21 The sons of Shelah the son of Judah: Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of those who worked fine linen, of the house of Ashbea;
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
That wrought fine linen - "Of the family of those who worked in fine flax to make garments for kings and priests." - T.
The sons of Shelah, the son of Judah, were,.... The genealogy of the posterity of Judah, in the lines of Pharez and Zerah, being given, and very largely in that of the former, because of the honour of David, and his kingdom, which sprang from thence, as Jarchi observes, and also the King Messiah, the writer returns to give an account of his posterity by Shelah, a son he had by the daughter of Shuah, Genesis 38:2 and the only one that had children: which were as follow:
Er the father of Lecah: prince of a city of this name in the tribe of Judah; Shelah gave him the name of Er, in memory of his brother, Genesis 38:3,
and Laadah the father of Mareshah; prince of a city of this name in the same tribe, Joshua 15:44.
and the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen, of the house of Ashbea; which last clause explains what house these families were of, which sprang from Shelah, and were employed in making fine linen; the Targum adds, for the garments of kings and priests, or for the curtains of the tabernacle, as Jarchi; for not with the Egyptians and Greeks only fine linen was made, but among the Hebrews, as Pausanias (f) testifies.
(f) Eliac. 1. sive, l. 5. p. 294.
POSTERITY OF SHELAH. (1-Chronicles 4:21-23)
Laadah . . . the father . . . of the house of them that wrought fine linen--Here, again, is another incidental evidence that in very early times certain trades were followed by particular families among the Hebrews, apparently in hereditary succession. Their knowledge of the art of linen manufacture had been, most probably, acquired in Egypt, where the duty of bringing up families to the occupations of their forefathers was a compulsory obligation, whereas in Israel, as in many parts of Asia to this day, it was optional, though common.
Descendants of Shelah, the third son of Judah, 1-Chronicles 2:3, and Genesis 38:5. - All the families of Judah enumerated in vv. 2-20 are connected together by the conjunction ו, and so are grouped as descendants of the sons and grandsons of Judah named in 1-Chronicles 4:1. The conjunction is omitted, however, before שׁלה בּני, as also before יהוּדה בּני in 1-Chronicles 4:3, to show that the descendants of Shelah form a second line of descendants of Judah, co-ordinate with the sons of Judah enumerated in vv. 1-19, concerning whom only a little obscure but not unimportant information has been preserved. Those mentioned as sons are Er (which also was the name of the first-born of Judah, 1-Chronicles 2:3.), father of Lecah, and Laadan, the father of Mareshah. The latter name denotes, beyond question, a town which still exists as the ruin Marash in the Shephelah, Joshua 15:44 (see on 1-Chronicles 2:42), and consequently Lecah (לכה) also is the name of a locality not elsewhere mentioned. The further descendants of Shelah were, "the families of the Byssus-work of the house of Ashbea," i.e., the families of Ashbea, a man of whom nothing further is known. Of these families some were connected with a famous weaving-house or linen (Byssus) manufactory, probably in Egypt; and then further, in 1-Chronicles 4:22, "Jokim, and the man of Chozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, which ruled over Moab, and Jashubi-lehem." Kimchi conjectured that כּזבה was the place called כזיב in Genesis 38:5 = אכזיב, Joshua 15:44, in the low land, where Shelah was born. לחם ישׁבי is a strange name, "which the punctuators would hardly have pronounced in the way they have done if it had not come down to them by tradition" (Berth.). The other names denote heads of families or branches of families, the branches and families being included in them.
(Note: Jerome has given a curious translation of 1-Chronicles 4:22, "et qui stare fecit solem, virique mendacii et securus et incendens, qui principes fuerunt in Moab et qui reversi sunt in Lahem: haec autem verba vetera," - according to the Jewish Midrash, in which למואב בּעלוּ אשׁר was connected with the narrative in the book of Ruth. For יוקים, qui stare fecit solem, is supposed to be Elimelech, and the viri mendacii Mahlon and Chilion, so well known from the book of Ruth, who went with their father into the land of Moab and married Moabitesses.)
Nothing is told us of them beyond what is found in our verses, according to which the four first named ruled over Moab during a period in the primeval time; fir, as the historian himself remarks, "these things are old."
Shelah - Having treated of the posterity of Judah by Pharez, and by Zara, he now comes to his progeny by Shelah.
*More commentary available at chapter level.