The scribes; either civil, who were public notaries, who wrote and signed legal instruments; or ecclesiastical. And these were either Levites, or Simeonites, or rather Kenites, and are here mentioned not as if they were of the tribe of Judah, but because they dwelt among them, and probably were allied to them by marriages, and so in a manner incorporated with them. Which dwelt, or rather, dwelt; Heb. were dwellers. For the other translation, which dwelt, may seem to insinuate that these were descendants of Judah, which they were not; but this translation only signifies their cohabitation with them, for which cause they are here named with them. At Jabez; a place in Judah, so named probably from that famous Jabez of that tribe, 1 Chronicles 4:9. The Kenites that came of Hemath; who dwelt in Judah, Judges 1:16. Thus they are distinguished from the other branch of the Kenites, who dwelt in the tribe of Manasseh, Judges 4:11.
Related Commentaries of 1 Chronicles 2:55
1 Chronicles 2:55
55 And the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.