INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 3

This chapter gives an account of the sons of David, born to him both in Hebron and in Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 3:1, and of his successors in the kingdom, to the Babylonish captivity, 1 Chronicles 3:10, and of his family, to the coming of the Messiah, 1 Chronicles 3:17.

Now these were the sons of David,.... The six following born in Hebron, who are reckoned in the same order as in 2 Samuel 3:2, only here the second son is called Daniel, who there goes by the name of Chileab; he had two names, the reason of which see there; and here David's wife, Eglah, is said in the Targum to be Michal, Saul's daughter; see Gill on 2 Samuel 3:5, to which is added an account of his reign both in Hebron and Jerusalem, agreeably to 2 Samuel 5:5.

And these were born unto him in Jerusalem,.... Whose names follow, in all nine; there are but seven mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:14 the reason of which see in the notes there; See Gill on 2 Samuel 5:14. See Gill on 2 Samuel 5:15. See Gill on 2 Samuel 5:16. it may be observed that Bathsheba is here called Bathshua, and her father Ammiel, whose name is Eliam in 2 Samuel 11:3, names of much the same signification.

These were all the sons of David,.... By his wives:

beside the sons of the concubines; who are not reckoned, and how many they were is not known; he had ten concubines at least, 2 Samuel 15:16 and 2 Samuel 20:3.

And Tamar their sister; not the sister of the sons of the concubines, but of his other sons, and only of Absalom by the mother's side, of whom see 2 Samuel 13:1.

And Solomon's son was Rehoboam,.... From hence to the end of the fourteenth verse, David's successors are reckoned, according to the order of their reign, unto Josiah and his sons:

Solomon, Rehoboam, Abia, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, Azariah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, in all sixteen.

And the sons of Josiah were, the firstborn Johanan,.... Of whom we nowhere else read; he probably died before his father Josiah:

the second Jehoiakim: whose name was Eliakim, changed for the former by the king of Egypt, when, he deposed his younger brother, and set him on the throne, 2 Kings 23:24.

the third Zedekiah; whose name was Mattaniah, but changed by the king of Babylon, when he placed him on the throne in the room of his brother's son, 2 Kings 24:17,

the fourth Shallum: the same with Jehoahaz, who was first made king in the room of his father; but reigning so short a time, and making so mean a figure, is mentioned last, see Jeremiah 22:11.

And the sons of Jehoiakim; Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son. This is not the Zedekiah mentioned in the preceding verse; for he was not the son but the uncle of Jeconiah, unless he should be called his son because he succeeded him in the kingdom; but he seems to be another of that name, nowhere else mentioned, and not the son of Jeconiah in any sense; he is not reckoned among them in the following verses, but of Jehoiakim.

And the sons of Jeconiah,.... For though he was pronounced childless, Jeremiah 22:30, that respects not his having no children in any sense, but none to succeed him in the kingdom:

Assir; which signifies bound, or a prisoner, because, as Kimchi thinks, he was born in a prison, his father then being a captive in Babylon; but rather it refers to Jeconiah himself, and is an appellation of him, and to be rendered:

the sons of Jeconiah the captive: which agrees best with the Hebrew accents:

Salathiel his son; the same that is called Shealtiel, Haggai 1:1 who was both the proper son of Jeconiah, and who succeeded him, as some think, in the honour and dignity the king of Babylon raised him to.

Malchiram also,.... That is, was a son of Jeconiah as well as Salathiel, and so the rest that follow:

and Pedaiah, and Shenazar, Jecamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah; Kimchi says these were the sons of Salathiel; but I rather think they were the sons of Jeconiah, and brethren of Salathiel, because of what follows.

And the sons of Pedaiah were, Zerubbabel and Shimei,.... Here arises a difficulty, since elsewhere Zerubbabel is said to be the son of Shealtiel, Haggai 1:1 some think this is not the same Zerubbabel here as there; so Grotius^F21In Luc. 3. ; but I see no reason for that; but this difficulty may be removed by observing, that if Pedaiah was a son of Salathiel, as Kimchi thinks, then Zerubbabel, being his grandson, may be called his son, as grandsons are sometimes called sons in Scripture; or rather, Salathiel, having no children, adopted Zerubbabel, his brother's son, and made him successor in the government; so that he was the son of Pedaiah by birth, and of Salathiel by adoption; or else Salathiel dying without children, his brother Pedaiah, according to the law, married his widow, and by her had Zerubbabel, who was the proper son of Pedaiah, and the legal son of Salathiel:

and the sons of Zerubbabel; Meshullam: who is called Abiud, Matthew 1:13 another son of his, with their father, is mentioned in this verse, and five more in the next. From hence to the end of the chapter, the genealogy is carried on from the captivity of Babylon, out of which Zerubbabel came, to the coming of Christ; and if Ezra was the writer of this book, as is generally thought, who was contemporary with Zerubbabel, this account must be written by another hand: and it may be observed, that it is carried on in the same number of generations as in Matthew; and here it stands thus:

Zerubbabel, Hananiah, Jesaiah, Rephaiah, Arnan, Obadiah, Shecaniah, Shemaiah, Neariah, Elioenai, Anani; in Matthew thus, "Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Sadoc, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph"; the difference in names may be accounted for by their having two names; and it is remarkable that the Targum makes Anani to be the King Messiah, who was to be revealed; which, though it makes one generation less to his time, yet plainly shows that the Jews expected the Messiah to come at the end of this genealogy, and about the time Jesus the true Messiah did. Anani is reckoned by other Jews a name of the Messiah, who is said to come in the clouds of heaven, which "Anani" signifies; see Gill on Daniel 7:13.