The sons of Salma Bethlehem, and the Netophathites. Atroth-Beth-Joab, and the Hazi-Hammana-hethites, the Zorites;
One line of names in Judah's register: the sons of Salma, starting with Bethlehem, then a string of clans and settlements. Why does Scripture keep such a list, and what is it building toward?
This verse sits in the last part of Judah's genealogy. It comes back once more to a name this chapter keeps repeating.
In verses 50-55 we meet the descendants of Caleb, the son of Hezron, for the third time in this chapter. They come through Hur, the first-born of Ephratah. Verse 20 has already given us part of that genealogy.
Salma is not said to have fathered a child called Bethlehem. The phrase carries a different sense.
In 1 Chr. 2:51, 54; 1 Chr. 4:4, 'father of Bethlehem' may signify 'prince of Bethlehem.'
That small town, named here in passing, carries both a history and a meaning.
David was anointed in the house of Jesse the Bethlehemite, so it seems this was the place of David's birth (1 Sam. 16:4; 1 Sam. 17:12, 15). That is why Luke 2:11 calls it the 'city of David.' It was also the birthplace of Jesus. It was "too little to be among the clans of Judah," and that suited His humiliation all the better. Bethlehem means 'house of bread.' It is a very fitting name for a place from which the Saviour should come as a man — He who was the living bread that came down from heaven.
The Netophathites, the Manahathites and the Zorites are groups, not single people. One commentator explains how a family or a town could take the place of a missing line of fathers.
Quite a number among the people and among the priesthood could not prove their genealogy. They had no heads on record. Even so, they could still be recognized by the names of their families, groups, and cities. Those names became, in effect, a "moral person," recognized as the stem of their ancestry (compare Ezra 1 and here 1 Chron. 2:50, 54-55; 1 Chron. 4:4).
Translators also differ over the phrase "half of the Manahathites."
Families descended from Shobal and Salma, sons of Caleb. 1 Chr. 2:52, 54. The Hebrew is different in the two verses. Mr. Darby treats 'half of' as part of the proper name, giving Hazi-Hammenuhoth in 1 Chr. 2:52, and Hazi-Hammanahethites in 1 Chr. 2:54.
Some say the gaps and repetitions in these lists make the book worthless as history. One commentator meets that charge head on.
Must we conclude from all this that the text of Chronicles is a human compilation, put together at random, and that the book has no historical value at all? That is what the rationalists claim. But thank God, their reason is always at fault when it attacks His Word. No informed Christian will deny that the genealogies of Chronicles are fragments gathered in a time of general confusion. Yet God sets His seal of approval on these documents.
Two men named Caleb stand behind this part of the list. One of them was not born an Israelite at all.
Caleb the son of Jephunneh was not originally one of the people of Judah. In Numbers 32:12 and Joshua 14:6, 14 he is called Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Genesis 36:11 shows us that Kenaz is an Edomite name. So at some point his family was brought into the tribes of Israel, just like other foreigners such as Jethro, Rahab, and Ruth, who became members of the people of God because of their faith. By birth, then, Caleb had no right of citizenship in Israel. His faith won him that right among Judah, and he was taken into the family of Caleb the son of Hezron, as 1 Chronicles 2:49 and the passages already quoted from Joshua show. The surviving fragments of the genealogy of Caleb the son of Hezron confirm the place God gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh. This substitution is one of the important points the Spirit of God calls our attention to here.
So why open a history of Israel with pages of names? Chronicles is tracing one line down to one Person.
In Chronicles the ruin is as clear as it is in the earlier books. But the point here is God's settled purpose to bring in His Only-begotten through a human line — a human line, yet His only begotten Son. In other words, His purpose stands out more in Chronicles. The genealogy proves this, and gives the key to the book.
- Purpose. The genealogy is the key to Chronicles: God bringing in His Son through a human line.
- Place. Verses 50-55 come back a third time to Caleb's line. This verse lists the families that came from Salma.
- Prince. "Father of Bethlehem" may mean prince of the town. The other names are clans and settlements that stand in for lost family records.
- Preserved. The lists are fragments gathered in a time of confusion, yet they are documents on which God set His seal.
- Promise. Faith brought Caleb, an outsider, into Judah. And little Bethlehem, the house of bread, is where the living bread came from.
and the families of the scribes who dwelt at Jabez the Tireathites, the Shimeathites, the Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.
The genealogy of Judah ends by naming families of scribes at a town called Jabez. It then calls them Kenites — a people not born Israelites at all. Why does a family register of Judah end with outsiders? And what became of "the house of Rechab" named here?
The Kenites came out of Midian and tied themselves to Moses. One writer traces their path from there to the Rechabites named in this verse:
The history of this family, which came out of Midian and was allied to Moses, is full of interest. Jethro visited Israel in the desert and then went home to his own land. Moses asked Jethro's son Hobab to be eyes for the children of Israel, and to lead them as they camped in the wilderness. Hobab refused. Yet his sons, like Caleb, followed the people of God faithfully. They were the children of a stranger among the nations, and like Rahab they went up out of Jericho, the city of palm trees, to throw in their lot with Israel. They held to Judah for good, and in that they were like Ruth. And like Othniel, they allied themselves with the family of Caleb. The Rechabites came from the Kenites. When their history closes in the Bible, they are praised as true Nazarites in the middle of the ruin of Israel.
Jabez here is a town, not the man of the same name. No one today knows where it stood.
The city in which the various families of the scribes lived. 1 Chr. 2:55. Not identified.
A man named Jabez prays in the next chapter, and God answers him. One writer asks whether this town was named after that man:
Was that "border," which the Lord enlarged in answer to his prayer, named after him? If so, 1 Chronicles 2:55 supports the impression that he belonged to the family of the Kenites. They descended from Hobab, a Cushite, who came with Israel at Moses' own invitation, and Hobab's children lived among the people of Judah. A Kenite could not claim a share in Israel on the ground that he was an Israelite. Yet he could call on the God of Israel, and ask to be blessed with Israel.
Caleb's name runs through this chapter, and one writer sets the house of Rechab in that company:
To sum up, this chapter highlights the name of Caleb. That name carries the thought of "virtue" — that is, of moral energy. With a goal in view, this energy lets the believer get over obstacles. It separates him from every weight and from the sin that so easily entangles him… The same name links people of the same calibre as the son of Jephunneh: Othniel; Achsah; Hur; Jair (though Jair later lost everything his energy had first gained); the house of Rechab.
The house of Rechab shows up again in a man called Jehonadab. A Nazarite was a person set apart to God, and one writer shows what that meant for him:
Jehonadab was of the race of the Kenites, who had entered into Canaan with Israel. They split into several branches. The smallest lived far to the north at Kedesh in Naphtali. The strongest lived in the desert of Judah, south of Arad. A third branch divided into several families near Jabez, a town that belonged to Judah… He had no link with the evil around him. He lived by complete separation to God, as a true Nazarite. He could not teach these principles in the corrupt world around him, so he had at least taught them in his family and in his house. The circle of his testimony was small… but it was still a testimony, and God approved it.
Another writer points to what that family later received:
Notice the special reward granted to the house of Rechab for obeying their father.
One writer sees God's own choice behind the outsiders in these lists:
How sovereign the grace which will not overlook the outcast Gentile! … God would not be limited to Israel when it was a question of showing grace; He was as to law, but even under the old covenant, which was special to Israel, He chooses from among the Gentiles whom He will bless.
- Outsiders. The Kenites came out of Midian and tied themselves to Moses. They had no birthright in Israel. They chose to throw in their lot with God's people and held to Judah.
- Welcomed. A Kenite could not claim a share in Israel by birth. He could still call on the God of Israel and ask to be blessed with Israel. God answered Jabez, who may well have been a Kenite.
- Enrolled. Grace put them in the register beside Caleb, among names marked by moral energy that gets over obstacles.
- Separated. Their line ran on to Jehonadab. He kept complete separation to God, and taught it in his own house when he could teach it nowhere else.
- Rewarded. God approved that small circle of testimony. Their story ends with a special reward for obeying their father.