CALEB (n ; Sept. Xci.Neli. Gesenius (Thes.
p. 684) says, perhaps it means dog, i.e. ; Arab. Fiirst (in his new Lex. i. 593) explains by ' Der .I.Ciihne, Tapfere, d. h. Held.' Meier controverts Gesenius, and gives the sense as Fiirst renders it, 'Der tapfere Held,' the valiant hero).
I. Taking the probable chronological order, we have in 1 Chron. ii. 18, 19, and 42, certainly, and in 46, 48, possibly, the earliest CALEB men tioned as the son of Hezron, who was son of Pharez, and grandson of the patriarch Judah. This Caleb was great-uncle of Nahshon, the prince of the children of Judah,' who was the illustrious brother of Aaron's wife Elisheba. A question has been raised, whether Caleb's wives were three or two. According to our version there were three, Azubah, Jerioth (verse 18), and Ephrath, which bare him Hur,' the grandfather of the great artificer Beza led (verse 19) ; but there is much MS. variation.
On the whole, that seems to us the most tenable opinion, and most supported by the best reading of the Hebrew Text, which assigns to Caleb, like his great ancestor Jacob, two wives, Azubah and Ephrath, and (as it would further seem from verses 46 and 48) two concubines, Ephah and Maachah ; in one respect, undoubtedly, Caleb has the advan• tape in this comparison ; having but one wife at a time, he escaped the domestic troubles which so much afflicted Jacob—' When Azubah was dead, Caleb took unto him Ephrath.' The chapter before
us, in its genealogical fragments, has preserved to us the names of upwards of a dozen sons, besides their children, some of whom are mentioned as men of wealth and power.
2. Still following the chronological order, we must place as second on our list CALEB, the son of Hur, whose name occurs s Chron. ii. so. This Hur is described as the first-born of Ephratah' (or Ephrath, as she is called in verse 19), conse quently this second CALEB was grandson of Caleb the son of Hezron, through his second marriage ; he was also the brother of Uri (comp. vv. 20 and 50), and therefore uncle of the artificer Bezaleel the contemporary of the great Caleb, who thus ap pears to come later by one generation. [See No. 3.] The second Caleb, like his ancestral name sake, was through his sons Shobal, Salma, and Hareph, the father of a numerous and wealthy race; the first and second of these sons are called by the chronicler the fathers' of the cities of Kirjath jearim, and the more illustrious Bethlehem ; by which is undoubtedly meant [as Vatablus explains in Critic. Sacr.] that they were the princes or chiefi of the families,' or clans—Mishpachath—which settled there after the conquest of Canaan. We come now to the