1 Chronicles 2
Jacob’s family
Judah’s family tree
1Jacob [1] had 12 sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, 2Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.3Judah married a Canaanite woman named Bathshua. She gave birth to three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er, the oldest, was bad to the bone in God’s eyes. So God put an end to him. 4Later, Judah had twins with Er’s widow, Tamar—his own daughter-in-law. [2] The boys were Perez and Zerah. So, in all, Judah had five sons.
5Perez had two sons: Hezron and Hamul.
6His brother Zerah had five sons: Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Darda.
7Zimri had a son: Carmi. [3]
And Carmi had a son: Achan, Israel’s troublemaker. Achan broke Israel’s law against taking valuables from Jericho after the people of Israel conquered the city. [4]
8Ethan’s son was Azariah.
Family tree of Judah’s grandson, Hezron
9Hezron had three sons: Jerahmeel, Ram, and Caleb.10Ram had a son: Amminadab.
Amminadab had a son: Nahshon, a leader in Judah’s tribe.
11Nahshon had a son: Salma.
Salma had a son: Boaz.
12Boaz had a son: Obed
Obed had a son: Jesse.
13Jesse had seven sons: Eliab was the first, followed by Abinadab, Shimea, 14Nethanel, Raddai, 15Ozem, and finally David.
16Jesse had two daughters: Zeruiah and Abigail.
Zeruiah had three sons: Abishai, Joab, and Asahel.
17Abigail and her husband Jether had one son: Amasa. Jether wasn’t a Hebrew—someone descended from Abraham’s second son, Isaac. Jether descended from Abraham’s first son, Ishmael. [5]
Caleb’s family tree, not "THE" Caleb
18Hezron’s son Caleb [6] had a daughter and three sons with his wife Azubah. Their daughter: Jerioth. [7] Their sons: Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon. 19When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath. They had another son: Hur.20Hur had a son: Uri.
Uri had a son: Bezalel.
21Later, when Hezron was 60 years old, he married the daughter of Machir. Gilead was her dad’s dad. Hezron and his bride had a son: Segub.
22Segub had a son: Jair, who grew up to own 23 towns in the land of Gilead.
23But invaders from the nations of Geshur and Syria captured all those cities, along with 60 towns in the region of Kenath. Machir’s descendants were living there when invaders arrived.
24Hezron died in the town of Caleb-ephrathah, his widow Abijah delivered his last son: Ashhur.
Ashhur had a son: Tekoa.
Family tree of Jerahmeel
25Hezron’s first son, Jerahmeel, had five sons: Ram was his oldest, followed by Bunah, Oren, Ozem, and Ahijah. 26Jerahmeel married a second woman, Atarah. They had a son: Onam.27Ram had three sons: Maaz, Jamin, and Eker.
Onam had two sons: Shammai and Jada.
Shammai had two sons: Nadab and Abishur.
29Abishur married Abihail. They had two sons: Ahban and Molid.
30Nadab had two sons: Seled and Appaim.
Seled never had children.
Appaim had one son: Ishi.
Ishi had a son: Sheshan.
Sheshan had a son: Ahlai.
32Onam’s other son, Jada, who was Shammai’s brother, had two sons: Jether and Jonathan.
Jether never had children.
33Jonathan had two sons: Peleth and Zaza.
These were Jerahmeel’s descendants.
34Sheshan didn’t have any sons. All he had were daughters. [8] But Sheshan did have a male slave—an Egyptian named Jarha. 35Sheshan let Jarha marry his daughter. The couple had a son: Attai.
36Attai had a son: Nathan.
Nathan had a son: Zabad.
37Zabad had a son: Ephlal.
Ephlal had a son: Obed.
38Obed had a son: Jehu.
Jehu had a son: Azariah.
39Azariah had a son: Helez.
Helez had a son: Eleasah.
40Eleasah had a son: Sismai.
Sismai had a son: Shallum.
41Shallum had a son Jekamiah.
Jekamiah had a son: Elishama.
Caleb’s sons or descendants, who knows which?
42Caleb, Jerahmeel’s brother, had the following descendants: Mesha, Ziph, Mareshah, Hebron. [9]43Hebron had four sons: Korah, Tappuah, Rekem, and Shema.
44Shema had one son: Raham. Raham had one son: Jorkeam.
Rekem had one son: Shammai. Shammai, one son: Maon. Maon had one son: Beth-zur.
Caleb’s three sons by concubine Ephah
46Caleb married a concubine named Ephah as a secondary wife. Together, they had three sons: Haran, Moza, and Gazez.Haran had one son: Gazez.
47Jahdai had six sons: Regem, Jotham, Geshan, Pelet, Ephah, and Shaaph.
Caleb’s four sons by concubine Maacah
48Caleb and Maacah, his other concubine, had four sons. The first two: Sheber and Tirhanah. 49Later they had Shaaph, who grew up and had a son named Madmannah, and Sheva, who had two sons: Machbenah and Gibea. Caleh also had a daughter: Achsah.Caleb’s descendants through his son Ham
51Salma, of Bethlehem, and Hareph, of Beth-gader.52Shobal’s extended family and descendants included the people of Haroeh, half the people of Menuhoth, 53 and many families in Kiriath-jearim: the Ithrites, Puthites, Shumathites, and Mishraites. These people became the families of Zorites and Eshtaolites. 54Salma settled in Bethlehem. His descendants: the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-joab, and the other half of the families in the town of Menuhoth, with the Zorites. 55Salma’s descendants included writers known as scribes who handled legal documents and official records at Jabez. These families included: Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Sucathites. They were also related to Hammath the Kenite, an ancestor of the people of Rechab.
Footnotes
Scholars complain about this genealogy because parts of it are impossible to develop into a neat and easily understandable family tree. But the name of Jacob/Israel isn’t one of those mysteries. The original Hebrew text calls Jacob by the name God gave him: Israel. “From now on you won’t be called Jacob. You’ll be called Israel because you’re a fighter. You have fought with God and with people. And you’ve lived to tell about it” (Genesis 32:28). We know him better as Jacob because that’s how most Bible stories refer to him.
Long story short: Tamar married and buried two of Judah’s sons. Israelites had a practice of giving the widow a replacement husband from her dead husband’s family. Brothers first. Cousins, if necessary. Judah refused to give her his third son, Shelah. Judah seemed to think Tamar had a curse on her. Well, she got creative and she set up Judah. It was a man’s world, and she needed a male in her life, even if it would be just a baby son to assure that she could keep the estates of her dead husbands. So she apparently disguised herself, pretended to be hooker, and propositioned Judah when he was on a road trip. She closed the deal. Nine months later: twins who called their grandpa Daddy. We’re left wondering how a guy who’s apparently sober can have sex with his daughter-in-law and not recognize her. Genesis 38 is an engaging read but a wretched experience.
This writer doesn’t say Zimri had a son named Carmi. The writer simply tosses Carmi into the family’s alphabet soup without mentioning that connection to Zimri, who shows up in the previous Bible verse. But Joshua 7:1 makes that connection clear. It’s father-son.
Joshua 7.
Arabs today, including Palestinians, usually trace their roots back to Ishmael, Abraham’s first son. The Hebrews—later known as Israelites and then as Jews—have generally trace their roots back to Ishmael’s little brother Isaac. Isaac was the son of Abraham and Sarah. Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar, a slave Sarah urged Abraham to use as a surrogate, to produce a son. Sarah told Abraham, “Make a baby with my slave woman” (Genesis 16i:2). Sarah was old and infertile. There’s no indication Abraham resisted the idea.
This apparently isn’t THE Caleb, Joshua’s contemporary. That Caleb had a different father (1 Chronicles 4:15).
Maybe Jerioth wasn’t Caleb’s daughter. It’s unclear what relationship Caleb had with her. Some Bible translators guess she was a second wife. Others guess she was a daughter. If she had been his daughter, it’s surprising that the writer mentions her before her brothers. It was a man’s world back then. Still, the other option leaves us guessing which woman delivered which sons. If the historian who wrote Chronicles is going to ID the women, we might expect the women to get credited for her sons mentioned in the same paragraph.
The poor guy managed only to produce mere females? First, diminishing women like this is so 1000 BC or modern-day Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Not a civilized custom today in the Western World. Second, verse 31 said he had a son, but didn’t mention women— which is common in ancient Jewish family trees. So, scholars are left guessing. Did the son die? Was verse 31 talking about an extended family by location name, such as the Kansas City Millers? Did the writer or a translator make a mistake? Many students of the Bible say the Holy Spirit protected against mistakes like that. Others chuckle at the idea of God the Father, Spirit, or Son protecting humans from making careless mistakes. So, Christians debate.
This paraphrase is the simple version of the verse because no version makes sense anyhow. The ancient text is too obscure. If these names are supposed to be those of Caleb’s sons, oops, the list doesn’t match those listed in verses 18-19. Some scholars say verse 42 might begin to make sense if the names are cities spoken of as a family of “children.” In which case, the city founders could have been their “fathers.” So, Caleb, may have founded the city of Hebron. In fact, the Bible says he drove out the locals (Numbers 13-14) and settled there. In which case, Caleb was Hebron’s daddy. And Hebron was Caleb’s baby. Explaining Bible genealogies sometimes takes extra effort and creativity.
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