(8) Nine sons of Becher.

The sons of Becher.--See Note on 1Chronicles 7:6. The nine Benjamite houses here enumerated might have been known as "sons of the firstborn." They are nowhere else recorded. The remarkable name Elioenai is frequent in the Chronicles. (See 1Chronicles 3:23; 1Chronicles 4:36; 1Chronicles 7:8; Ezra 10:22; Ezra 10:27; uncontracted, Eliohenai, 1Chronicles 26:3, Ezra 8:4.)

Anathoth and Alameth (Alemeth) were Levitical towns in Benjamin (1Chronicles 6:60).

Jerimoth, or Jeremoth (a son of Bela, 1Chronicles 7:7), looks like another local name. (Comp. Jarmuth and Ramoth.) It also occurs often in the Chronicles (eight or nine times). The clans may have borne the names of their seats.

Verse 8. - Joash. This name, of which nothing else is known, is spelt with an ayin, not with an aleph, as are the names of the seven other persons called (Authorized Version) Joash. Jerimoth. This name is spelt with a tsere, and not, as the Jerimoth of ver. 7, with khirik. All the names of this verse must be regarded as those of heads of families, and not the literal sons of Becher.

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 the sons of Becher,.... Another son of Benjamin, 1 Chronicles 7:6,

Zemira, and Joash, and Eliezer and Elioenai, and Omri, and Jerimoth, and Abiah, and Anathoth, and Alameth; the two last of these, according to Kimchi, gave names to two cities in Benjamin, built by them; Anathoth, the native place of Jeremiah the prophet, and Alameth, the same with Bahurim, 2 Samuel 16:5.

all these are the sons of Becher; before named.