And of the children of the priests
Who could not make out their pedigree, for those that could are mentioned before:
the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of
Barzillai;
how the latter came by this name follows:
which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was
called after their name;
this man married a woman that descended from the famous Barzillai the Gileadite, in the times of David; and the priesthood being in disuse, and mean and despicable, in Babylon, he chose to take the name of his wife's family, and pass for a descendant from that, and perhaps destroyed, or at least neglected, to take care of the genealogy of his own family.