1 Chronicles 2:21

And afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was threescore years old; and she bare him Segub.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21-24) This short section, concerning other Hezronites than those of the house of Caleb, is a parenthesis relating to a Hezronite element in Manassite Gilead.

(21) And afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir.—This appears to mean, after the birth of the three sons mentioned in 1Chronicles 2:9.

Machir.—The firstborn of Manasseh (Genesis 1:23), to whom Moses gave the land of Gilead (Numbers 32:40; Deuteronomy 3:15). This explains the term “father of Gilead.” The great clan of Machir was the ruling clan in Gilead. Comp. Numbers 26:28, which mentions the clan of the Machirites, and adds that “Machir begat Gilead,” which perhaps means to say that the Israelite settlers in Gilead were of the clan Machir.

Whom he married when he was threescore.—It is possible to see here a metaphorical statement of the fact that a branch of Hezronites amalgamated with the Machirites of Gilead. The “daughter of Machir” would then mean the clan so named. Comp. the expressions, “daughter of Zion” (Isaiah 37:22), “daughter of Judah” (Lamentations 1:15), “daughter of Babylon” (Isaiah 47:1).

Benson Commentary

1 Chronicles 2:21. The father of Gilead — It is doubtful whether the word Gilead is here the name of a man, or of the country so called: if it be the latter, the expression means, the prince of Gilead, as the word father often signifies: if the former, the Gilead intended must have been a person of noted valour, probably the great champion in those parts.

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the remainder of this chapter the writer obtains scarcely any assistance from the earlier Scriptures, and must have drawn almost entirely from genealogical sources, accessible to him, which have since perished.

Azubah was Caleb's wife; Jerioth his concubine. He had children by both; but those of Azubah are alone recorded.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. 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).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Went in, i.e. lay with her, as that phrase is commonly used, as Genesis 4:1 6:4.

The father of Gilead; of a man so called. Or if Gilead be the name of that known country, father is put for head or governor, as it is used 1 Samuel 24:11 2 Kings 5:13 16:7 Isaiah 22:21; or for protector or curator, as father is used Job 29:16 Jeremiah 2:27 Lamentations 5:3; this man being a man of noted valour, and the great champion in those parts.

Whom, he married, Heb. and he took her, to wit, to wife. Or, after he had taken her; for so the particle vau is used, as hath been formerly noted.

When he was threescore years old, Heb. and he was, to wit, when he went in unto her, or when he married her.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And 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.

Geneva Study Bible

And afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of {f} Gilead, whom he married when he was threescore years old; and she bare him Segub.

(f) Who was prince of mount Gilead, Nu 32:40.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 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. 1 Chronicles 2:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The descendants of Hezron numbered with the stock of Caleb: (a) those begotten by Hezron with the daughter of Machir, 1 Chronicles 2:21-23; (b) those born to Hezron after his death, 1 Chronicles 2:24.

1 Chronicles 2:21-22

Afterwards (אחר), i.e., after the birth of the sons mentioned in 1 Chronicles 2:9, whose mother is not mentioned, when he was sixty years old, Hezron took to wife the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, who bore him Segub. Machir was the first-born of Manasseh (Genesis 50:23; Numbers 26:29). But Machir is not called in 1 Chronicles 2:21 and 1 Chronicles 2:23 the father of Gilead because he was the originator of the Israelite population of Gilead, but אב has here its proper signification. Machir begot a son of the name of Gilead (Numbers 26:29); and it is clear from the genealogy of the daughters of Zelophehad, communicated in Numbers 27:1, that this expression is to be understood in its literal sense. Machir is distinguished from other men of the same name (cf. 2 Samuel 9:4; 2 Samuel 17:27) by the addition, father of Gilead. Segub the son of Hezron and the daughter of Machir begat Jair. This Jair, belonging on his mother's side to the tribe of Manasseh, is set down in Numbers 32:40., Deuteronomy 3:14, as a descendant of Manasseh. After Moses' victory over Og king of Bashan, Jair's family conquered the district of Argob in Bashan, i.e., in the plain of Jaulan and Hauran; and to the conquered cities, when they were bestowed upon him for a possession by Moses, the name Havvoth-jair, i.e., Jair's-life, was given. Cf. Numbers 32:41 and Deuteronomy 3:14, where this name is explained. These are the twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead, i.e., Pera.