Thirty nephews. — The Hebrew has “sons of sons” (benî bhanîm), and the word nephews in our version always means “grandsons” (nepoles), e.g., in Job 18:19; Isaiah 14:22; 1 Timothy 5:4, as in old English generally; similarly nieces means “granddaughters” in Wiclif’s Bible (Genesis 31:43, &c). “The Emperor Augustus... saw ere he died the nephew of his niece, that is to say, his progenie to the fourth degree of lineal descent” (Holland’s Pliny, vii. 13; Bible Word Book).
That rode on threescore and ten ass colts. — Riding on asses’ foals in trappings of state implies that they were all wealthy and distinguished persons (Judges 10:4) — perhaps, like the Turkish pennon on the horsetail, that they commanded a division (Ewald, 2:38, 39). Again the LXX. euphemise the ass-colts into the grand and poetic word pôlous. Josephus says that Abdon used to ride in state with his seventy sons and grandsons, “who were all very skilful in riding horses.”