1 Chronicleschapter 3
24 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was read to a people who lived under a Persian governor and had no king of their own. Its compiler sets down the household of David, the sons born at Hebron and at Jerusalem, and then the kings who followed him. The register runs on past the fall of the city. Listen for the point where the line passes into Babylon, and then count how many generations it runs after the exile. A family without a throne learned from it that the royal house still had living heirs with names.
Context
- Who
- Returned exiles living under a Persian governor, with no king on the throne
- What
- A register of David's sons and of the kings of his line, carried through the exile and on to the compiler's own time.
- Where
- Hebron, then Jerusalem, then the community of exiles in Babylon, then Jerusalem again.
- When
- From about 1010 BC to the compiler's own generation after the return.
- Why
- To show that the house of David survived the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon.
Historical context
The chapter is David's house, and the man at its head is a king who reigned seven years and six months in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem, as verse 4 states.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The list opens with the sons born at Hebron during the years there and then the sons born after Jerusalem became the capital. A king's household was a political instrument, since each marriage tied a family or a neighbouring people to the throne and each son was a possible heir.
The line then runs through the kings, one name to a generation, down to Jeconiah, whom the Berean text calls the captive. Clay ration tablets excavated at Babylon list a Yaukin of the land of Yahud and his sons drawing oil from the royal stores, which is this man and these children on a Babylonian supply list.
After him comes Zerubbabel, who led the first group home and governed the province while the temple was rebuilt. He is called the son of Pedaiah here and the son of Shealtiel at Ezra 3:2, Haggai 1:1 and Matthew 1:12, and the usual explanations are adoption or the law by which a man raised up children for a dead brother.
The register then runs several more generations past Zerubbabel and ends at Anani. The Masoretic Hebrew and the Septuagint carry different numbers of generations at that point, and scholars weigh the tail differently, which is where the two dating positions part.
Significance
There was no throne in Jerusalem when this was read aloud. There was a Persian governor, a tax and a garrison, and here was the line of David running straight through the exile and out the other side into the room.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Everyone present could count the generations. God had promised David a house, and the house still had a living heir with a name.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for this book, and no festival reading. The list of David's sons and of the kings after him is never read aloud in the cycle.
Where it is met is in the study of the portion Toldot, which is the account of Jacob and Esau and of the blessing of the firstborn. The corpus carries Midrash Tanchuma, Toldot 14:2 under the tenth verse, where the line of Solomon begins, and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Toldot 20:1 under the twenty-fourth, where the line ends. The kings are read there as the working out of a blessing given long before any of them.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. He treats the chapter as a list that has to be reconciled with Samuel, and he does the work name by name. Where this chapter calls David's second son Daniel and 2 Samuel 3:3 calls him Chileab, he reports the Midrash Vayechulu, which gives the boy two names. David married Abigail after Nabal died and the paternity was suspected, so one name says that God judged him and the other that he resembles his father (Rashi on I Chronicles 3:1:1).
The sixth son's mother is called Eglah and also called David's wife, and Rashi reports the Midrash asking why she alone is titled so. The answer he carries reads the name as an endearment, a heifer, and takes the title as spoken for the sake of Michal (Rashi on I Chronicles 3:3:1). At the sons born in Jerusalem he counts nine where 2 Samuel 5:16 counts seven. His answer is that an Eliphelet and an Elishama died and later sons were given the same names. He adds the reason for the fuller count here in his own words. It stands "for David's honor, that he had many sons, for indeed the entire Book was written because of the honor of David and his posterity" (Rashi on I Chronicles 3:6:1).
The longest note in the chapter is the one a Christian reader should weigh, because it reads this list as prophecy and arithmetic together. Rashi counts eight generations from Solomon to Joash, the reign in which Athaliah destroyed the royal seed. He holds that David foresaw it and prayed in the psalm inscribed on the sheminith, the eighth, and that Joash escaped. He counts eight again from Joash to Josiah, whose sons were killed and blinded, and finds a second psalm on the sheminith prayed for that generation. Those two are the only two psalms in the Psalter carrying the word, and Rashi rests the reading on that (Rashi on I Chronicles 3:11:1).
The same note carries the messianic reading of the chapter's last name. Rashi counts thirty-eight sons and generations from the exile to Anani in the twenty-fourth verse, and he takes Anani for the King Messiah, reading the name against the clouds of heaven in Daniel 7:13. He finds the thirty-eight answered by thirty-eight words in David's public blessing at the end of this book (Rashi on I Chronicles 3:11:1). The line of kings is read there as running to the Messiah, which is where the classical Jewish reading and the Christian one touch. Both take this genealogy as the messianic line. They part on who stands at the end of it, and a Christian reader should hear that difference rather than the agreement alone. This site sets out the covenant behind the line at /featured/the-davidic-covenant.
Two short notes close the chapter, and both are about counting. The five sons of Zerubbabel are five besides Shelomith their sister (Rashi on I Chronicles 3:20:1). The six sons of Shemaiah are in fact five. Rashi answers by pointing to the Levitical watches later in the book, where a list of five is likewise called six (Rashi on I Chronicles 3:22:1).
The corpus carries eighteen further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They are the heaviest run of English-less notes in these fifteen chapters. Eleven of them stand cited and unquoted at Radak on I Chronicles 3:1:1, 3:2:1, 3:3:1, 3:5:1, 3:9:1, 3:10:1, 3:15:1, 3:16:1, 3:17:1, 3:18:1 and 3:19:1. Four stand at Metzudat David on I Chronicles 3:2:1, 3:7:1, 3:12:1 and 3:21:1. Two stand at Malbim on I Chronicles 3:4:1 and 3:24:1, and one at a further note of Rashi on I Chronicles 3:8:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-three rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds a passage of Otzar Midrashim from Vayechulu, at 1:6, which is the source Rashi names, and Tractate Kallah Rabbati 3:25. On the second verse, Absalom's mother, it holds Rosh Hashanah 3a at 3:3, 3:8 and 3:13. On the third, Eglah, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 82:7, Bamidbar Rabbah 4:20, Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:4:4, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 35:29:8, and Midrash Shmuel at 11:3 and 22:4.
The kings of Judah draw the next run. On the tenth verse, where Solomon's line begins, the corpus holds Shemot Rabbah 15:26, Pesikta Rabbati 6:1 and Aggadat Bereshit 45:1. Midrash Tanchuma, Toldot 14:2, Midrash Lekach Tov on Ecclesiastes 2:10:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 159:1 stand with them.
The sons of Josiah carry the heaviest Talmudic weight in the chapter. On the fifteenth verse the corpus holds Horayot 11b at 11:15 and 11:17, Keritot 5b at 5:11 and 5:13, Jerusalem Talmud Horayot 3:2:25, Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:1:10 and Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 8:3:7.
The exile and the return carry the rest. On the seventeenth verse, Jeconiah the captive, the corpus holds Sanhedrin 37b:14, Vayikra Rabbah 10:5 and 19:6, and Pesikta Rabbati 47:1. Shir HaShirim Rabbah 8:6:2, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 4:10, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah at 38:2 and 512:1 stand with them. On the twenty-fourth, the verse ending in Anani, it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Toldot 20:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Chronicles 3:1:1 to 3:22:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 3:1:1, 3:2:1, 3:3:1, 3:5:1, 3:9:1, 3:10:1, 3:15:1, 3:16:1, 3:17:1, 3:18:1 and 3:19:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 3:2:1, 3:7:1, 3:12:1 and 3:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 3:4:1 and 3:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/3.json, the 33 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The sons born to David in Hebron and Jerusalem
1 Chronicles 3:1-4
the sons of David: The six sons born at Hebron repeat 2 Samuel 3:2 to 5 with one variant: the second son, Chileab in Samuel, is Daniel here. Verse 4 closes the Hebron count. David reigned seven years and six months in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem, forty years in all.
1 Chronicles 3:1
“Now these were the sons of David,.... The six following born in Hebron, who are reckoned in the same order as in 2Sa 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 2Sa 3:5, to which is added an account of his reign both in Hebron and Jerusalem, agreeably to 2Sa 5:5.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Chronicles 3:1
“Now these were the sons of David, which were born unto him in Hebron--It is of consequence for the proper understanding of events in the domestic history of David, to bear in mind the place and time of his sons' birth. The oldest son, born after his father's accession to the sovereign authority, is according to Eastern notions, the proper heir to the throne.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the third was Absalom the son: Absalom's mother was a king's daughter from Geshur, the Aramean state, and Absalom fled to Geshur after killing Amnon in 2 Samuel 13:37 to 38. Adonijah, the fourth son, claimed the throne in 1 Kings 1:5. Both reached for their father's crown.
the fifth was Shephatiah by Abital: Shephatiah by Abital and Ithream by Eglah are the fifth and sixth sons born to David in Hebron. Only Eglah is called his wife. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take her as Michal, and Clarke answers from 2 Samuel 6:23 that Michal had no child.
1 Chronicles 3:3
“By Eglah his wide - The Targum, Jarchi, and others, maintain that this was Michal, the daughter of Saul; but this does not well agree with 2Sa 6:23: Michal had no child to the day of her death. Yet she might have had a child before the time that is mentioned above.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:3
“She has the title of wife appended to her name because she was his proper wife; and the mention of her name last probably arose from the circumstance that, having been withdrawn from David and married to another husband but afterwards restored, she had in reality become the last of his wives.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
reigned seven years and six months: The figures match 2 Samuel 5:5, seven and a half years over Judah at Hebron and thirty-three over all Israel in Jerusalem. 1 Chronicles 29:27 gives the whole reign as forty years. The sons born in each city are listed apart.
1 Chronicles 3:5-9
these sons were born to him in Jerusalem: The Hebrew names the mother Bathshua daughter of Ammiel, and the older commentators read both names as transposed forms of Bathsheba and Eliam. Verse 9 closes the roster with Tamar, the only daughter of David the Bible names, beside sons born to concubines whose names are not recorded.
1 Chronicles 3:5
“Bathshua, the daughter of Ammiel - Both names are here given in an unusual form, but it may be doubted whether in either case there has been any corruption. In “Bathshua,” for “Bathsheba,” a ו (v) replaces the ב (b) of the earlier writer, “w” and “b” having nearly the same sound. In “Ammiel,” for “Eliam,” the two elements which form the name are inverted, as in Jehoiachin =Jechoniah, and the like.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:5
“Four - All David's children by her, as the text positively affirms: and therefore Solomon is called her, only son, Prov. iv, 3, because she loved him as if he had been so.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 3:5
“One of them, which Bath-sheba bore to him, he called Nathan, probably in honour of Nathan the prophet, who reproved him for his sin in that matter and was instrumental to bring him to repentance. It seems he loved him the better for it as long as he lived. It is wisdom to esteem those our best friends that deal faithfully with us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
David’s other sons were Ibhar: 2 Samuel 5:14 to 16 lists eleven sons born in Jerusalem, and this list has thirteen, adding a first Eliphelet and Nogah. Wesley and Clarke suppose that two sons died young and later sons were given their names. 1 Chronicles 14:4 to 7 gives a third form.
1 Chronicles 3:6
“Eliphelet - And he had two other sons called by the same names, ver. 8, probably they were by different wives: and probably they were then distinguished by some additional clause or title, which is here omitted, because the two first were dead before the two second were born, and therefore the names of the deceased were given to these to preserve their memory.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:6
“Elishama, and Eliphelet - In this and the eighth verse these two names occur twice; some think this is a mistake, but others suppose that two persons of these names died young, and that the next born received the name of the deceased. - See Jarchi.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia: Nogah, Nepheg, and Japhia were sons born to David in Jerusalem. Of these, only Nepheg and Japhia stand in 2 Samuel 5:15, while Nogah is named here and again in 1 Chronicles 14:6. Nothing else is recorded of them.
Clarke works the count: nine here, thirteen with Bathsheba's four, against eleven in 2 Samuel. He takes Samuel to list only the sons then living, and Chronicles to include those who had died. The second Eliphelet repeats the name of verse 6.
1 Chronicles 3:8
“Nine - There are thirteen if we count the four sons of Bath-sheba, and nine without them; and in the second book of Samuel there are eleven, reckoning the above four, and without them only seven. In the book of Samuel probably only those who were alive were reckoned, while the author of the Chronicles comprises those also who were dead in this enumeration.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
And Tamar was their sister: Tamar is the only daughter of David whose name is recorded, as Clarke observes, though 2 Samuel 5:13 says he had daughters. Gill notes she was Absalom's full sister. 2 Samuel 13 tells how Amnon wronged her.
1 Chronicles 3:9
“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, 2Sa 15:16 and 2Sa 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 2Sa 13:1.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:9
“And Tamar their sister - This is the only daughter of David whose name is on record; and yet he is said to have had both Sons and Daughters, 2Sa 5:13.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 3:9
“Seldom has a crown gone in a direct line from father to son for seventeen descents together, as here. This was the recompence of David's piety. About the time of the captivity the lineal descent was interrupted, and the crown went from one brother to another and from a nephew to an uncle, which was a presage of the eclipsing of the glory of that house.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Solomon's throne carried down to the exile
1 Chronicles 3:10-14
Solomon’s son was Rehoboam: Verses 10 to 14 run the royal line in one column from Solomon to Josiah, sixteen kings in direct succession from father to son. Chronicles gives only the names here, and Kings tells the failures and reforms of these same kings. The line then passes to brothers and captives.
1 Chronicles 3:10
“Abia - Rather, “Abijah,” as in 2 Chr. 11–14, where the Hebrew word is exactly the same.”
Abijah was his son: Barnes notes that Ahaziah is also called Jehoahaz and Azariah. The list passes over Athaliah, the queen who held the throne for six years between Ahaziah and Joash in 2 Kings 11:1 to 3. Only David's male line is counted.
1 Chronicles 3:11
“Ahaziah - Called “Jehoahaz” by a transposition of the elements composing the name, and “Azariah,” probably by a transcriber’s error (see marginal notes and references).”
Connectionsfeatured/genealogy-of-jesus, Matthew 1:8
Amaziah his son, Azariah his son: Azariah son of Amaziah is the king Chronicles elsewhere calls Uzziah, as Barnes notes, and Kings uses both names. His son Jotham ruled for him after the leprosy of 2 Chronicles 26:16 to 21. Jotham then reigned as king.
1 Chronicles 3:12
“Azariah - Elsewhere in Chronicles called uniformly “Uzziah” (2Ch 26:1, 2Ch 26:3,2Ch 26:9, 2Ch 26:11, etc.), but called indifferently “Azariah” and “Uzziah” in Kings (“Azariah” in 2Ki 14:21; 2Ki 15:1, 2Ki 15:6,2Ki 15:17, 2Ki 15:23, 2Ki 15:27, etc.; “Uzziah” in 2Ki 15:13, 2Ki 15:32, 2Ki 15:34).”
Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son: Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh follow father to son, though Hezekiah was among Judah's most faithful kings and his son Manasseh among its worst. 2 Chronicles 33:12 to 13 records Manasseh's repentance in Babylon, which Kings leaves out. The line runs on unbroken.
Amon his son, and Josiah his son: Amon reigned two years and was killed by his servants in 2 Chronicles 33:21 to 24. Josiah came to the throne at eight, in 2 Chronicles 34:1. After Josiah, brothers and an uncle follow one another on the throne.
1 Chronicles 3:15-16
The sons of Josiah: Johanan was the firstborn, yet he is named nowhere else in Scripture, and Shallum, called Jehoahaz in Kings, stands fourth. Verse 16 names a Zedekiah among the successors of Jehoiakim, and the commentators read him as a king unrecorded or a successor called a son.
1 Chronicles 3:15
“Of the sons of Josiah, Johanan, “the first-born,” who is mentioned in this place only, must, it would seem, have died before his father, or with him at Megiddo; and Shallum (also called Jehoahaz, marginal note and reference) was considerably older than Zedekiah, and was consequently the third, and not the fourth, son. He is perhaps assigned the fourth place here by way of intentional degradation. Compare Jer 22:10-12; Eze 19:3-4.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:15
“Zedekiah--called the son of Josiah (compare Jer 1:3; 37:1), but in 2Ch 36:19 he is described as the brother of Jehoiachin, who was the son of Jehoiakim, and consequently the grandson of Josiah. Words expressive of affinity or relationship are used with great latitude in the Hebrew.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The successors of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah is the king Jehoiachin. He reigned three months before Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon, in 2 Kings 24:8 to 15. Gill takes this Zedekiah as a different man, while Clarke takes him as Zedekiah the last king, called son here in the sense of successor.
1 Chronicles 3:16
“Zedekiah his son - If this be the same who was the last king of Judah, before the captivity, the word son must be taken here to signify successor; for it is certain that Zedekiah was the successor of Jeconiah, and that Zedekiah was the son of Josiah, and not of Jehoiakim.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:16
“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.”
The royal seed continues after Babylon
1 Chronicles 3:17-19
The descendants of Jeconiah the captive: Several commentators read the Hebrew word Assir in verse 17 as Jeconiah's own title, the prisoner. Verse 19 makes Zerubbabel the son of Pedaiah, while Matthew 1:12 calls him the son of Shealtiel. The commentators take him as an heir standing in a dead kinsman's place.
1 Chronicles 3:17
“Assir--rather, "Jeconiah the prisoner," or "captive." This record of his condition was added to show that Salathiel was born during the captivity in Babylon (compare Mt 1:12). Jeconiah was written childless (Jer 22:30), a prediction which (as the words that follow explain) meant that this unfortunate monarch should have no son succeeding him on the throne.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:17
“Assir - Perhaps born in the captivity, and therefore so named, who either (died young, or was made a eunuch (Isa 39:7; compare Jer 22:30). After Assir’s decease, or mutilation, the line of Solomon became extinct, and according to the principles of the Jewish law Num 27:8-11 the inheritance passed to the next of kin, who were Salathiel and his brethren, descendants from David by the line of Nathan.”
ConnectionsJeremiah 22:30
Shealtiel his son, Malchiram, Pedaiah: Shealtiel, Malchiram, Pedaiah, and the rest are named as the descendants of Jeconiah the captive. Shealtiel is the father of Zerubbabel in Ezra 3:2. Gill takes all seven as sons of Jeconiah, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown suspect the text has been disarranged.
1 Chronicles 3:18
“Pedaiah - The sentence seems to be short and imperfect, as is frequent in the Hebrew language, and something is here understood, as, the sons also of Salathiel were Malchiram and Pedaiah, &c. as they gather from hence that the same Zerubbabel is called the son of Pedaiah, ver. 19, and the son (that is, the grandson) of Salathiel, Matt. i, 12.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:18
“Malchiram also--As far as Jeconiah, everything is plain; but there is reason to suspect that the text in the subsequent verses has been dislocated and disarranged. The object of the sacred historian is to trace the royal line through Zerubbabel; yet, according to the present reading, the genealogical stem cannot be drawn from Jeconiah downwards.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The sons of Pedaiah: Here Zerubbabel is the son of Pedaiah, while Ezra 3:2 and Haggai 1:1 call him son of Shealtiel. Barnes explains that Zerubbabel was Shealtiel's nephew and legal heir. The children of Zerubbabel follow in verse 20.
1 Chronicles 3:19
“Zerubbabel, elsewhere always called “the son of Salathiel,” was only Salathiel’s heir and legal son, being naturally his nephew, the son of his brother, Pedaiah.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:19
“Their sister - Sister to the two last named sons of Zerubbabel, namely, by both parents; and therefore named before the other five, ver. 20, who were her brethren by the father, but not by the mother.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ConnectionsMatthew 1:12
1 Chronicles 3:20-24
Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah: From Zerubbabel's children the list runs on to Anani in verse 24, so David's house still has sons and grandsons after the return from Babylon. Jewish tradition, recorded by Jarchi and repeated by Clarke, reads the name Anani as a title of the Messiah.
The descendants of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Jeshaiah are Hananiah's sons, and the next four names are families, the sons of Rephaiah, Arnan, Obadiah, and Shecaniah. The verse leaves their link to Hananiah unstated. Shecaniah's line is followed in verse 22.
The six descendants of Shecaniah: Five sons of Shemaiah are named, so the count of six includes Shemaiah himself, as Wesley suggests. Clarke adds that otherwise a name has dropped from the text. A Hattush of David's line returned with Ezra in Ezra 8:2.
1 Chronicles 3:22
“The sons of Shemaiah - six - Five only are found in the text, and the versions give us no assistance; neither do the MSS. correct the place. If the father be not here included with his sons, some name must be lost out of the text.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 3:22
“Six - Including the father. But the Hebrew word, Shisha, which is rendered six, may be the proper name of one of the sons of Shemaiah.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The sons of Neariah: Neariah's three sons carry David's line another generation after the return from exile. Elioenai is the son whose family is named next. Hizkiah bears the same Hebrew name as King Hezekiah, a royal name kept alive in a family with no throne.
The sons of Elioenai: With Elioenai's seven sons the Old Testament record of David's line closes. Clarke reports that the Targum read Anani as the Messiah, linking the name to the clouds of Daniel 7:13. Clarke calls the reason given fanciful.
1 Chronicles 3:24
“And Anani - “This is the King Messiah who is to be revealed.” - T. Jarchi says the same, and refers to Dan 7:13: Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds (ענני ananey) of heaven. For this application of the word he gives a fanciful reason, not worthy to be repeated. The Syriac and Arabic omit several names in this table, and make only twenty-three verses in the chapter: but such differences are frequent in the books of Chronicles.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Genealogy, the royal house carried from Hebron through the exile and out the other side, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The royal column | Verses 10 to 14 give one name to a generation with no comment attached, Solomon's son was Rehoboam, then Abijah his son, Asa his son, and so on to Josiah. Sixteen kings stand in that column in direct father to son succession, counted in the Berean text in the store at verses 10 to 14. Matthew Henry reads the unbroken descent as the thing the column is for, since the reigns themselves are already told in Kings.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Chronicles 3:10-14. | 1 Chronicles 3:10, 1 Chronicles 3:11, 1 Chronicles 3:12, 1 Chronicles 3:13, 1 Chronicles 3:14 |
| Jeconiah the captive | Verse 17 of the Berean text reads the descendants of Jeconiah the captive, turning the Hebrew word older versions carry as a name into the title it describes. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and John Wesley both read it as the king's condition written into the record, so that Shealtiel is registered as a son born to a king already in Babylon. Matthew 1:12 names the same pair at the same point in the line.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Chronicles 3:17. | 1 Chronicles 3:17, 1 Chronicles 3:18 |
| The house that opens and closes on sons | The chapter begins at verse 1 with the sons born to David at Hebron while he held a throne, and it ends at verse 24 with the sons of Elioenai counted seven in all, generations after the throne was lost. Adam Clarke and Keil both read the closing verses as a family record still being kept by the archivists who kept such things. The frame is the chapter's argument: the house outlived the kingdom.Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, in the Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 1872, on 1 Chronicles 3:20-24. | 1 Chronicles 3:1, 1 Chronicles 3:23, 1 Chronicles 3:24 |
Where the chapter stands in the book
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The book guide places chapters 2 to 4 in the band it titles The Twelve, and Judah's Royal Line. Chapter 3 is the point of that band, the royal thread the two chapters around it are gathering toward. The dossier's timeline anchors verse 17 at 586 BC, the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of the house of David, and names this chapter as the place the line is carried past it.
The historical value
Verse 19 makes Zerubbabel the son of Pedaiah, and the same man led the first group home from Babylon and governed the province while the second temple was rebuilt. The guide's list of people names him as the genealogy's terminus at 3:19 and the return community's living link to the throne.
The Septuagint and the Masoretic Hebrew carry different numbers of generations after Zerubbabel in this chapter, and the dossier records that difference among the manuscript witnesses. It is one of the pieces the dating argument turns on.
The debated concept
The Zerubbabel entry is one of the dossier's six standing difficulties. Verse 19 reads the sons of Pedaiah, Zerubbabel and Shimei, while Ezra 3:2, Haggai 1:1 and Matthew 1:12 all call the same man a son of Shealtiel, Pedaiah's brother. Keil and Delitzsch read levirate marriage or adoption inside one family, with Pedaiah the natural father and Shealtiel the elder brother holding the legal line. Williamson reads one list as tracing physical descent and the other as tracing the succession of the house, since son of regularly means descendant. Knoppers reads the Chronicler as collecting the traditions available to him without smoothing them into one. The page states no verdict.
The date of the whole book turns partly on this chapter. Williamson and Martin Selman hold an early Persian date of roughly 450 to 400 BC. Japhet and Knoppers hold a late Persian or early Hellenistic date in the 300s BC, counting the generations past Zerubbabel as the measure. Both positions are set out in the dossier's provenance section with their holders named.
The New Testament and the later record
Matthew 1:12 carries Jeconiah, Shealtiel and Zerubbabel in that order, and Luke 3:27 carries Zerubbabel and Shealtiel as well. Jeremiah 22:30 had written Jeconiah childless as to the throne, and this chapter records descendants without recording a king, which is the tension the two genealogies of the Gospels are read inside. The guide names the whole run of 1:1 to 3:24 as the fullest Old Testament spine of the messianic line.
Keep studying
Studies2
People and groups10
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Gary Knoppers, 1 Chronicles 1-9, Anchor Bible, 2003, on 1 Chronicles 3:17-24; H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, New Century Bible Commentary, 1982, on 1 Chronicles 3:19; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Chronicles 3:10 and Sara Japhet, I and II Chronicles: A Commentary, Old Testament Library, 1993, on 1 Chronicles 3:19-24.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Berean Standard Bible; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.