And after the death of Hezron in Caleb-Ephratah, Abijah, Hezron's wife, bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.
One line of Judah's family record holds a death, a birth, and a town. Why would Scripture keep such a small family detail, and what does it tell us about the God who kept it?
Chronicles tells Israel's story from one angle. These lists of names are where it starts.
The Books of Chronicles give us the history of the same period from another angle: that of blessing and of the grace of God. More particularly, they give us the history of the house of David, the house to which God showed this grace.
The same writer notes when these books were drawn up, and why they record so few faults:
These books were written or drawn up after the captivity (see 1 Chron. 6:15). They preserve God's history of His people, recorded by the Holy Spirit, as He loved to remember it. They show only the faults we need to know to understand the instructions of His grace.
Which Caleb does the verse mean, and when did Hezron die? Darby weighs both questions:
There is no proof that Caleb was the son of Hezron, son of Perez; if it was the same Caleb as in Numbers, he was the son of Jephunneh. One thing is certain. The Hezron in question died in Canaan in Caleb Ephratah, and Abiah bore a son after this. So we see there were no early names in Chronicles with "jah"; Abijah was the grandson of one who died in Canaan. In general the names come after the Exodus.
Translations split here. The ESV has Caleb going in to "Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron his father," and she bears Ashhur. The older version these writers use reads Caleb Ephratah as the place where Hezron died, and gives the wife's name as Abiah.
Tekoa is a town, not only a name in a list. Here is what became of it:
City of Judah, probably founded by Ashhur. Rehoboam built or fortified it 'for defence.' 2 Chr. 11:6. The 'wise woman' Joab employed to speak to the king about the return of Absalom was from this city. 2 Sam. 14:2, 4, 9. It stood on a hill, so it was a good place for blowing the trumpet in time of danger, as in Jer. 6:1. The prophet Amos was among its herdsmen.
This part of the chapter is patchy, and commentators say so. Rossier lists verses 18–24 among the lists that show it:
Sometimes the genealogies of Chronicles contain names of very ancient origin, which we do not find elsewhere in the Old Testament. Many names are not those of single people, but of clans or families. Others are genealogies we might call geographic. For lack of other source material, they include the names of tribes, of districts, of cities… We find this again in 1 Chron. 2:18-24, 25-33, 42-55.
Does that patchiness discredit the book? Rossier says the opposite:
No enlightened Christian will deny that the genealogies of Chronicles are made up of fragments gathered in the middle of general confusion. Yet they are documents on which God sets His seal of approval.
Two men named Caleb meet in this chapter, and commentators differ on how they are related. Rossier sees one of them brought into the family of the other, and not by birth:
So Caleb, by his origin, had no right of citizenship in Israel at all. He received this right among the people of Judah by virtue of his faith. He was included in the family of Caleb the son of Hezron, as it appears in 1 Chronicles 2:49 and in the passages already cited in Joshua.
Rossier ties the name Caleb to a quality, not just a bloodline:
With this name goes the thought of "virtue," that is, of moral energy. With a goal in view, it enables the believer to overcome obstacles. It separates him from every weight and the sin that so easily entangles him. 2 Peter 1:5 says, "In your faith have also virtue."
A record like this says something about God's memory:
There is something deeply solemn for the soul in being allowed to go over such a record of names. People forgot them long ago. But God has remembered every one, with every detail of their pathway through this world. Some day our names will be lost to mankind too. Yet God will forget neither us nor our ways.
- Remembered — Chronicles is history told from the side of grace, preserved by the Holy Spirit "as He loved to remember it."
- Dated — Hezron dies, then the son is born. Names ending in "jah" are not early ones; in general these names come after the Exodus.
- Founded — "Father of Tekoa" means founder. Tekoa became a fortress, the home of the wise woman who spoke to the king, and the place where Amos kept herds.
- Fragmentary — Verses 18–24 are pieces gathered in a time of confusion. They use clans, districts and cities as names. God still sets His seal on them.
- Remembered — People forget names. God does not. He keeps our ways too.
And the sons of Jerahmeel the firstborn of Hezron were Ram the firstborn, and Bunah, and Oren, and Ozem, of Ahijah.
Verse 25 turns aside from David's royal line to list the sons of Jerahmeel, Hezron's firstborn. Their names are almost all we are told. So why does the record pause here, and why does it treat the family's firstborn this way?
Jerahmeel had the birthright as the eldest son. Yet the chapter traces David's line to its end before it turns back to him. One writer links his last place to the fruitlessness of his line:
Unfruitfulness especially characterizes the line of Jerahmeel. Although he was Hezron's eldest son (v. 9), he is once again in last place here (v. 25)... The features of the natural man pass down just as readily as the features of a man of faith like Caleb; only in Caleb's case they pass down by grace. David's line does not descend from Jerahmeel, but from Ram, his younger brother (vv. 9-16).
So part of the point lies in what the verse leaves out: the eldest son passes on what he is by birth, and no more.
Chronicles keeps this order right through its genealogies. It sets the natural connection down first, before the chosen line appears:
The Spirit of God goes farther back. He gives us the family line from Adam of the generation blessed by grace, according to God's sovereignty, together with what belonged to that generation outwardly, or after the flesh. He makes the part owned in grace stand out clearly enough to be seen. That part stood outwardly connected with what was merely outward and natural. And He always puts the natural first, as the apostle tells us.
The same pattern shows up earlier, with Shem, and again with Abraham's two sons:
In God's eyes, Shem, chosen by grace, has the preeminence, but in the natural order what is spiritual is not first... "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28); Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts, but Ishmael, the elder, is listed first (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh.
Verse 9 also named a Ram — the ancestor of David. This Ram is a different man:
Of the family of Jerahmeel there is little but the names. The Ram here (1 Chron. 2:25) is nephew to the Ram, son of Hezron, and brother to Jerahmeel (1 Chron. 2:9).
So a shared name does not put a man in David's line.
Jerahmeel's branch is not the line that leads to David, yet the record keeps it:
The honoured line passed through Ram, but his natural connections have a place in the archives of Judah. No doubt everyone named stood out for some quality or excellence, or for some special blessing given to them that would make them stand out even more.
The same writer points to one man in this branch:
In this branch of Hezron's descendants there is one man who stands out for what he was and what he became through God's favour. It happened in such a sovereign way that, while Israel is under law, a Gentile is honoured and prominent in Israel. Sheshan had no sons, only daughters. Would his name and family not soon be lost among the thousands of Judah? No. His daughter, though given to his Egyptian servant, stands at the head of thirteen generations (1 Chron. 2:35-41).
One writer draws a personal lesson from reading such a list:
It deeply sobers the soul to be allowed to go over such a record of names. People forgot them long ago, but God has remembered every one of them, along with every detail of their path through this world. Some day our names likewise will be lost to mankind, but neither we nor our ways will be forgotten by God.
That fits the whole book. One writer describes Chronicles as "God's history of His people, recorded by the Holy Spirit, as He loved to remember it" (J. N. Darby).
- Firstborn — Jerahmeel had the birthright as Hezron's eldest. Yet the chapter puts him last and gives his family little but names.
- Nature — What a man is by nature passes on to his children. Faith's likeness passes on too, but only by grace.
- First-listed — Chronicles names the natural line before the chosen one, as with Ishmael before Isaac. God's order is not nature's order.
- Namesake — The Ram of this verse is nephew to the Ram of verse 9. The right name is not the same as a place in the chosen line.
- Remembered — God keeps the names the world forgot, and He will forget neither us nor our ways.