6 These are the sons of Ehud: these are the heads of fathers' (houses) of the inhabitants of Geba, and they carried them captive to Manahath:
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And they removed them to Manahath - "They" has no antecedent; and it is difficult to supply one. Almost all commentators suppose that there has been some corruption here, from which, however, we may gather that the "sons of Ehud" (or, perhaps, of Ahoah, 1-Chronicles 8:4) were originally settled at Geba (Joshua 18:24 note), but afterward removed to a place called Manahath, probably a town in the vicinity. Gera 1-Chronicles 8:7 directed the movement.
And these [are] the sons of Ehud: these are the heads of the fathers of the inhabitants of Geba, and (b) they removed them to Manahath:
(b) Meaning, the inhabitants of the city of Geba.
And these are the sons of Ehud,.... Not he that was a judge in Israel, Judges 3:15 but perhaps a son of Huram the last mentioned; for not the three last are his sons, as some think, but the three following in the next verse; what follows being to be read in a parenthesis:
(these are the heads of the fathers of the inhabitants of Geba;) a city in the tribe of Benjamin, Joshua 18:24 namely, those sons of Ehud, after mentioned, were principal men in that tribe, and chief of the inhabitants of the city of Geba:
and they removed them to Manahath; the name of a country referred to in 1-Chronicles 2:52 according to Jarchi, which was in the tribe of Judah; Geba being too small, either the inhabitants of Geba removed them, or they removed themselves, or their fathers removed them, 1-Chronicles 8:7, or it may be read impersonally, they were removed thither for the sake of a better habitation; the Targum adds,"to the land of the house of Esau,''to Edom; which is not likely.
these are the sons of Ehud--most probably the judge of Israel (Judges 3:15). His descendants, who had at first been established in Geba in Benjamin, emigrated in a body under the direction of Gera (1-Chronicles 8:7) to Manahath, where their increased numbers would find more ample accommodation. Manahath was within the territory of Judah.
Sons of Ehud. - The descent of Ehud from the sons, grandsons, and descendants of Benjamin, enumerated in 1-Chronicles 8:1-5, is not given. The names of Ehud's sons follow only at the end of the 1-Chronicles 8:7, "And he begat Uzza and Ahihud," while the intermediate clauses contain historical remarks. These sons were "heads of fathers'-houses of the inhabitants of Geba," i.e., Geba of Benjamin (1-Samuel 13:16), the Levite city, 1-Chronicles 6:45, which still remains as the half-ruinous village Jeba, about three leagues to the north of Jerusalem; see on Joshua 18:24. "And they led them captive to Manahath, viz., Naaman and Ahiah and Gera, this man led them captive." The subject to ויּגלוּם are the men mentioned in the following verse, while the הוּא which follows shows that, of the three above mentioned, the last, Gera, was the author of their captivity. The place Manahath is not known, but is conjectured to be connected with Hazi-Hammanahti and Hazi-Hammenuhoth, 1-Chronicles 2:54 and 1-Chronicles 2:52; but we cannot ascertain with certainty whether the name denotes a city or a district, and the situation of it has not yet been discovered. Of the hostile collision of these Benjamite families also, no more detailed accounts have come down to us.
These - These following, 1-Chronicles 8:7, because he here speaks of them who were removed. He describes the sons of Benjamin by the places of their habitation, without an exact account of their parents; because their genealogies were broken by that almost total extirpation of this tribe, Judges. 20:29-48.
*More commentary available at chapter level.