1 Chronicles 7:27 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Non. — Everywhere else Nun, the father of Joshua the servant and successor of Moses. 1 Chronicles 7:25-27 trace his ancestry, as it would seem, through seven or eight generations to Rephah, son of Beriah or Ephraim. At 1 Chronicles 6:1-3 only two names are given between Levi, uncle of Ephraim, and Moses, Joshua’s elder contemporary. But abundant reason has already been shown for not interpreting these genealogies in a slavishly literal spirit, and without regard to their own contrary indications. It is obvious to common sense that when it is said that Moses was “son of Amram, son of Kohath, son of Levi,” the meaning cannot be that only two generations intervened between the tribal patriarch and the age of Moses. Moreover, it is, to say the least, doubtful that the names in 1 Chronicles 7:25 represent a lineal descent of individuals, and not a group of variously connected clans. “Telah” looks like a fragment of Shuthelah (1 Chronicles 7:20); and perhaps the true reading of 1 Chronicles 7:25 is, “And Rephah his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Tahan his son,” we-Reshef, we-The-lah being a possible distortion of we-Shuthelah.