And their villages were …: The Hebrew noun rendered villages here and in the next verse refers to permanent settlements without walls for protection. Translations include “settlements” (Revised English Bible), “towns” (New Living Translation), and “places” (Good News Translation). In Israelite culture cities were generally larger and walled, but towns and villages did not have walls and were smaller than cities. Of course, an ancient Israelite city may be considered a village by modern standards; for example, Jericho, which was considered a city, covered only about twelve acres. The Hebrew nouns for villages and cities are used to refer to the five places in this verse. So the distinction between these two nouns is not always maintained, just as in English the words “city” and “town” are often used with no distinction intended.

The exact location of Etam is not known, but it was probably located between southern Judah and the northern part of the Negev Desert.

Ain is the Hebrew word meaning “eye” or “spring,” and there are several places with this word as a part of their name. In agreement with the Septuagint rendering, some scholars think that this word goes together with Rimmon (which means “pomegranate” in Hebrew) and refers to a single place (so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, La Bible Pléiade, Peregrino. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament argues that the Hebrew text contains a primitive error in which the name was mistakenly written as two names. The versions that take Ain-Rimmon as a single place still say five cities. However, Curtis and Madsen correct the Hebrew to read “four cities” at the end of this verse. The parallel text in Josh 19.7 names four towns.

Nothing more is known of Tochen. The village of Ashan mentioned here is perhaps the same place as the city of refuge given to the Levites in 1 Chr 6.59, although there is some confusion with Ain (see Josh 21.16).

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 .