1 Chronicles 2

Scholars complain about this genealogy because parts of it are impossible to develop into a neat and easily understandable family tree. But the name of Jacob/Israel isn’t one of those mysteries. The original Hebrew text calls Jacob by the name God gave him: Israel. “From now on you won’t be called Jacob. You’ll be called Israel because you’re a fighter. You have fought with God and with people. And you’ve lived to tell about it” (Genesis 32:28). We know him better as Jacob because that’s how most Bible stories refer to him.

Long story short: Tamar married and buried two of Judah’s sons. Israelites had a practice of giving the widow a replacement husband from her dead husband’s family. Brothers first. Cousins, if necessary. Judah refused to give her his third son, Shelah. Judah seemed to think Tamar had a curse on her. Well, she got creative and she set up Judah. It was a man’s world, and she needed a male in her life, even if it would be just a baby son to assure that she could keep the estates of her dead husbands. So she apparently disguised herself, pretended to be hooker, and propositioned Judah when he was on a road trip. She closed the deal. Nine months later: twins who called their grandpa Daddy. We’re left wondering how a guy who’s apparently sober can have sex with his daughter-in-law and not recognize her. Genesis 38 is an engaging read but a wretched experience.

This writer doesn’t say Zimri had a son named Carmi. The writer simply tosses Carmi into the family’s alphabet soup without mentioning that connection to Zimri, who shows up in the previous Bible verse. But Joshua 7:1 makes that connection clear. It’s father-son.

Joshua 7.

Arabs today, including Palestinians, usually trace their roots back to Ishmael, Abraham’s first son. The Hebrews—later known as Israelites and then as Jews—have generally trace their roots back to Ishmael’s little brother Isaac. Isaac was the son of Abraham and Sarah. Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar, a slave Sarah urged Abraham to use as a surrogate, to produce a son. Sarah told Abraham, “Make a baby with my slave woman” (Genesis 16i:2). Sarah was old and infertile. There’s no indication Abraham resisted the idea.

This apparently isn’t THE Caleb, Joshua’s contemporary. That Caleb had a different father (1 Chronicles 4:15).

Maybe Jerioth wasn’t Caleb’s daughter. It’s unclear what relationship Caleb had with her. Some Bible translators guess she was a second wife. Others guess she was a daughter. If she had been his daughter, it’s surprising that the writer mentions her before her brothers. It was a man’s world back then. Still, the other option leaves us guessing which woman delivered which sons. If the historian who wrote Chronicles is going to ID the women, we might expect the women to get credited for her sons mentioned in the same paragraph.

The poor guy managed only to produce mere females? First, diminishing women like this is so 1000 BC or modern-day Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Not a civilized custom today in the Western World. Second, verse 31 said he had a son, but didn’t mention women— which is common in ancient Jewish family trees. So, scholars are left guessing. Did the son die? Was verse 31 talking about an extended family by location name, such as the Kansas City Millers? Did the writer or a translator make a mistake? Many students of the Bible say the Holy Spirit protected against mistakes like that. Others chuckle at the idea of God the Father, Spirit, or Son protecting humans from making careless mistakes. So, Christians debate.

This paraphrase is the simple version of the verse because no version makes sense anyhow. The ancient text is too obscure. If these names are supposed to be those of Caleb’s sons, oops, the list doesn’t match those listed in verses 18-19. Some scholars say verse 42 might begin to make sense if the names are cities spoken of as a family of “children.” In which case, the city founders could have been their “fathers.” So, Caleb, may have founded the city of Hebron. In fact, the Bible says he drove out the locals (Numbers 13-14) and settled there. In which case, Caleb was Hebron’s daddy. And Hebron was Caleb’s baby. Explaining Bible genealogies sometimes takes extra effort and creativity.