The sense of verses 6-7 is not clear. Several versions indicate in footnotes that these verses are difficult. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, for example, states in a footnote that the meaning of verses 6 and 7 is uncertain; and Einheitsübersetzung says in a footnote, “The text is only partly transmitted.” Osty-Trinquet similarly states in a note that the text of verses 6-7 “is in very bad condition and is incomprehensible in part.” American Bible gives a fairly literal rendering of the Hebrew as follows:

6 These were the sons of Ehud–these were the chiefs of families who lived at Geba when they exiled them to Manahath–7 Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera. He exiled them; he fathered Uzza and Ahihud.

Some of the questions that arise from reading verses 6-7 are the following: (1) Who exiled whom to Manahath? Did some portion of Benjamin’s descendants send the indigenous inhabitants into exile to the town of Manahath in the territory of Judah? Or did some unnamed group send some descendants of Benjamin into exile at Manahath in Edom? (2) Who is the referent for the pronoun “He” in the sentence “He exiled them”? (3) Who fathered Uzza and Ahihud?

The variety of translations reflects the difficulty of understanding the intended sense. An extreme example of attempts to correct the text is that of Moffatt, who translates verses 6-10 as follows:

6 The sons of Ehud, heads of families in Geba, 7 were Iglaam and Alemeth; Iglaam became the father of Uzza and Ashishahar, 8 and in the open country of Moab he became the father of Mesha their sister and Hushim (who married Baara). 9 Ashishahar became the father of Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malkam, 10 Jeuz, Shachia, and Mirma; these were his sons, chiefs of their families.

The correct meaning of verses 6-7 seems to be expressed in Good News Translation (also La Bible du Semeur, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), which states that the three descendants of Ehud, along with their families, were forced to move from Geba to Manahath, and Gera was the descendant who led them in this move. Contemporary English Version follows this interpretation by saying:

Ehud was the father of Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera. They were clan leaders in the town of Geba, but were later forced to move to the town of Manahath, and Gera led the way. He had two sons: Uzza and Ahihud.

Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, La Bible du Semeur, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje combine verses 6 and 7 and place the names in verse 7 near the beginning.

These are the sons of Ehud: As noted in the discussion on 1 Chr 8.4, some interpreters (for example, Knoppers and Klein) think that these words have been misplaced here from verse 4, so Knoppers translates verse 6 as “These were the ancestral heads of Geba’s inhabitants, and they exiled them to Manahath” (similarly Klein). This interpretation has much to recommend it, but there is no strong textual evidence in support of it.

Sons is better translated “descendants” since the names in verse 7 are probably not all literal sons of Ehud. Ehud was one of the leaders of Israel before it was ruled by kings. According to Jdg 3.15, Ehud was the son of Gera.

They were heads of fathers’ houses of the inhabitants of Geba: For heads of fathers’ houses, see the comments on 1 Chr 5.24. New Living Translation says “leaders of the clans,” and Contemporary English Version says “clan leaders.” Regarding the town of Geba, see the comments on 1 Chr 6.60.

And they were carried into exile to Manahath is literally “and they carried them into exile to Manahath” or “and they deported them….” Neither the subject nor the object is clear. The text does not state by whom they were deported, although verse 7 seems to say that Gera was the one who did it. If the third person plural subject is understood impersonally, the meaning may be “They were forced to leave their homes and move to Manahath … Gera forced them to leave their homes” (International Children’s Bible). Other translations of the Hebrew verb rendered were carried into exile include “were removed” (Revised English Bible), “were deported” (New American Bible), “made … emigrate” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and “were driven out and moved” (New Living Translation). Probably this third person plural verb should be understood impersonally, that is, “they moved.” The causative form of this verb usually means “to send into exile,” but some interpreters claim that the causative form of the verb may also mean “to emigrate,” without necessarily indicating a forced move. Since the biblical texts say nothing more about this incident, it is not possible to know for sure whether they emigrated or were forced to move.

Manahath is often identified as a Judean town about 5 kilometers (3 miles) southwest of Jerusalem. If this identification is correct, then the short distance between Geba and Manahath favors the view that this was a voluntary emigration rather than forced exile. Manahath may be related to the Manahathites mentioned in 1 Chr 2.54. In some languages it will be important to specify “the town of Manahath” as Contemporary English Version has done.

Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera, that is, Heglam, who was the father of Uzza and Ahihud: Some interpreters think that the names Naaman and Ahijah were introduced into the text by error when a scribe repeated the names “Naaman” and “Ahoah” (nearly identical in Hebrew to “Ahijah”) from verse 4. Moffatt and Klein omit these names in their translations. Neither Revised Standard Version nor Good News Translation reflects the strange fact that the name Naaman is preceded by the word “and” in Hebrew. The presence of “and” suggests that one or more words have been omitted accidentally from the text before this name. Braun shows this omission by the use of three dots in his translation of verses 6-7: “6 These are the sons of Ehud. They are the heads of fathers’ houses of the inhabitants of Geba, who were moved to Manahath: 7 … and Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera, who moved them and became the father of Uzza and Ahihud.”

It is not clear whether the Hebrew word rendered Heglam is a person’s name or a verb form meaning “he took them into exile.”

• (1) Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version translate the Hebrew word as a person’s name. If this interpretation is followed, and if the person named Gera in verse 5 is also a son of Ehud, then the addition of the name Heglam here may be a way of identifying this Gera in verse 7 as a different Gera from the son of Ehud with the same name in verse 5.

• (2) Others take the Hebrew word as a participle meaning “he took them into exile.” But who is the subject and who is the object of this verb? Here are the possibilities:

(a) The subject of the verb is Ehud, and the object is the persons named at the beginning of verse 7. The Hebrew has an emphatic pronoun before the verb: “it was he who took them into exile.” The sense may possibly be that some of Ehud’s family were sent into exile, so Ehud took other sons into exile to that same place, and there he had two more sons, Uzza and Ahihud. For verses 6-7 New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh expresses the sense that Ehud was the one who exiled his own three sons and that he was the father of Uzza and Ahihud: “6 These were the sons of Ehud–they were chiefs of clans of the inhabitants of Geba, and they were exiled to Manahath: 7 Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera–he exiled them and begot Uzza and Ahihud.”
(b) Another possibility is that the subject of the verb is Gera, a Benjaminite himself, who forced the indigenous inhabitants of Geba to go live in exile in Manahath.
(c) Others take Gera as the subject of the verb, but take the object to be his own kinsmen. This is the interpretation followed by Good News Translation, which says Gera led them in this move or migration to Manahath (also New International Version, New American Bible, An American Translation, Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Reina-Valera revisada, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Peregrino. New Living Translation provides a helpful model for verse 7 based on this interpretation: “Ehud’s sons were Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera. Gera, the father of Uzza and Ahihud, led them when they moved.”

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 .