1 Chronicles 1

Compare the margin references and notes.

Dodanim - See the Gen 10:4 note.

The Zemarite - See Gen 10:18 note. The inscriptions of the Assyrian monarch, Sargon, (720 B.C.) mention Zimira, which is joined with Arpad (Arvad); and there can be little doubt that it is the city indicated by the term “Zemarite.”

The sons of Shem - i. e., descendants. Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech (or Mash), are stated to have been “sons of Aram” Gen 10:23. Meshech is the reading of all the MSS., and is supported by the Septuagint here and in Gen 10:23. It seems preferable to “Mash,” which admits of no very probable explanation. Just as Hamites and Semites were intermingled in Arabia (Gen 10:7, note; Gen 10:29, note), so Semites and Japhethites may have been intermingled in Cappadocia - the country of the Meshech or Moschi (Gen 10:2 note); and this Aramaean ad-mixture may have been the origin of the notion, so prevalent among the Greeks, that the Cappadocians were Syrians.

Isaac and Ishmael - Isaac, though younger than Ishmael, is placed first, as the legitimate heir, since Sarah alone was Abraham’s true wife (compare the 1Ch 1:36 note).

These are their generations - As Shem was reserved until after Japheth and Ham 1Ch 1:5-16, because in him the genealogy was to be continued (Gen 10:2 note), so Isaac is now reserved until the other lines of descent from Abraham have been completed. The same principle gives the descendants of Esau a prior place to those of Jacob 1 Chr. 1:35-51; 1Ch 2:1.

Hadad here and in 1Ch 1:50 is the well-known Syrian name, of which Hadar (margin) is an accidental corruption, consequent on the close resemblance between “d” (daleth) and “r” (resh) in Hebrew, the final letters of the two names.

Keturah, Abraham’s concubine - This passage, and Gen 25:6, sufficiently prove that the position of Keturah was not that of the full wife, but of the “secondary” or “concubine wife” Jdg 19:1 so common among Orientals.

Timna - In Gen 36:11, Eliphaz has no son Timna; but he has a concubine of the name, who is the mother of Amalek, and conjectured to be Lotan’s sister 1Ch 1:39. The best explanation is, that the writer has in his mind rather the tribes descended from Eliphaz than his actual children, and as there was a place, Timna, inhabited by his “dukes” (1Ch 1:51; compare Gen. 35:40), he puts the race which lived there among his “sons.”

Amram (rather Hamran), and Hemdan (margin), differ in the original by the same letter only which marks the difference in 1Ch 1:30.

The slight differences favor the view, that the writer of Chronicles has here, as elsewhere, abridged from Genesis (see the marginal references).