-- And the sons of Kenaz Othniel and Seraiah; and the sons of Othniel Hathath.
This verse is little more than a family list: a father, two sons and two grandsons, dropped into Judah's long register. Yet one name here, Othniel, belongs to a man Scripture tells us much more about — so why does Chronicles keep the bare names at all?
Othniel appears here only as a son of Kenaz, but the rest of Scripture fills the outline in.
Son of Kenaz, brother or nephew of Caleb. He took Kiriath-sepher, and married Achsah, Caleb's daughter. Later he became one of the judges. He defeated Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia. Under him the land had rest forty years. Joshua 15:17; Judges 1:13; Judges 3:9, 11; 1 Chr. 4:13.
Commentators differ on whether Othniel was Caleb's brother or his nephew.
Who was Kenaz? One writer follows the name back and finds a family that did not start out in Israel at all:
In Numbers 32:12 and Joshua 14:6, 14 Caleb is called "the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite." Caleb's younger brother Othniel, to whom Caleb gave his daughter Achsah as wife, is likewise called "the son of Kenaz." And in Genesis 36:11 we learn that Kenaz is an Edomite name. So at some point the family of Kenaz, and with it the family of Caleb the son of Jephunneh, was brought into the tribes of Israel, like so many other foreigners — Jethro, Rahab and Ruth — who became members of the people of God because of their faith. So Caleb, who by birth really had no right of citizenship in Israel, received that right in the middle of Judah because of his faith. He became part of the family of Caleb the son of Hezron, as 1 Chronicles 2:49 and the passages already cited in 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.
One writer groups Othniel with Caleb and others like him, and names the quality they share:
To summarise, the name of Caleb is highlighted in this chapter. This name carries 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 from the sin that so easily entangles him. 2 Peter 1:5 says, "In your faith have also virtue." Caleb is an example in this. The same name is linked with people of the same calibre as the son of Jephunneh: Othniel and Achsah (1 Chron. 4:13), Hur, Jair — though Jair later lost everything his energy had at first won — and the house of Rechab.
Othniel's first recorded fight won him a wife and a field. Only afterwards was he sent out for the nation, and the order is deliberate:
We have already spoken of Othniel in his private, domestic life (Judges 1). God had in this way fitted him to be the first judge in Israel. Having fought to win a wife, he became the owner of his own personal inheritance and of springs to water it. God now uses him to fight for others, and it is always like this. Before God uses a Christian in public, that Christian must first have grown in the knowledge of the Lord and in the power of his privileges. Where this is missing, it usually explains why our service is so limited and our hearts so little taken up with heavenly things.
Othniel's name and his tribe together point beyond him:
It is the same Othniel of whom we read in chapter 1:13 and Joshua 15:17. Othniel means "lion of God," and as he was of Judah, he is the type of Him who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Upon him rested the Spirit of the Lord. The king of Mesopotamia was given into his hands, and a rest followed for Israel. So we too must return to the Lord and expect our deliverance from Him. What grace towards His people is shown in this first deliverance!
These names also teach something about the inheritance God gives:
Verse 13 gives the honoured name of Othniel. At Caleb's challenge he took Kiriath-sepher, and received Caleb's daughter Achsah as his wife. She received from her father "the upper springs and the lower springs" (Joshua 15:16-19). These devoted men teach us valuable lessons concerning the inheritance of God. We are not only to value God's inheritance; we are to make it ours. Even now we are to lay hold of what will soon be fully ours with Christ.
- Outsider. Kenaz was an Edomite name, and his line had no birthright in Judah. Faith gave Caleb the Kenizzite a place there, and God put that substitution in the record on purpose.
- Energy. The names gathered round Caleb, Othniel and Achsah among them, carry one stamp. It is moral energy that presses past obstacles toward the goal.
- Home first. Othniel fought for a wife, a field and its springs. Only then did God make him Israel's first judge. Private progress comes before public usefulness.
- Deliverer. His name means "lion of God," and he was of Judah. So he pictures the Lion of the tribe of Judah. His victory shows God's grace to His people.
- Inheritance. Othniel's honoured name teaches more than valuing what God gives. We are to take hold of the inheritance now.
And Meonothai begot Ophrah and Seraiah begot Joab, the father of the valley of craftsmen; for they were craftsmen.
Four names pass by in one line, and the last of them is tied to a valley of workmen. Why does Scripture stop to record a family of craftsmen, and what does that say about the work God hands to ordinary people?
Verse 14 sits inside a short family record in Judah's line. One commentator names the two brothers this line comes from, and notes that the record breaks off early:
Finally, in 1 Chronicles 4:13-15 we find the descendants of Caleb the son of Jephunneh and of his brother Kenaz. But here now, in this portion, this genealogy is truncated.
The family behind the verse matters. Chronicles gives these chapters two figures of first importance:
Two names especially stand out in 1 Chronicles 2-4. First, that of David, for Judah's kingship is, as we have seen, the principal subject of Chronicles. Secondly, that of Caleb the son of Jephunneh who represents the energy and the perseverance of faith.
"Ge-harashim" is not a person but a place, and its name is its description. Older translations keep the Hebrew word and render the phrase "the valley of Charashim":
'Craftsmen,' as in the margin. 1 Chr. 4:14: compare Nehemiah 11:35.
Joab is therefore identified not by a battle or an office but by a trade settlement. He is the head of the place where the skilled workers lived:
Son of Seraiah: described as "the father of the valley of Charashim," or craftsmen. 1 Chr. 4:14.
Earlier in the same chapter Jabez prays for enlarged borders. One commentator sets Joab's craftsmen beside that prayer, along with the linen workers, potters and gardeners named later in the chapter:
The people of God have yet other duties and other activities beside enlarging their borders as Jabez. Joab is "the father … of craftsmen" (v. 14). God has entrusted us with certain functions. They are humble, but very useful in their place. We do well to attend to them without coveting higher things. This will keep us in humility. Among the sons of Shelah are found "linen workers," potters, and gardeners (vv. 21, 23). These were not noble occupations. Their importance came from this: these men "… lived with the king for his work." Although very humble, they were his fellow workers within the limits that his work assigned to them. For this reason the king kept them around him. Theirs was the great privilege of living near him — a privilege many nobles and princes wanted and never got.
The same holds for anyone serving God now. The reward named here is not promotion but nearness:
So it is with us too. Let us each fulfill our task. Let us beware of wanting a high position among the people of God. Let us be content with humble things instead. What our Lord asks is that we carry them out diligently. Let us be faithful in little things as long as we work together in His works. Leave the future reward aside. Even now we will gain the priceless advantage of "living with the king" and of looking on His face.
A list of names like this can feel like paperwork. One writer found it solemn reading, and said why:
There is something deeply solemn to the soul in being allowed to go over such a record of names. People forgot them long ago. Yet God has remembered every one of them, with every detail of their pathway through this world. Some day our names likewise will be lost to mankind, but neither we nor our ways will be forgotten by God.
- Line — The verse traces the family of Caleb and Kenaz. Chronicles links that name with the energy and perseverance of faith.
- Trade — Scripture ties Joab, son of Seraiah, to the valley of craftsmen. A trade, not a title, marks him out.
- Task — God's people have work beyond enlarging their borders as Jabez did. God entrusts humble but useful jobs, and doing them without coveting higher things keeps us humble.
- Nearness — The linen workers, potters and gardeners lived with the king for his work. Many nobles and princes wanted that closeness and never got it.
- Record — People forgot these names long ago. God remembers each one, with every detail of their path — and He will do the same with ours.
-- And the sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh Iru, Elah, and Naam; and the sons of Elah, ... and Kenaz.
Four names close this short block: Caleb's three sons, and a grandson through Elah. Why does a list this thin matter, and which Caleb is it?
Chapter 4 runs through Judah's line a second time. The book is not gathering names at random.
Verses 1 through 23 take up the genealogy of Judah for the second time. Two names stand out in 1 Chronicles 2-4. First, David, because Judah's kingship is, as we have seen, the main subject of Chronicles. Second, Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who stands for the energy and perseverance of faith.
Chronicles names two different men called Caleb. This one is marked out by his father, Jephunneh.
And besides Jabez we have Caleb, a well-known name, the son of Jephunneh, the son of Kenaz, if we may conclude that from Numbers 32:12: "Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite." He matched Joshua in faithfulness, and the two of them were the only men who left Egypt and reached the promised land. Everyone else who entered Canaan was born in the wilderness.
This list is shorter than the fuller accounts of the same family elsewhere in the book.
Finally, in 1 Chronicles 4:13-15 we find the descendants of Caleb the son of Jephunneh and of his brother Kenaz. But here, in this part, the genealogy is cut short.
A short, broken list raises an obvious question: can a record like this be trusted?
Must we conclude from all this that the text of Chronicles is a human and random compilation, and that the book therefore has no historical value? That is what those who rely on human reason claim. But thank God, their reasoning always fails when it attacks His Word. No well-taught Christian will deny that the genealogies of Chronicles are made up of fragments picked up in a time of general confusion. Yet they are documents on which God sets His seal of approval.
By birth, this family did not belong in a list of Judah at all.
So Caleb, who by birth had no right of citizenship in Israel, received that right inside Judah because of his faith. He was brought into the family of Caleb the son of Hezron, as we see in 1 Chronicles 2:49 and in the passages from Joshua already mentioned.
One writer draws the line from that adoption straight through to the New Testament.
Joshua 14 tells us that Caleb was the son of Jephunneh, a Kenizzite who had probably come from the mountains of southern Canaan and had attached himself to the tribe of Judah. So by birth he was a stranger to the covenants of promise. He was one of the first-fruits of the Gentile harvest, and the Old Testament holds many other examples. But the barrier of his birth did not stop him from being an Israelite in spirit. The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus as people once separated from the commonwealth of Israel. Now, in Christ Jesus, they had been brought near by the blood of Christ, so they were no longer strangers but fellow citizens with the saints (Ephesians 2).
Caleb's name carries more than family history.
To sum up, the name of Caleb stands out in this chapter. The thought tied to this name is "virtue" — that is, moral energy which, with a goal in view, enables the believer to get past obstacles, separating him from every weight and the sin that clings so closely. 2 Peter 1:5 tells us to "supplement your faith with virtue." Caleb is an example of this. Other people of the same calibre as the son of Jephunneh are linked with this name: Othniel, Achsah (1 Chronicles 4:13; 1 Chronicles 2:49); Hur (1 Chronicles 2:19, 50; 1 Chronicles 4:1, 4).
Kenaz closes the verse. One writer asks what the name itself means.
Caleb is here, as once before, the Kenizzite, and elsewhere a Kenaz is said to be his brother. We will not go into the difficulties of his genealogy here. But what does the name mean? "Container of strength" is at least as good as any meaning offered, and it fits the whole line of Caleb's history. Read that way, Othniel, whom we hear of in the next chapter and in Judges, would be the fitting son of Kenaz.
Caleb's faith did not stop with Caleb.
One person's faithfulness, even in the darkest days of the church, stirs up spiritual energy in others. Othniel sees Caleb's faith and is moved to act the same way. He serves his first campaign under Caleb, and wins a good standing for himself, for he becomes the first judge in Israel.
- Faith — Caleb stands out for the energy and perseverance of his faith, not for his ancestry. That is why his name sits beside David's in these chapters.
- Citizenship — Faith, not birth, gave a man with no claim on Israel a place inside Judah's register.
- Virtue — The name Caleb carries the thought of moral energy: faith that keeps the goal in view and pushes past every obstacle.
- Overflow — That energy spread. Othniel saw Caleb's faith, served his first campaign under him, and became Israel's first judge.
- Fragments — The record is short and broken, picked up in a time of confusion, yet God set His seal of approval on it.