1Ch 9:35-44 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 35 Whose wife's name was Maachah - Here our translators have departed from the original, for the word is אחתו achotho, his Sister; but the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, have Wife; to which may be added , the parallel place. Almost all the early editions, as well as the MS. editions, have the same reading. Of all the Polyglots the Complutensian alone has אשתו ishto, his Wife. His wife is the reading also of Vatablus's Polyglot, but in the margin he observes that other copies have his sister. There is most certainly a fault somewhere, for Maachah could not be both the sister and wife of Jehiel. Whether, therefore, has been altered from this, or this altered from that, who can tell? A single letter makes the whole difference: if the word be written with ח cheth, it is Sister; if with ש shin, it is Wife. The latter is most probably the true reading. It is so in three very ancient MSS. in my own possession.

1 Chronicles 9:35-44

Verse 35

Whose wife's name was Maachah - Here our translators have departed from the original, for the word is אחתו achotho, his Sister; but the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, have Wife; to which may be added 1Chr 8:29, the parallel place. Almost all the early editions, as well as the MS. editions, have the same reading. Of all the Polyglots the Complutensian alone has אשתו ishto, his Wife. His wife is the reading also of Vatablus's Polyglot, but in the margin he observes that other copies have his sister. There is most certainly a fault somewhere, for Maachah could not be both the sister and wife of Jehiel. Whether, therefore, 1Chr 8:29 has been altered from this, or this altered from that, who can tell? A single letter makes the whole difference: if the word be written with ח cheth, it is Sister; if with ש shin, it is Wife. The latter is most probably the true reading. It is so in three very ancient MSS. in my own possession. Verse 41

And Ahaz - This is added by our translators from 1Chr 8:35, but such liberties should only be taken in a note; for although the words are now sufficiently distinguished from the text by being printed in Italics, yet it is too much to expect that every editor of a Bible will attend to such distinctions, and in process of time the words will be found incorporated with the text. 1Chr 9:35, and the following verses, are a repetition of what we find in 1Chr 8:29-38 (note), where see the notes.