And Rephah was his son, also Resheph, and Telah his son, and Tahan his son,
And Rephah was his son, also Resheph. Here the historian traces the family of Beriah-Rephah being his oldest son, and Resheph, not being accompanied by that addition, must be considered as the brother of Rephah, whose posterity is now described until the register terminates in Joshua. Such is the natural and apparent view of this genealogy. But more minute examination both of the names contained in the register, and of the historical incident interwoven with it, will reveal singularities and difficulties which do not appear on the surface.
(1) As to the names: Shuthelah (1 Chronicles 7:20-21) and Telah (1 Chronicles 7:25) refer to one person (cf. Numbers 26:35); Bered (1 Chronicles 7:20) and Zabad (1 Chronicles 7:21) are different designations of Becher (Numbers 26:35); Tahath, which occurs twice (1 Chronicles 7:20), and Tahan (1 Chronicles 7:25), are applicable to Tahan (Numbers 26:35); and Eladah (1 Chronicles 7:20), Elead (1 Chronicles 7:21), Laadan (1 Chronicles 7:26), or Edan, as one Hebrew manuscript has it, represent one and the same individual, who is Eran, or, as in the Samaritan text, Septuagint, Syriac, and some Hebrew MSS., "Edan" (Numbers 26:36). Omitting the repetitions, then, this record enumerates (1 Chronicles 7:20) four sons of Ephraim-namely, Shuthelah, Bered or Becher, Tahath or Tahan, and Eladah or Eran, son of Shuthelah, exactly as in Numbers 26:35.
(2) As to the character of the story of the slaughter of Ephraim's sons embodied in this record, a great variety of different and even opposite explanations have been given of it. It has been suggested that Ezer (1 Chronicles 7:21) is not a proper name at all, but the verb `aazar (H5826), to help; so that, removing the waw (w) at the beginning of wª'el`aad, and putting it to the end of the verb 'aazªruw, they helped, there is brought out the meaning - i:e., 'Shuthelah, Bered or Becher, and Tahath went to help Elead (Laadan or Eran) against the men of Gath, by whom they were all, or several of them, killed.' Having related this parenthetical episode, the genealogy of Ephraim is proceeded with, apparently in another line-that of Beriah-which, as being the ancestry of Joshua, is fully traced. But this view has also been controverted; because while the general opinion is that 1 Chronicles 7:25-27 contain the pedigree of Joshua from Beriah, some maintain that this passage is a resumption of the interrupted record of Shuthelah's progeny; and others, who connect this 25th verse with the preceding, hold that "Rephah was his son," should be rendered 'Rephah built,' etc. х bªnow (H1121)], "his son" being taken as some part of the verb х baanah (H1129)] to build.
With regard to 1 Chronicles 7:24, difficulties have also been raised respecting it. [Uzzensherah, 'Uzeen-She'ªraah (H242), ear or corner of Sherah, seems to have been a name bestowed by the foundress, rather than given in honour of a remote ancestress; and, as Lord Hervey remarks ('Genealogies,' p. 364), 'in spite of the difference of the spelling of She'ªraah (H7609) and Cerah (H8556), it is not improbable that Timnath-serah (Joshua 19:50) was also called from her, unless, indeed, it be actually the same place as Uzzensherah. The identity of Sherah with Serah is rendered yet more probable by the occurrence of Serach (H8294), 1 Chronicles 7:30, combining the two spellings. If this supposition, that Sherab was the daughter or sister of Joshua, and that he gave her a portion out of his own inheritance (Joshua 19:49-50), be well-founded, we must then suppose that the 24th verse has gotten out of its proper place, and a probable cause for this, according to a well-known law of transcribers' errors, may be found in the fact that the 23d verse ends with the word beeyt (H1004), which is almost identical with batow.] This course supposes that the transaction relating to Sherah did not take place until after the conquest of Canaan; and indeed Bertheau ('Commentary,' in loco) refers the whole genealogical record to that period, taking the references to Ephraim and his sons, not as applying to them as individuals, but to the heads of the branch-families or clans. In support of this view he appeals to Judges 21:6. According to this interpretation, the slaughter of the Ephraimites occurred sometime after the Israelite settlement in their tribal possessions, and Beriah had some share in it, by apparently hastening to the relief of his brethren and the expulsion of the Gittites.
Ephraim (1 Chronicles 7:22-23) denotes, not the patriarch, the son of Joseph, but the chief of the tribe, probably Joshua-Serah, his daughter, whose family built the towns mentioned. Lord Hervey, in summing up the arguments for and against this view, says ('Genealogies,' p. 365), 'Here is a passage which, as it now stands, is full of absurdities. It makes Ephraim alive and beget a son in the days of the eighth generation from himself. It obscures and makes unintelligible a most interesting narrative of the unfortunate fate of the sons of Ephraim during their father's lifetime, which is nowhere else recorded, but which explains the circumstance of there being so few families of the Ephraimites in the days of Moses (Numbers 26:35; Numbers 26:37); it is in utter disagreement with the duplicate genealogy of Numbers; and it makes one of the most important characters of the Old Testament, Joshua, the son of Nun, live either 300 or 120 years after his true time. But immediately the passage is restored to even a partial soundness, all these contradictions vanish, and we find consistent genealogies, rational chronology, intelligible and valuable history in their room. Putting together the inseparable difficulties in understanding the passage of the literal Ephraim and his literal sons and daughter, with the fact of the settlement of the Ephraimites in the mountainous district where Beth-horon, Gezer, Timnath-serah, etc., lay, which were exactly suited for a descent upon the plains of the Philistine country, where the men of Gath fed their cattle, and with the further facts, that the Ephraimites encountered a successful opposition from the Canaanites in Gezer (Joshua 16:10; Judges 1:29), and that they apparently called in later the Benjamites to help them in driving away the men of Gath (1 Chronicles 8:13), it seems best to understand the narrative as of the times after the entrance into Canaan.'