(23) Because it went evil.--Beriah is derived from a root, bara', and apparently means gift. Heb., because in evil it (i.e., the birth of Beriah) happened in his house. There is an allusive play on the words Beriah ("gift") and bera'ah ("in evil") such as we often meet with in Genesis (see Genesis 5:29; Genesis 11:9). To call such plays on words derivations would be a tasteless anachronism. Their purpose is to point a moral, not to teach etymology.

7:1-40 Genealogies. - Here is no account either of Zebulun or Dan. We can assign no reason why they only should be omitted; but it is the disgrace of the tribe of Dan, that idolatry began in that colony which fixed in Laish, and called it Dan, Jud 18 and there one of the golden calves was set up by Jeroboam. Dan is omitted, Re 7. Men become abominable when they forsake the worship of the true God, for any creature object.And when he went in to his wife,.... After his grief and sorrow in part at least had subsided:

she conceived and bare a son; which in some measure made up for the loss he had sustained:

and he called his name Beriah; which signifies being "in evil" or calamity, he being born in an evil time:

because it went evil with his house; or evil was in his house, as Noldius (m), in his family; a great calamity had befallen it.

(m) Ebr. Concord. Part. No. 750. p. 165.