1 Chronicles 8:8

And Shaharaim begat children in the country of Moab, after he had sent them away; Hushim and Baara were his wives.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) And Shaharaim begat children in the country of Moab.—Shaharaim is apparently out of all connection with the other Benjamite houses. He has been identified with Ahi-Shahar, 1Chronicles 7:10, because his name has a similar meaning, and even with the mysterious Aher (hypothetically Shaher) of 1Chronicles 7:12. It is simpler to suppose that weeth-Shaharaim, “and Shaharaim,” has dropped out at the end of 1Chronicles 8:7 (see Note on 1Chronicles 8:31). Expelled from Geba, Shaharaim found a refuge in Moab. (Comp. Ruth 1; 1Samuel 22:3-4.)

After he had sent them away; Hushim and Baara were his wives.—The Heb. is certainly corrupt. The easiest correction is to read ‘eth-Hushim instead of ‘otham Hushim: “and Shaharaim begat in the country of Moab, after divorcing Hushim and Baara his wives, he begat (1Chronicles 8:9) of Hodesh his wife, Jobab,” &c. This is supported by the LXX. The emigration of the clan Shaharaim, from its old home in Geba of Benjamin is called a divorce, in the figurative style of these genealogies; just as the amalgamation of clans is marriage. Hushim, in 1Chronicles 7:12, is a Benjamite clan. In Moab, Shaharaim branched off into seven clans, whose names are given in 1Chronicles 8:9-10.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-40 Genealogies. - Here is a larger list of Benjamin's tribe. We may suppose that many things in these genealogies, which to us seem difficult, abrupt, and perplexed, were plain and easy at that time, and fully answered the intention for which they were published. Many great and mighty nations then were in being upon earth, and many illustrious men, whose names are now wholly forgotten; while the names of multitudes of the Israel of God are here kept in everlasting remembrance. The memory of the just is blessed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

After he had sent them away - Translate it: "after he had divorced his wives, Hushim and Baara."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Shaharaim begat children in the country of Moab—He had probably been driven to take refuge in that foreign land on the same calamitous occasion that forced Elimelech to emigrate thither (Ru 1:1). But, destitute of natural affection, he forsook or divorced his two wives, and in the land of his sojourn married a third, by whom he had several sons. But there is another explanation given of the conduct of this Benjamite polygamist. His children by Hushim are mentioned (1Ch 8:11), while his other wife is unnoticed. Hence it has been thought probable that it is Baara who is mentioned under the name of Hodesh, so called because her husband, after long desertion, returned and cohabited with her as before.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the country of Moab; whither he had removed himself, either at the same time when Elimelech did, Ruth 1:1, &c., or upon the same or like occasion.

After he had sent them away; Ehud or Gera last mentioned.

Hushim and Baara were his wives: others join these words with the former, and render the place thus, after he had sent them (to wit, his sons) away, with Hushim and Baara his wives, i.e. as he also sent his wives away from him; which may be here mentioned as a brand upon him, to show that he was without natural affection to his wives and children. And it seems the more probable that he divorced them, because we find him married to another wife, 1 Chronicles 8:9.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Shaharaim,.... Who was either a son of Ahihud, or rather a brother of his, another son of Ehud:

begat children in the country of Moab; whither he might go on account of the famine, as Elimelech did, Ruth 1:1, after he had sent them away; which some understand of those that were removed from Geba to Manahath, 1 Chronicles 8:6, but a different word is here used; and besides Shaharaim seems to be one of those that were removed. Kimchi takes Shilhootham, we render "had sent them away", to be the name of his first wife, of whom he begat children in Moab; but it seems best to render and interpret the words in connection with what follows: he begat children in Moab:

after he had sent them away; even Hushim and Baara his wives; after he had divorced them, for some reasons he had, he begat children of another wife, later mentioned.

Geneva Study Bible

And Shaharaim begat children in the country of Moab, after he had sent them {d} away; Hushim and Baara were his wives.

(d) After he had put away his two wives.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. sent them away; Hushim and Baara were his wives] R.V. mg. sent away Hushim and Baara his wives.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Shaharaim. It has been proposed, in the utter obscurity here, to add this name as a third to Uzza and Ahihud. This may be a way out, but if so, instead of repeating "and Shaharaim," it might be more natural to keep the former enigmatic nominative and object to begat, whether Ehud or Gera. There can be little doubt that a copyist's error has given us them (אֹתָם) in place of אֶת, in the latter part of this verse, before the names of the wives. The sentence then would translate, "after his sending away [whether by divorce or not] Hushim and Baara his wives." 1 Chronicles 8:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The descendants of Shaharaim. - The descent of Shaharaim from the sons and grandsons named in 1 Chronicles 8:1-3 is obscure, and the conjecture which connects him with Ahishahar of 1 Chronicles 7:10 is unsupported. He was the father of a considerable number of heads of fathers'-houses, whom his two or three wives bore to him. According to 1 Chronicles 8:8, he begat "in the country of Moab after he had sent them, Hushim and Baara his wives, away; (1 Chronicles 8:9) there begat he with Hodesh his wife, Jobab," etc. When and how Shaharaim, a Benjamite, came into the country of Moab, is not known; all that can be gathered from our verse is that he must have lived there for a considerable time. שׁלחו is infin. Pi., the "i" being retained, and the Daghesh forte omitted with Sheva (cf. as to this formation, Ew. 238, d.). אתם, accus. of the pronoun, which, as it precedes its noun, is in gen. masc., although the names of women follow (cf. for this use of the pronoun, Ew. 309, c.). חוּשׁים and בּערה are women, as we learn from the following נשׁיו. By this parenthesis, the beginning of the main sentence has been lost sight of, and the הוליד is taken up again in ויּולד. As to הוליד with מן, cf. the remark on 1 Chronicles 2:8. חדשׁ is the third wife, which he took instead of those he had sent away. The seven names in 1 Chronicles 8:9, 1 Chronicles 8:10 are grouped together as sons or descendants of the last-named wife, by the concluding remark, "These his sons are heads of fathers'-houses." Then, further, in 1 Chronicles 8:11, 1 Chronicles 8:12, the sons and grandsons of the first (divorced) wives, one of whom built the cities Ono and Lydda, are enumerated; but we have no means of determining whether the בּנה הוּא refers to Shemer, the last mentioned, or to Elpaal the father of the three sons, Eber, and Misham, and Shemer. It would, however, naturally suggest itself, that the words referred to the first. לד (Lod) is without doubt the city Lydda, where Peter healed the paralytic (Acts 9:32.). It belonged in the Syrian age to Samaria, but it was added to Judea by the King Demetrius Soter, and given to Jonathan for a possession (1 Macc. 11:34, cf. with 10:30, 38). In the Jewish was it was destroyed by the Roman general Cestius (Joseph. de Bell. Jud. ii. 19. 1), but was rebuilt at a later time, and became the site of a toparchy of Judea. In still later times it was called Diospolis, but is now a considerable Mohammedan village, lying between Jafa and Jerusalem to the north of Ramleh, which bears the old name Ludd, by the Arabs pronounced also Lidd. See v. Raumer, Pal. S. 10; Robins. Pal. sub voce; and Tobler, Dritte Wanderung, S. 69f. Ono is mentioned elsewhere only in Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37 and Nehemiah 11:35, along with Lod, and must have been a place in the neighbourhood of Lydda.