Hezron

Hezron, called Esrom in the New Testament, is one of the forefathers of King David and of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the tribe of Judah. His name means "enclosed". The Church remembers him on the Sunday of the Forefathers before Christmas.

He was the son of Perez, son of Judah. In the Book of Genesis, chapter 46, he is named among the sons of Israel who went down to Egypt. From the First Book of Chronicles it appears that he married a daughter of Machir, firstborn of Manasseh, and through their son Segub was grandfather of Jair. Hezron had three sons: Jerahmeel, Ram and Chelubai. From Ram, also called Aram, descended the line that leads to David.

In the New Testament his name stands in the genealogy of Jesus Christ given by the evangelists Matthew and Luke, among the ancestors of the Lord. Few facts of his life are known, and the Church honours him as one of the righteous of the Old Testament through whom the coming of the Savior was prepared. The same name, Hezron, is also borne by a son of Reuben, who also came to Egypt, and by a place in the south of the Holy Land mentioned in the allotment of land to the tribe of Judah.