There ascended with him his elder brother Aaron, and Hur. And the former [is] indeed known, but this latter not likewise — [he] who is named here first, but thereafter more often (ch. 24, 31, 35, [and] elsewhere). Therefore who he was is wont to be asked. R. Eliezer (ch. 45), Abulensis (question 5, and on 1 Paralipomenon 2, questions 8 and 9), and some [others] think [that Hur] was the son of Caleb — who was in the number of the spies of Chanaan (Numbers 13) — and of Maria [Miriam], who [was] the sister of Moses. But they are refuted, because — as [was] indicated above (question 6), from Joshua 14 — in this year Caleb was only 39 years old; but Maria was at least 90 years old, as is certain from what was said [on] Exodus ch. 2. And [besides], what [of] a decrepit old woman’s marriage with that man? and when was it entered upon? For [in] 1 Paralipomenon 2 we read [that] Caleb had two wives. The former was Azuba, the latter Ephrata. And therefore Maria would have had to be married either after them, or [she] would have been one of the two. Not Azuba, because she died prematurely. Not Ephrata — though [that] is what they say — because this one [Ephrata], in Chanaan, gave the name of Ephrata to Bethlehem itself; but Maria did not reach Chanaan (Numbers ch. 20). And [besides], Hur would have been at this time no more than a boy and almost an infant — [Hur] who nevertheless, when Moses ascended Mount Sinai (Exodus 24), is made, in this very year, Judge of controversies (if any should arise) together with Aaron (v. 14). Finally, they are sufficiently refuted by the very [things] which they themselves concede. For they say [that] Caleb, in the eighth year of his age, took to wife Azuba, from whom in the following year he begot Ierioth; [that] in the tenth year of [his] age he married Ephrata, and from her, in the same year, took the son [named] Hur; and [that] this same [Hur], afterward, when he was 8 years old, begot Uri; and this one [Uri], likewise, when he was 8 years old, procreated Beseleel [Bezaleel], who — [being] 13 years old — made the tabernacle (Exodus 31). What indeed [would be] absurd or fictitious, if these [things] are not?
The Author of the Traditions (on 1 Paralipomenon ch. 2) makes the same [Hur] the son of Caleb, but the husband of Maria. But nearly the same absurdities [follow]; yet most [absurd is] that childish [notion], [namely] that this Hur married Maria [when she was] an old woman, at that time of her age at which Sara denied [that] she could naturally bear (Genesis 18, v. 12). But Abulensis himself [is] wavering. For although he constantly denies [Hur] to be the son of Caleb, yet he makes [Hur] now the son, now the husband, of Maria. In either way, doubtless, Hur could now be a man already of more advanced age. And indeed [that] he was a man [an adult], Josephus too affirms (book 3, ch. 2). But [that] Maria remained perpetually a virgin, there are good authors, not lacking, who assert [it]: Nyssen (On Virginity, ch. 9), St. Ambrose (Epistle 82), and, among the more recent, Soarez (vol. 2, on part 3, disputation 6, section 3). Yet I would rather assent to Josephus. For I would not think [that] in those times there was easily any [woman] who wished never to marry, and to procreate no children. Nor…
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Nor do the cited Fathers assert that [her perpetual virginity] very constantly and seriously, as may be seen in [their writings] themselves. For if they could have affirmed her for certain [to be] a virgin, how [greatly] would their talents have exulted — [they] who, while writing so many and so splendid things about the praises of virginity, [had] in this one woman, so choice and so illustrious, so ancient and approved an example? I say, moreover, [that] this Hur was the son of Caleb — but not of that [Caleb] who was now 39 years old, and who will afterward be sent, with our Joshua, as a spy into Chanaan. For clearly and distinctly Scripture hands down to us two Calebs. One is called the son of Jephone [Jephunneh]; and the sons of this one were Hur, Ela, [and] Naham (1 Paralipomenon 4, v. 15); and this [Caleb] was one of those spies. The other [is] the son of Esron [Hezron], who is also called Calubi [Chelubai] (1 Paralipomenon 2, v. 9). From whose later wife — who [was] Ephrata — [came] this our Hur (1 Paralipomenon 2, vv. 18–19); and it is added (v. 20): “Moreover Hur begot Uri; and Uri begot Beseleel [Bezaleel].” And if, in that most difficult question, it please [you] to apply the mind a little, you will see both the years and the marriages all in harmony. For since the Israelites were 212 years in Egypt after Jacob’s arrival — as I proved [on] Exodus 12 — it is now permitted to reckon thus:
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Judah, when he went down into Egypt, was 44 years old, by the chronology handed down in Genesis; and he had lost [his] first sons Her and Onan [Er and Onan], and had surviving Selam, Phares, and Zaram [Shelah, Pharez, and Zerah] (Genesis 46, v. 12).
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Phares [Pharez] had as firstborn Esron [Hezron] (ibid., and 1 Paral. 2, v. 5). Who, when Jacob went down into Egypt, either was not yet born (but was numbered by anticipation, as [do] some others; Genesis 46), or certainly was quite an infant. For if from Judah’s 44 years you subtract the years in which he produced [his] first three sons — as quickly as possible, for argument’s sake, in the 14th and 15th year of [his] age — 29 of his years will remain. Let those [sons] grow up to the same time of marriage, and again let 15 be subtracted from 29: 14 will remain. Now let there be subtracted again (v. [11]) about one year or another, in which Thamar awaited the years ripe for marriage for Shelah (Genesis 38, vv. 11–12): and there will remain 13 or 12. And then Judah, from Thamar, begot Pharez, who, when [the family] went into Egypt, would have been at most 12 [years old]; and so Esron [was] not yet born from him. Or if, the calculations being placed a little otherwise, you would have him be 14 or 15 years old, so that he had already begotten Esron — certainly that [Esron], as I said, was a little infant in that descent.
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This Esron, a little before he was 60 years old, begot from [his] former wife Caleb, who was the youngest of his brothers by her (1 Paral. 2, vv. 9 and 21). Therefore, from the years of the Egyptian sojourn, by subtracting those 59 [years] before Caleb was begotten, 153 remained.
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This Caleb — since he took Hur only from his later wife Ephrata — we shall rightly reckon [this] to have been done in the 60th year of his age; which [60], subtracted from those [153], leave 93.
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Hur, therefore, at the Egyptian exodus was 93 years old. And thus it is most clearly perceived how he could be the husband of Maria [Miriam], the sister of Moses; how [he could be] older than both Moses and Aaron (Exodus 7, v. 7); how [he could be] appointed with him [Moses] arbiter of controversies; how, finally, [he could be] the father of Uri and grandfather of Beseleel. For:
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Uri [was] the firstborn of that Hur (1 Paral. 2, v. 20).
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Say, for argument’s sake, [that Uri was] born in his [Hur’s] 30th year — he [Uri] would have been at the Egyptian exodus 63 years old.
- But the firstborn of that Uri was Beseleel [Bezaleel] (ibid.); whom let us say [was] begotten by him likewise in [Uri’s] 30th year of age — he [Bezaleel] would have been, at the same exodus from Egypt, 33 years old, so that he could most rightly ply his art and labor in constructing and finishing the tabernacle. I conclude, therefore, [that] Hur — who ascended with Moses onto Mount Horeb at the time of this Amalekite war — was the husband of Mosaic Maria [Moses’s sister Miriam], and the son of Caleb: not of that [Caleb] who [was] the son of Jephone and [was] among the spies, but of [the Caleb] who came forth from Esron [Hezron]. But about the other Caleb, elsewhere.