The Word Made Fresh
1These were the sons of David, born to him in Hebron: Amnon son of his wife Ahinoam the Jezreelite; Daniel son of his wife Abigail the Carmelite; 2Absalom son of Maacah daughter of king Talmai of Geshur; Adonijah, son of Haggith; 3Shephatiah son of Abital; Ithream, born to his wife Eglah. 4So, six sons were born to him in Hebron, and he reigned there for seven and a half years. He reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem 5and these sons were born to him there: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon; Bathsheba daughter of Ammiel was their mother. 6He also had Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, 7Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, 8Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet – nine sons, 9and Tamar was their sister. He also had other children by his concubines.
10The descendants of Solomon were Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, 11Joram, Ahaziah, Joash, 12Amaziah, Azariah, Jotham, 13Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, 14Amon, and Josiah.
15Josiah’s descendants were Johanan, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, and Shallum.
16Jehoiakim’s descendants were Jeconiah, and Zedekiah. 17Jeconiah had descendants while he was in captivity. They were Shealtiel, 18Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah.
19Podiah’s sons were Zerubbabel and Shimei. Zerubbabel’s sons were Meshullam and Hananiah, and their sister was Shelomith. 20Then he had five more sons: Hashuba, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah and Jushab-hesed.
20Hananiah’s sons were Pelatiah and Jeshaiah. Jeshaiah’s son was Rephaiah. His son was Arnan, whose son was Obadiah, whose son was Shecaniah, 22whose son was Shemaiah.
Shemaiah’s sons were Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat.
23Neariah had three sons: Elioenai, Hizkiah and Azrikam.
24Elioenai had seven sons: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah and Anani.
Commentary
1-9: This paragraph follows chronologically from chapter 2, verse 15. The sons of David born in Hebron before he established the capital at Jerusalem are listed with their mothers, an unusual arrangement. More surprising are the four sons of David and Bathsheba (Bathshua in the Hebrew text, but obviously the same woman) with Solomon listed 4th. This begs the question of whether or not Bathsheba already had three sons when David seduced her, and David claimed them as his stepsons; or perhaps the list is not in chronological order here which would be even more unlikely. Just how many children David begot is unknown. He was running out of names already with the 20 that are listed here – he named two of his sons Eliphelet – but there were concubines (slave women) as well who had children by him. Tamar is the only daughter named.
10-24: The descendants of Solomon are listed down to the Babylonian exile. The eldest son of Josiah, Johanan, is named Jehoahaz in II Kings (see chapter 24, beginning at verse 31). He only ruled 3 months and was deposed by Pharaoh Neco who put the second son on the throne, Eliakim, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, which is the name listed here in verse 15. He was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin, who is not named here at all. Jehoiachin was deposed by Nebuchadnezzar and exiled to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar placed his son Mattaniah on the throne in Jerusalem and changed his name to Zedekiah, and that is the name given here. So, the records are a bit confused between the two accounts. Of the rest of the names listed here, the only one of any consequence is Zerubbabel, who will turn up in Ezra and Nehemiah, and later in the prophesies of Haggai and Zechariah.
Takeaway
This record was put together centuries after David’s lifetime. The reason they wanted to preserve the genealogy of David is because they believed the kingdom of David would be someday restored, and when that great day arrived, they would know who the king should be. For Christians, of course, this is the genealogical record of Joseph, husband of Mary, mother of Jesus.