Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 3:10 - 3:10
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The kings of the house of David from Solomon till the exile. - Until Josiah the individual kings are mentioned in their order, each with the addition בְּנֹו, son of the preceding, 1Ch 3:10-14; the only omission being that of the usurper Athaliah, because she did not belong to the posterity of David. But in 1Ch 3:15 four sons of Josiah are mentioned, not “in order to allow of a halt in the long line of David's descendants after Josiah the great reformer” (Berth.), but because with Josiah the regular succession to the throne in the house of David ceased. For the younger son Jehoahaz, who was made king after his father's death by the people, was soon dethroned by Pharaoh-Necho, and led away captive to Egypt; and of the other sons Jehoiakim was set up by Pharaoh, and Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar, so that both were only vassals of heathen lords of the land, and the independent kingship of David came properly to an end with the death of Josiah. Johanan, the first-born of the sons of Josiah, is not to be identified with Jehoahaz, whom the people raised to the throne. For, in the first place, it appears from the statement as to the ages of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim in 2Ki 23:31, 2Ki 23:36; 2Ch 36:2, 2Ch 36:5, that Jehoahaz was two years younger than Jehoiakim, and consequently was not the first-born. In Jer 22:11 it is expressly declared that Shallum, the fourth son of Josiah, was king of Judah instead of his father, and was led away into captivity, and never saw his native land again, as history narrates of Jehoahaz. From this it would appear that Shallum took, as king, the name Jehoahaz. Johanan, the first-born, is not met with again in history, either because he died early, or because nothing remarkable could be told of him. Jehoiakim was called Eliakim before he was raised to the throne (2Ki 23:24). Zedekiah was at first Mattaniah (2Ki 24:17). Zedekiah, on his ascending the throne, was younger than Shallum, and that event occurred eleven years after the accession of Shallum = Jehoahaz. Zedekiah was only twenty-one years old, while Jehoahaz had become king in his twenty-third year. But in our genealogy Zedekiah is introduced after Jehoiakim, and before Shallum, because, on the one hand, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah had occupied the throne for a longer period, each having been eleven years king; and on the other, Zedekiah and Shallum were sons of Hamutal (2Ki 23:31; 2Ki 24:18), while Jehoiakim was the son of Zebudah (2Ki 23:36). According to age, they should have followed each other in this order - Johanan, Jehoiakim, Shallum, and Zedekiah; and in respect to their kingship, Shallum should have stood before Jehoiakim. But in both cases those born of the same mother, Hamutal, would have been separated. To avoid this, apparently, Shallum has been enumerated in the fourth place, along with his full brother Zedekiah. In 1Ch 3:6 it is remarkable that a son of Jehoiakim's son Jeconiah is mentioned, named Zedekiah, while the sons of Jeconiah follow only in 1Ch 3:17 and 1Ch 3:18. Jeconiah (cf. Jer 24:1; shortened Coniah, Jer 22:24, Jer 22:28, and Jer 37:1) is called, as kings, in 2Ki 24:8. and 2Ch 36:9, Jehoiachin, another form of the name, but having the same signification, “Jahve founds or establishes.” Zedekiah can only be a son of Jeconiah, for the בְּנֹו which is added constantly denotes that the person so called is the son of his predecessor. Many commentators, certainly, were of opinion that Zedekiah was the same person as the brother of Jehoiakim mentioned in 1Ch 3:15 under the name Zidkijahu, and who is here introduced as son of Jeconiah, because he was the successor of Jeconiah on the throne. For this view support was sought in a reference to 1Ch 3:10., in which all Solomon's successors in the kingship are enumerated in order with בְּנֹו. But all the kings who succeeded each other from Solomon to Josiah were also, without exception, sons of their predecessors; so that there בְּנֹו throughout denotes a proper son, while King Zedekiah, on the contrary, was not the son, but an uncle of Jeconiah (Jehoiachin). We must therefore hold צִדְקִיָּה for a literal son of Jeconiah, and that so much the more, because the name צִדְקִיָּה differs also from צִדְקִיָּהוּ, as the name of the king is constantly written in 2Ki 24:17. and in 2Ch 36:10. But mention is made of this Zedekiah in 1Ch 3:16 apart from the other sons of Jeconiah (1Ch 3:17 and 1Ch 3:18), perhaps because he was not led away captive into exile with the others, but died in Judah before the breaking up of the kingdom.