And the sons of Josiah the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.
The verse pauses the royal line to name four sons of Josiah, the last real king of Judah, and three of them sat on a collapsing throne. So why does Chronicles list the family in this order, and not in the order they reigned?
One writer sets three records side by side: Chronicles, Kings, and Matthew.
Here in 1 Chronicles 3 we appear to have all the sons of Josiah. 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 36 name only those who were made kings. But Matthew gives the right line from Josiah, leaving out the side branches, down to Joseph the husband of Mary. The firstborn died in Egypt, so it is the second son who carries on the line. He is carried to Babylon, and so is his son Jeconiah, who was born before the carrying away.
The fourth name is the puzzle. Shallum does not appear under that name in Kings or Chronicles. Writers differ over which son died in Egypt: one names the firstborn, while this reference work names Shallum and also says why "the fourth" does not mean "the youngest."
Son of Josiah king of Judah: he succeeded his father, but he reigned only three months. Pharaoh-necho then removed him from the throne and took him to Egypt, where he died. 1 Chr. 3:15; Jer. 22:11-12. He is called JEHOAHAZ in 2 Kings 23:30-34; 2 Chr. 36:1-4. The margin of 1 Chr. 3:15 identifies Johanan with Jehoahaz, but Jer. 22:11-12 shows it was Shallum who reigned under the name of Jehoahaz. He was evidently not the youngest son, though last on the list.
Up to this verse the line has run father to son. Now it runs brother to brother, and foreign kings do the appointing. One writer reads that break as a signal.
In 1 Chronicles 3 we return to 1 Chronicles 2:15. The list runs through David's sons and successors down to Josiah, in regular succession from father to son. This was God's order, and it held even when conspirators killed the father. So a break in this regular succession would be strong evidence that God had cast off the nation. And in fact the break came after the death of Josiah, and God began to pour out His wrath as He had not before. The moment God stops appointing kings, Satan steps in. Through his agents, the kings of Egypt and of Babylon, he sets up men on the throne whom God rejected and gave up to judgment.
One writer places Josiah's sons alongside other famous sons who went wrong.
For a time, the godly influence of Josiah touched the priests, the Levites and the people. But his own sons do not seem to have taken in the life and deeds of their father. If Josiah could have foreseen the evil ways of his sons, he would have had to say with David, in the words of an older translation, "My house is not so with God." Think of the sons of Aaron, the sons of Eli, the sons of Samuel, and the sons of Josiah. Their evil ways are a solemn warning to every godly father. He must watch his own house, in case the evils he hates and condemns in others turn up in his own family.
The prophets say more about these men than the history books do, and what they say about Shallum is bleak.
The prophetic books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel tell us more about the evil ways of the sons of Josiah than the historical books of Kings and Chronicles do. About Shallum we read in Jer. 22:10-12: "Weep not for him who is dead [Josiah], nor grieve for him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away [Shallum], for he shall return no more to see his native land." This suggests that something worse than mere deportation was in store for Josiah's worthless successor.
These sons take the royal line into captivity. One writer shows what the Spirit of God still does with it there.
There was great confusion when the people were driven as captives to Babylon. Yet in it the Spirit of God connects the last real king of Judah — Josiah — with his descendant born in Babylon. So Matthew has Josiah, Jeconiah, Salathiel; the dark time of Josiah's sons is shortened. Compare 1 Chron. 3:15-17 with Matthew 1:11-12. In Matthew the promised Seed appears, the last of the line. He will have no successor, for He lives for ever.
- Four named. Chronicles gives Josiah's whole family. Kings and 2 Chronicles name only the sons who reigned. Matthew keeps only the line that leads to Christ.
- Order broken. Father-to-son succession held all the way down to Josiah. After him brother follows brother. One writer reads that break as evidence God had cast off the nation.
- Powers step in. Once God stops appointing kings, Egypt and Babylon appoint them — men set up only to be given up to judgment.
- Legacy lost. Josiah's godly influence did not reach his own sons. Evil held in check in public can still be alive at home — a warning to every godly parent.
- Line kept. Through the ruin the Spirit still traces the royal line to the promised Seed. He is the one King who needs no successor, because He lives for ever.
And the sons of Jehoiakim Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son.
In 1 Chronicles 3:16 the royal list of Judah stops recording reigning kings and starts recording captives. It names Jeconiah and Zedekiah. Jeconiah carries both a sentence from God and the line that runs on to the Messiah.
Chronicles traces David's family from Solomon down. From verse 15 the names belong to the kingdom's collapse.
From verse 15 onward, after faithful Josiah's reign, we find the kings who reigned at the time of Judah's final ruin. The list ends with Zerubbabel, back from captivity but no longer holding the title of king.
Until Josiah the crown had passed from father to son without a break. One writer reads the end of that pattern as proof of something worse:
So a break in this orderly succession would be strong evidence that God had cast off the nation. And in fact that order was broken after the death of Josiah, and God's wrath began to pour out as it had not before. The moment God stops appointing men to the throne, Satan steps in. Through his agents, the kings of Egypt and of Babylon, he sets up men on the throne whom God rejected and gave up to judgment.
The verse says "his son" twice. One writer finds a point in that repeated phrase:
The words "his son" are repeated again and again down to Zedekiah. They bring out the contrast between descendants given by grace and descendants who come by nature, as we saw in the history of Edom.
The succession did not run through Josiah's eldest son.
The line goes on not through the first-born, who died in Egypt, but through the second son. Babylon takes him away, and with him his son Jeconiah, who was born before the exile. Out of all Josiah's sons and grandsons, the Spirit of God picks out this grandson to keep the true genealogy from David to the Messiah.
Jeconiah is also called Coniah and Jehoiachin. Jeremiah said of him: "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah" (Jer. 22:30). Yet he did have children, so the word "childless" needs care.
The point of this verse is not that he would have no family, for it speaks of his offspring, and Matthew 1:11-12 shows his descendants. What we are told is that God had decreed him childless as far as the throne of David was concerned, because none of his offspring would rule in Judah any more. God had determined the end of this sinful line.
If a curse rests on the reigning line, how can a Son of David ever reign? One answer separates the legal right to the throne from the power to use it:
The genealogy shows a ruin that is hopeless except to God, because it shows Joseph, the last in this line before Christ, to be Jeconiah's son... The direct line of descent lies under a curse, yet it did not lose the legal title. So it could hand on to another what was of no use to itself. In the wisdom of God, the marriage of Joseph and Mary was the means of doing this. The Lord's birth from Mary made Him the real Son of David, while His mother's marriage made Him David's legal heir.
Commentators differ here. Others trace Mary through a different son of David: "The Messiah, the Son of David, could not come from the line of Solomon; He must come from the line of Nathan" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein).
Some names in this part of Chronicles do not match Matthew's list. One writer sees a reason behind that:
As a matter of policy the king of Babylon might change their Hebrew names to Babylonian ones, just as he did with Daniel and his three friends. He would naturally try to wipe from their minds every memory of who they were... and if so, it was just as much an attempt by Satan to lose God's line of kings in the common mass of Gentile names.
The Zedekiah named here is not the famous king. A Bible dictionary separates the last king of Judah, "the name given by Nebuchadnezzar to Mattaniah, son of Josiah," from a second man: "Son of Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin, king of Judah. 1 Chr. 3:16" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
- Break. The father-to-son order that held from David to Josiah snaps here. That break marks a nation under judgment.
- Line. Out of all Josiah's sons and grandsons, the Spirit keeps Jeconiah as the link from David to the Messiah.
- Curse. "Childless" does not mean without children. It means no descendant of his would ever reign in Judah again.
- Title. The cursed line kept a legal right it could no longer use, and handed it on. Born of Mary, Christ is the real Son of David; through Joseph He is the legal heir.
- Grace. Babylon changed names and emptied the throne, but the record of David's family came through captivity intact, and it runs to the Messiah.