Nehemiah 11:25

And for the villages, with their fields The preposition -for" = -with respect to." The verse takes up the thread which had been interrupted by the parenthesis (21 24).

at Kirjath-arba, andin the villages thereof R.V. in Kirjath-arba and the towns (Marg. Heb. daughters thereof).

Kirjath-arba, the old name of Hebron (Genesis 23:2; Joshua 14:15), the capital of the tribe of Judah (cf. 2 Samuel 2:1-4). Rawlinson conjectures that -during the captivity the old name had reasserted itself." Its employment here is certainly peculiar. But it is more probable that the ancient name reproduces the formal language of the official register. It is noticeable that in Joshua, which contains so many of the towns mentioned in this passage, Hebron is called by its archaic name (Joshua 15:54). Kirjath-arba, or the city of Arba, was traditionally so called after Arba, one of the Anakim or pre-Canaanite princes. According to others it means -the city of four quarters," -a Tetrapolis." Its modern name El-Khalil, -the Friend (of God)," preserves the memory of the patriarch Abraham, who dwelt there (Genesis 13:14; Genesis 13:18, 23).

It should be observed that hitherto we have had no mention of the Jews after the exile re-occupying Hebron.

-the towns (Heb. daughters) thereof." By this expression is denoted the hamlets and villages adjacent to a principal town, which were dependent on it in some degree for supplies and for protection, and were originally offshoots. Cf. Numbers 21:25; Numbers 21:32; Joshua 15:45; Judges 11:26.

Dibon … Jekabzeel Probably the same as Dimonah and Kabzeel, which occur in connexion with Moladah in Joshua 15:21-22; Joshua 15:26.