1 Chronicles 4:32

4:1-43 Genealogies. - In this chapter we have a further account of Judah, the most numerous and most famous of all the tribes; also an account of Simeon. The most remarkable person in this chapter is Jabez. We are not told upon what account Jabez was more honourable than his brethren; but we find that he was a praying man. The way to be truly great, is to seek to do God's will, and to pray earnestly. Here is the prayer he made. Jabez prayed to the living and true God, who alone can hear and answer prayer; and, in prayer he regarded him as a God in covenant with his people. He does not express his promise, but leaves it to be understood; he was afraid to promise in his own strength, and resolved to devote himself entirely to God. Lord, if thou wilt bless me and keep me, do what thou wilt with me; I will be at thy command and disposal for ever. As the text reads it, this was the language of a most ardent and affectionate desire, Oh that thou wouldest bless me! Four things Jabez prayed for. 1. That God would bless him indeed. Spiritual blessings are the best blessings: God's blessings are real things, and produce real effects. 2. That He would enlarge his coast. That God would enlarge our hearts, and so enlarge our portion in himself, and in the heavenly Canaan, ought to be our desire and prayer. 3. That God's hand might be with him. God's hand with us, to lead us, protect us, strengthen us, and to work all our works in us and for us, is a hand all-sufficient for us. 4.

And their villages were Etam, and Ain, Rimmon, and Tochen, and Ashan, five cities. There are but four mentioned in Joshua 19:7 one might be added since, or new built, namely, Tochen; these, according to Kimchi, were all that remained for them to dwell in, in the times of David; and therefore they were obliged to seek out for new settlements for themselves and flocks, as in 1 Chronicles 4:39 , &c.

32 . And their villages were] These villages ( ḥǎçêrîm ) are called at the end of the verse cities , but sometimes ḥǎçêrîm are described as un-walled ( Leviticus 25:31 ) and sometimes as dependencies of cities ( 1 Chronicles 4:33 of this ch.). In these two cases ḥǎçêrîm would be distinguished from cities. Etam ] In the parallel passage, Joshua 19:7 , Etam is omitted and the villages (“cities”) are reckoned as four not five. 1 Chronicles 4:32

(32) And their villages. —This belongs to 1Chronicles 4:31 . The verb should be cancelled. Etam, and Ain, Rimmon . . .—Why are these five cities separated from the former thirteen? The old Jewish expositors Rashi and Kimchi assert, that whereas the thirteen were lost to the Simeonites from the time of David, these five remained in their possession. The separation is made in Joshua 19 as well as here. (Many MSS. read “and Rimmon.”) Five cities.—Joshua 19:7 : “Ain, Rimmon, and Ether, and Ashan; four cities and their villages.” Etam may be a mistake for Ether. But there were two Etams, one in the hills of Judah, south of Bethlehem (see 1Chronicles 4:3, Note; 2Chronicles 11:6), and one in the south of Judah (Judges 15:8)—perhaps the place intended here. Ether occurs in Joshua 15:42 along with Ashan. Both were in the lowlands of Judah. Ain and Rimmon are spoken of as one place (Nehemiah 11:29): they must have been close to each other (comp. Buda-Pesth). Tochen only here.

31-43. These were their cities unto the reign of David—In consequence of the sloth or cowardice of the Simeonites, some of the cities within their allotted territory were only nominally theirs. They were never taken from the Philistines until David's time, when, the Simeonites having forfeited all claim to them, he assigned them to his own tribe of Judah (1Sa 27:6).

Instead of the five cities, Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan, only four are mentioned in Joshua 19:7 , viz., Ain, Rimmon, Ether, and Ashan; עתר is written instead of תּוכן, and עיטם is wanting. According to Movers, p. 73, and Berth. in his commentary on the passage, the list of these cities must have been at first as follows: רמּון עין (one city), עתר, תּוכן, and עשׁן; in Joshua תּוכן must have fallen out by mistake, in our text עתר has been erroneously exchanged for the better known city עיטם in the tribe of Judah, while by reckoning both עין and רמּון the number four has become five. These conjectures are shown to be groundless by the order of the names in our text. For had עתר been exchanged for עיטם, עיטם would not stand in the first place, at the head of the four or five cities, but would have occupied the place of עתר, which is connected with עשׁן in Joshua 19:7 and Joshua 15:43 . Then again, the face that in Joshua 15:32 רמּון is separated from עין by the ו cop., and in Joshua 19:7 is reckoned by itself as one city as in our verse, is decisive against taking עין and רמּון together as one name. The want of the conjunction, moreover, between the two names here and in Joshua 19:7 , and the uniting of the two words into one name, עין־תּון, Nehemiah 11:29 , is explained by the supposition that the towns lay in the immediate neighbourhood of each other, so that they were at a later time united, or at least might be regarded as one city.

Rimmon is perhaps the same as the ruin Rum er Rummanim, four hours to the north of Beersheba; and Ain is probably to be identified with a large half-ruined and very ancient well which lies at from thirty to thirty-five minutes distance, cf. on Joshua 15:32 . Finally, the assertion that the name עיטם has come into our text by an ex change of the unknown עתר for the name of this better known city of Judah, is founded upon a double geographical error. It rests (1) upon the erroneous assumption that besides the Etam in the high lands of Judah to the south of Bethlehem, there was no other city of this name, and that the Etam mentioned in Judges 15:8 , Judges 15:11 is identical with that in the high lands of Judah; and (2) on the mistaken idea that Ether was also situated in the high lands of Judah, whereas it was, according to Joshua 15:42 , one of the cities of the Shephelah; and the Simeonites, moreover, had no cities in the high lands of Judah, but had their dwelling-places assigned to them in the Negeb and the Shephelah. The existence of a second Etam, besides that in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, is placed beyond doubt by Judges 15:8 and Judges 15:11 ; for mention is there made of an Etam in the plain of Judah, which is to be sought in the neighbourhood of Khuweilife, on the border of the Negeb and the mountainous district: cf. on Judges 15:8 .