19:2-6, where these same cities are enumerated in the same order. The only difference is, that in Joshua thirteen cities are reckoned in the first group and four in the second, although the first group contains fourteen names. Between Beersheba and Moladah there stands there a שׁבע which is not found in our list, and which might be considered to be a repetition of the second part of בּאר־שׁבע, if it were not that in the list of the cities, Jos 15:26, the name שׁמע before Moladah corresponds to it. The other differences between the two passages arise partly from different forms of the same name being used, - as, for example, בּלהה for בּלה (Josh.), תּולד for אלתּולד, בּתוּאל for בּתוּל; and partly from different names being used of the same city, - e.g., בּית־בּראי ( Ch1 4:31) instead of בּית־לבאות, "the house of lions" (Josh.), שׁערים instead of שׁרוּחן (Josh.). All these cities lie in the south land of Judah, and have therefore been named in Jos 15:26-32 among the cities of that district. As to Beersheba, now Bir es Seba, see on Gen 21:31; and for Moladah, which is to be identified with the ruin el Milh to the south of Hebron, on the road to Ailah, see on Jos 15:26. Bilhah (in Jos 15:29, בּעלה), Ezem, Tolad, and Bethuel (for which in Jos 15:31 כּסיל is found), have not yet been discovered; cf. on Jos 15:29 and Jos 15:30. Hormah, formerly Sephat, is now the ruin Sepata, on the western slope of the Rakhma table-land, 2 1/2 hours south of Khalasa (Elusa); cf. on Jos 12:14. Ziklag is most probably to be sought in the ancient village Aschludsch or Kasludsch, to the east of Sepata; cf. on Jos 15:31. Beth-marcaboth, i.e., "carriage-house," and Hazar-susim (or Susa), i.e., horse-village, both evidently by-names, are called in Jos 15:31 Madmannah and Sansannah. Their position has not yet been discovered. Beth-Birei, or Beth-lebaoth, is also as yet undiscovered; cf. on Jos 15:32. Shaaraim, called in Jos 15:32 Shilhim, is supposed to be the same as Tell Sheriah, between Gaza and Beersheba; cf. Van de Velde, Reise, ii. S. 154. The enumeration of these thirteen cities concludes in Ch1 4:31 with the strange subscription, "These (were) their cities until the reign of David, and their villages." וחצריהם, which, according to the Masoretic division of the verses, stands at the beginning of Ch1 4:32, should certainly be taken with Ch1 4:31; for the places mentioned in Ch1 4:32 are expressly called cities, and in Jos 19:6, cities and their villages, הצריהם, are spoken of. This subscription can hardly "only be intended to remind us, that of the first-mentioned cities, one (viz., Ziklag, Sa1 27:6), or several, in the time of David, no longer belonged to the tribe of Simeon;" nor can it only be meant to state that "till the time of David the cities named were in possession of the tribe of Simeon, though they did not all continue to be possessed by this tribe at a later time" (Berth.). Ziklag had been, even before the reign of David, taken away from the Simeonites by the Philistines, and had become the property of King Achish, who in the reign of Saul presented it to David, and through him it became the property of the kings of Judah ( Sa1 27:6). The subscription can only mean that till the re…
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