From: Stephen Williamson
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 9:19 PM
Subject: Hur, Bible men in the Background

Hi all

After we chatted about Aaron and Hur the other day, I’ve just been doing some reading on this second chap.

Dear old Hur, assisted Aaron in holding up Moses’s hands for victory in Exodus 17:8-16 when the battle against the Amalekites was heavy.

In Exodus 31:1-11 we are told his grandson Bezalel was especially anointed for work on the tabernacle.

He is listed in 1 Chronicles 2:18-19 as a great-great grandson of Judah via 1. Caleb (his father), 2. Hezron (his grandfather), 3. Phares (his great-grandfather), and regarding his mother, he was the first-born son of Ephratah.
In 1 Chronicles 2:50-51 his great-grandson via 1. his son Caleb, 2. his grandson Salma, was 3. Bethlehem, yep, from which comes "that little town of Bethlehem".

Now, some further background is as follows:

According to that old Jewish scholar, Josephus click here, his closeness to Moses was due to the fact that he was also Moses’s brother-in-law, Miriam’s husband.

And in Exodus 24:12-14, he was appointed to look after the people along with Aaron, when Moses went up that mountain for the first time.

But then there’s no mention of him taking any further part in this Exodus adventure. Only Aaron in Exodus 32 is mentioned as being around when Moses comes down.

According to the teachings of the old Jewish scholars, this was due to the fact that Hur was killed by the Jews when he rebuked them for seeking an idol to worship. Pretty upsetting/intimidating for Aaron (not to mention Miriam) though, when it says in Deuteronomy 9:18-20 how angry God was with Aaron, it obviously doesn’t excuse Aaron from doing what he did.

But yes, certainly helps explain Moses’s anger as well, when he broke those tablets, and then called the Levites in Exodus 32:25-28 to do what they did.

What a time.

Blessings Steve

Stephen Williamson Computing Services Pty Ltd
www.swcs.com.au/aboutus.asp