And Machir took to wife. — The Hebrew cannot mean this. Translate, now Machir took a wife of Huppim and of Shuppim (the two Benjamite clans of 1 Chronicles 7:12); and the name of the first (read ‘ahath) was Maachah, and the name of the second (read shçnîth) was....” (the name is omitted). It is tempting to make Zeiophehad the other wife, who had only daughters, whereas Maachah bore a son (1 Chronicles 7:16); but Numbers, l.c., and Josh., l.c., make Zelophehad a man. We must, therefore, suppose a lacuna of some few words, which gave the name of Machir’s second wife, and the descent of Zelophehad from her. The expression “of Huppim and of Shuppim” is literally “to Huppim and to Shuppim,” that is, belonging to. So “of Tola,” (1 Chronicles 7:2).
We have no means of further elucidating the import of this curious tribal record. That it relates to West Manasseh is inferred from its position here, as well from the fact that 1 Chronicles 5:23-24 treated of East Manasseh. (See also Joshua 17:1-5.) The name of Gilead, however, points to the transjordanic half of the tribe. The whole passage seems to assert an Aramean and a Benjamite element in the population of Western Manasseh.