Free Bible Commentary
“Genesis 22:20-24”
Categories: Genesis“Now it came about after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, 'Behold, Milcah has borne children to your brother Nahor: Uz his firstborn and Buz his brother and Kemuel the father of Aram and Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel.' Bethuel became the father of Rebekah; these eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.”
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“Milcah has borne children to your brother Nahor.” (verse 21) We learned from the genealogy of Genesis 11 that, “Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.” (Genesis 11:29)
“This paragraph has only one significance, namely, that of disclosing the family connection of Rebekah, whose marriage to Isaac was about to be related. In those days, there was not much travel between various parts of the Mid-east, and Abraham evidently learned for the first time, through chance passers-by of the children of his brother. Some of these names are the same or similar to others recorded elsewhere in Genesis, but this means nothing at all. Many names were used over and over in successive generations as the mere reading of such a genealogy as that in Luke 3 reveals.” (James Burton Coffman) It seems obvious that there was a secondary reason for the names in this section in that Aram is singled out along with Rebekah as a “grandchild” of significance.
“The lowly status of Aram as a 'grandson' tribe through the third-born means that, at the time of the origin of the list, this people had not yet risen to power. By contrast, the genealogy of Genesis 10 prestigiously has Aram as the son of Shem... That list reflects a later historic reality than this and derives from a time when Aram had overwhelmed the Uzzites and incorporated them into its tribal league. Furthermore, the depiction of Aram as part of the wider family of Abraham, in keeping with the consistent traditions about the close patriarchal associations with that people, must stem from before the Davidic period when Aram became the inveterate enemy of Israel and so remained for hundreds of years.” (Nahum Sarna)
“Uz his firstborn and Buz his brother...” (verse 21) “In Genesis 10:23...Uz is the firstborn of Aram. Uz, as a locality in the Syrian region, is mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions. It may denote a branch of an Aramaean tribe, the Uṣṣâof Shalmaneser II. It appears as the birthplace of Job (Job 1:1). Whether it is the same Uz as is mentioned in Jeremiah 25:20, Lamentations 4:21, is doubtful. Another, Edomite, Uz is mentioned in Genesis 36:28. Buz] See Jeremiah 25:23, where the mention of Buz with Dedan and Tema seems to point to the borders of the Arabian desert. Elihu, the friend of Job, is a native of Buz (Job 32:2). (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)
“Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel.” (verse 22) Nahum Sarna maintains that 'the name Chesed...is doubtless the supposed ancestor of the Chaldeans (Heb. Kasdim).” But the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges disagrees: “Presumably, not to be confounded with the ancestor of the S. Babylonian people, the Chasdim, or 'Chaldees,' mentioned in Genesis 11:31... More probably, the Bedouin tribe, mentioned in 2 Kings 24:2, Job 1:17, as 'the Chaldeans,' quite distinct from the Chesed of Arpachshad (Genesis 10:22).”
“Bethuel became the father of Rebekah” (verse 23) “Ribkah; captivating, ensnaring (Furst); 'a rope with a noose,' not unfit as the name of a girl who ensnares men by her beauty (Gesenius). Rebekah was the child of Isaac's cousin, and being the daughter of Nahor's youngest son, was probably about the same age as her future husband.” (Pulpit Commentary) “ These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.” It is interesting to note that Nahor's concubine Reumah bore him four more sons (verse 24), for a total of twelve—a great symbolic number of power, completion and significance used repeatedly in the Bible: 12 sons/tribes of Israel, 12 princes of Ishmael, 12 scouts spied out the Promised Land, 12 Apostles, and 12 gates of pearl in Revelation just to name a few uses of this number.
Please read Genesis 23:1-9 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
