The Line of David

We earlier read the listings of David's wives and children at the beginning of chapter 3 in conjunction with the events of his life (see the Beyond Today Bible Commentary on 1 Chronicles 3:1-4 with 2 Samuel 3:2-31 as well as the comments on 1 Chronicles 3:5-9 with 1 Chronicles 14 and 2 Samuel 5:11-25). And we followed the lineage of the Davidic kings through the history of Judah.

The lineage here is shown progressing from Jeconiah or Jehoiachin, the Jewish king taken into Babylonian exile, to Zerubbabel, the governor of the first return, to his son Hananiah (verse 19) and then Hananiah's sons Pelatiah and Jeshaiah (verse 21). Also mentioned in this context are the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, and the sons of Shechaniah—followed by descendants of Shechaniah. The Nelson Study Bible notes on verses 21-24: "These names were detached from the Zerubbabel genealogy and may be other Davidic families…. Four generations of Shechaniah, ending in Anani, are listed. Hence the genealogy of vv. 17-24 presupposes about seven generations. Since Jeconiah reigned around 598 B.C. (v. 17), a date of approximately 425 B.C. for Anani is reasonable. Anani is the latest generation recorded in Chronicles, and any dating of the book should take this into account."