(24) Maachah.--This name appears as that of a small Aramaic people, in Deuteronomy 3:14; Joshua 12:5; 2Samuel 10:6. Verse 24. - And his concubine (vide on Genesis 16:3), whose name was Reumah, - raised, elevated (Gesenius); pearl or coral (Furst) - she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah - whence probably the Maachathites (Deuteronomy 3:14; Joshua 42:5). That three of Terah's descendants (Nahor, Ishmael, and Jacob) should each have twelve sons has been pronounced" a contrived symmetry, the intentional character of which cannot be mistaken" (Bohlen); but "what intention the narrator should have connected with it remains inconceivable, unless it was to state the fact as it was, or (on the supposition that some of them had more than twelve sons) to supply a round number easily retainable by the memory" (Havernick). she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah, of whom we have no account elsewhere; only it may be observed, that here Maachah is the name of a man, which sometimes is given to a woman, 1 Kings 15:13. |