1 Chronicles 2:24

The remaining verse of this section brings another point of difficulty unsolved yet. No place Caleb-ephratah is known, and no sort of accounting for Hezron dying anywhere but in Egypt, whither he went with Jacob ( Genesis 46:12 ), is producible. The Vulgate has Ingressus est Caleb ad Ephratam , but our Hebrew text cannot be made to justify it, if for nothing else, for want of a preposition אֶל before "Ephrata." This reading of the Vulgate has suggested to others that by a slight but still gratuitous alteration of our Hebrew text בָא might be substituted for the preposition בְּ prefixed to the name of Caleb; but upon that showing we have to suppose that Caleb did leave Egypt on his own account and travel to Ephratah, and then there fails any strong connection between that fact and what is said about Abiah . Still, the explanation might receive some countenance from the fact that it is said that Abiah's son became the father—or founder— of Tekoa , a place near Bethlehem, in South Judah ( 1 Samuel 30:14 ). Bertheau has at this point suggested that Caleb-ephratah, instead of being included in Neger-Caleb, may rather, in distinction from it, designate the northern portion of the territory of Caleb. The solution of the problem will probably not yield to anything but a justly restored text.