Menuchite Or Menuchoth
Menuchite Or Menuchoth [1]
is given in the margin of the A. V. at 1 Chronicles 2:52; 1 Chronicles 2:54, in place of "MaUVthf of the textual rendering, as ai alternative rendering of the Hebrews Menuchoth ( מְנֻחוֹת , 1 Chronicles 2:52) or Menachti ( מְנִחְתַּי , 1 Chronicles 2:54), which, as far as can be gathered from the obscure and confused passage, seems to be assigned as a general name of certain descendants of Judah, classified according to some locality settled or inhabited by them. Some (as -apparently the A. V.) have referred this presumed place to the Manahath (q.v.) of 1 Chronicles 8:6; but this was either in Benjamin or Moab, certainly not in Judah. Others have found it in the Menuchah (q.v.) supposed to be referred to in Judges 20:43; but of the existence of this latter there is very great doubt. The ancient versions are able to make nothing intelligible out of the passage. Thus much is clear, that the Hatsi- Ham-Menuchoth of 1 Chronicles 2:52 corresponds as one half either of a lineage or of a district to the other half which appears in 1 Chronicles 2:54 as Hatsiham-Menachti ; but the relation between the noun Monuchoth and the adjective Menachthite we cannot discover. The latter of these two moieties is predicated of the son of Salma, the former of the son of Shobal. As of Shobal, however, Sons are announced, we must recognise in Haroeh the name of another son; moreover, in chap. 1 Chronicles 4:2, Reaiah appears as a son of Shobal, and this name so closely resembles Haroeh that we may suppose them identical. Haroeh and Reaiah are thus associated as the two sons of Shobah, and the I connective ("and") may have originally stood between them in the text. Haroeh, indeed, may be resolved into the article and a participle ( הָרֹאֶה = The Seer ), and thus be reduced to a mere appellation or attribute, but this would not help the narrative. Hatsi-ham-Menuchoth, on the other hand, is a less natural form for a patrial name than Hatsi-ham- Menachti, and this would seem to designate an original or ancestor by the name of Manachath ( מָנִחִת ), a form which actually occurs elsewhere as the name of a man. (See Manahath). Now as Shobal is repeatedly stated to be the " father" (founder) of Kirjath-jearim, his sons of course, in part at least, settled there. We may therefore clear up 1 Chronicles 2:52 by interpreting it as meaning that Shobal had two sons, Reaiah and Manahath, and that part of the descendants of the. latter settled at Kirjath-jearim, becoming the heads of the families named in 1 Chronicles 2:53. The other portion of the Manahathites appear to have colonized at Zorah, in the adjoining territory of Dan; and are hence, for some reason not clear, classed in 1 Chronicles 2:54 with the descendants of Shobal's brother Salma as "Zorites," that city being perhaps chiefly occupied by the latter. Yet it is a singular circumstance that in chap. 1 Chronicles 4:1-2, :Keaiah's posterity are said to have peopled this city, if, indeed, that be the just interpretation of "Zorathites." (See Zorah).
