And his wife Jehudijah [Margin is right, the Jewess] bare Jered. — It is obvious that a contrast with the sons of some non-Jewish wife is intended, and these latter ought already to have been mentioned. Clearly, therefore, the sentence “And these are the sons of Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, which Mered took” — a sentence which is meaningless in its present position — must be restored to its original place after the first statement of 1 Chronicles 4:17. We thus get the sense: “And the sons of Ezra were Jepher and Mered, and Epher and Jalon. And these [the following] are the sons of Bithiah, daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took [to wife]; she conceived Miriam and Shammai and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa. And his [Mered’s] wife the Jewess bare Jered... Zanoah.” Thus the house of Mered son of Ezra bifurcates into a purely Judæan and a mixed Egyptian group of families. Eshtemoa (1 Chronicles 4:17) lay south of Hebron, in the hil-country (Joshua 15:50).
Gedor. — See 1 Chronicles 4:4, where Penuel is called father of Gedor. The two lists may, and probably do, refer to different epochs.
Socho. — Joshua 15:35; in the Shephelah, south-west of Jerusalem.
Zanoah. — Two Judæan towns were so named, one in the Shephelah, the other in the highlands (Joshua 15:34; Joshua 15:56).
Jekuthiel occurs here only; but comp. Joktheel (Joshua 15:38), a town in the Shephelah.
Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh. — Bithiah is apparently Hebrew, “daughter of Iah,” that is, a convert to the religion of Israel. It may be a Hebraized form of Bent-Aah, daughter of the Moon, or some like native name. Daughter of Pharaoh, if the nomenclature be tribal, need only mean an Egyptian clan which amalgamated with that of Mered. On the other hand, comp. 2 Chronicles 8:11 and 1 Kings 9:24, where the phrase is used in its literal sense.