After the death of Hezron, Caleb went in to Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron his father, and she bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa: This verse appears to be an explanation of verse 19. The Hebrew of this very difficult verse in the Masoretic Text reads as follows: “And after the death of Hezron in Caleb-ephrathah, and the wife of Hezron [was] Abiyyah, and she bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.” Among the problems are the following:

• (1) It is not certain whether the Hebrew word abiyyah is a woman’s name (Abijah) or whether it is the word for “father” followed by the third person singular pronoun suffix (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation), that is, his father.

• (2) It is not clear whether the Hebrew letter for “b” prefixed to the name “Caleb” is a preposition meaning “in” or whether it is an abbreviated form of the verb “to go” or “to go into.”

• (3) If the Hebrew letter for “b” is an abbreviated form of the verb, does it have its literal sense of “to go to a place” or is it an idiom here, meaning “to have sexual intercourse”?

• (4) Is “ephrathah” the name of a woman or the name of a place?

• (5) Is “Caleb” a person’s name or is it part of the place name “Caleb-ephrathah”?

• (6) “Caleb-ephrathah” is not otherwise known in the Old Testament.

It is very difficult to make sense of this verse, and the following interpretations and translations have been proposed:

• (1) Many interpreters, following the Septuagint, understand the Hebrew letter for “b” to be an abbreviation of the Hebrew verb baʾ (“he went”), that is, “Caleb went.” They also take “ephrathah” to be a woman’s name rather than a place name and correct “Abiyyah” to read “his father.” These changes are the basis for the Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation renderings (also New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Luther, La Sainte Bible: La version Etablie par les moines de Maredsous). This reading requires that the Hebrew verb for “he went” be understood in a sexual sense, which is not uncommon (see verse 21). Revised English Bible says Caleb “had intercourse with” Ephrathah (similarly New American Bible). But this translation seems unlikely since the Hebrew text here does not have the normal preposition used with the verb when it is used to mean “have intercourse.” This translation also requires that Ephrathah was married to Caleb’s father, but verse 19 seems to contradict that possibility, unless verse 19 leaves unstated that Hezron had already died. Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible say that Caleb “married” Ephrathah, but even if this basic interpretation is followed, it is going beyond what the Hebrew says to state that he “married” the wife of his dead father. Following this interpretation, verse 24 will be translated as follows: “And after the death of Hezron, Caleb went in to [or, had intercourse with] Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron his father, and she bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.”

• (2) As in the first interpretation, other translations also follow the Septuagint in reading that Caleb “went in” but they do not make the other corrections to the Masoretic Text found in Revised Standard Version (so Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). These translations read the verse as follows: “After the death of Hezron, whose wife was Abijah, Caleb had relations again with Ephrathah, who gave him a son, Ashhur, the founder of Tekoa.” This translation says that the name of Hezron’s wife was “Abijah,” who was perhaps the unnamed daughter of Machir in verse 21.

• (3) Revised English Bible, following the Syriac, does not translate the Hebrew words for “and the wife of Hezron [was] Abiyyah.” It reads “After the death of Hezron, Caleb had intercourse with Ephrathah and she bore him Ashhur the founder of Tekoa.”

• (4) It is possible, however, to make sense of the Masoretic Text, without following the Septuagint or the ancient Syriac. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh does it by saying “After the death of Hezron, in Caleb-ephrathah, Abijah, wife of Hezron, bore Ashhur, the father of Tekoa” (similarly New Revised Standard Version, La Bible du Semeur, Nueva Versión Internacional, Reina-Valera revisada, Menge). According to this translation, Ashhur was the son of Hezron and Abijah, and Hezron died before his son Ashhur was born. This is unlike the translations found in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, where Ashhur was the son of Caleb and Ephrathah (or Ephrath). Compare also the following La Biblia: Traducción en Lenguaje Actual rendering, which follows the Masoretic Text: “After Hezron died in Caleb of Ephrathah, his wife Abijah had a son, Ashhur. Ashhur had a son, Tekoa.”

• (5) Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {C} rating to the Septuagint text and recommends that the beginning of the verse be translated “And after the death of Hezron, Caleb went to Ephrathah….” With this interpretation a possible rendering for the whole verse is “After the death of Hezron, Caleb went to the town of Ephrathah; and Abijah, the widow of Hezron, gave him a son, Ashhur, the founder of Tekoa.” However, there do not seem to be any modern versions that follow this interpretation recommended by Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament.

In addition to the textual and exegetical difficulties in this verse, there is also the minor difference in the spelling of the name Ephrathah (also in verse 50) as compared with the shorter form “Ephrath” in verse 19, if in fact they both refer to a person. Good News Translation harmonizes the spelling, using the shorter form throughout.

As in similar contexts elsewhere in the Old Testament, the word father in the phrase the father of Tekoa is not to be taken literally since Tekoa is the name of a city and not an individual person. This city is best known as the hometown of the prophet Amos. It is probably best to say “founder of the city of Tekoa” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente; similarly Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .