The sons of Beriah, Heber and Malchiel, are also to be found in Genesis 46:17 and Numbers 26:45 as the heads of two families; but the further statement, "he (i.e., Malchiel) the father of Birzavith," is found only here. How ברזות, the Kethibh, is to be pronounced, cannot be with certainty determined. Gesen. in Thes. p. 239 makes it בּרזות, and considers the word to be the name of a woman; Bertheau, on the contrary conjectures that it is a compound of בר equals בּאר and זית, "well of the olive-tree," and so the name of a place. In 1 Chronicles 7:32-34 the descendants of Heber are enumerated in three generations, which are mentioned nowhere else. In 1 Chronicles 7:32 we have four sons and one daughter. The name יפלט is not to be connected with יפלטי, Joshua 16:3, "because a family of Asher is not to be sought for in the neighbourhood there referred to" (Berth.). In 1 Chronicles 7:33 we have four sons of Japhlet, and in 1 Chronicles 7:34 the sons of his brother Shemer. It is somewhat remarkable that שׁומר, 1 Chronicles 7:32, is called here שׁמר. אחי is not an appellative, but a proper name, as the ו before the following name shows; cf. another Ahi in 1 Chronicles 5:15. For יחבּה we should read וחבּה.

And the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel, who is the father of Birzavith.

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.