Chalcol

Chalcol is the older form of a personal name that UPDV renders Calcol. He appears in only two verses, both in lists, and in both he stands among brothers reckoned for either wisdom or genealogical prominence.

A name renowned for wisdom

In the comparison that establishes Solomon's intellectual stature, Calcol is one of four wise men whom Solomon surpasses: "For he was wiser than all of man; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all the nations round about" (1 Kings 4:31). The note that "his fame was in all the nations round about" attaches to Solomon, but the verse presupposes that Calcol and the others were already well known enough to function as the benchmark Solomon's wisdom exceeded.

Among the sons of Zerah

In the genealogies of Judah he appears in a different list: "And the sons of Zerah: Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara; five of them in all" (1 Chronicles 2:6). Here he is filed under the line of Zerah son of Judah, alongside an Ethan and a Heman whose names match those at 1 Kings 4:31, suggesting the two passages preserve the same circle of figures known in the tradition for wisdom.