and Asa begat Josaphat, and Josaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias,
Verse 8 names three kings — Asaph, Jehoshaphat and Joram — and then makes a leap. "Joram the father of Uzziah" skips three generations of Judah's royal line. Why did the Spirit of God leave them out?
The last king named in this verse appears under more than one name in Scripture, and his story carries a warning.
Uzziah is a solemn example of a man who walked well until he grew "strong," and of a man not chosen by God who tried to do the work of a priest. His history shows the truth that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." He is called AZARIAH in 2 Kings 14:21; 2 Kings 15:1-27; 1 Chronicles 3:12; and OZIAS in Matthew 1:8-9.
Compare this verse with the Old Testament records. Three reigns are missing between Joram and Uzziah.
Ozias (Uzziah) is placed here as the son of Joram. But look at 1 Chronicles 3:11-12, where the name Azariah stands where Matthew has Ozias, as it does in 2 Kings 14:21 too. You will see that three kings are left out: Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah. The Old Testament genealogies contain such gaps elsewhere. In 2 Chronicles 22:9 Ahaziah is called the son of Jehoshaphat, though he was really his grandson. Compare the generations in 1 Chronicles 6:3-15 with Ezra 7:1-5, and you will find seven names left out in Ezra.
Some treat the gap as a slip by the writer. Kelly answers that charge by pointing to Ezra, a priest whose standing depended on an exact family record — and who still left out seven names.
A priest in that line had to prove his descent strictly. A flaw in it would destroy his right to serve. If even there a name could rightly be left out, the same can be true of the Lord's genealogy. All the more so, since this gap is not in a part that Scripture passes over in silence. It sits in the middle of the historical records, where the youngest child could supply the missing names at once. So the omission was not careless or ignorant. It was intentional.
All three missing kings descend from Athaliah. She was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and Jehoshaphat brought her into David's line as a wife for his son Joram.
Here we see the principle of the second commandment worked out in practice: "I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." The names of Ahab and Jezebel are sadly familiar to us all. Jehoshaphat married his son Jehoram to their daughter Athaliah. He was a good man himself, yet he brought down on his own descendants, to the third generation, the curse that rested on the house of Ahab. For three generations we read of wholesale massacres in cold blood.
Writers give more than one reason for the gap. Kelly points to the shape of the list itself.
The Spirit of God was pleased to arrange the ancestry of our Lord into three divisions of fourteen generations each. There were in fact more than fourteen generations between David and the captivity. So some had to be dropped to make the three sets match, and only fourteen are recorded.
Jehoshaphat stands in this verse as a good king. Willis names the price of the alliance he made.
If we turn to the first chapter of Matthew, we find that these three kings, Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah, are blotted out of "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."... The shame of it, the tragedy, the eternal loss to this great and good man — and all for the sake of being friends with the world. David brought blessings on his family for four generations; Jehoshaphat brought a curse.
Athaliah's revenge nearly ended David's line.
Athaliah, enraged at the early death of her son, king Ahaziah, set out to destroy the whole royal family, and came terribly close to success. But it could not be complete... One young child was left, and Jehoshabeath saved him by hiding him in the house of the Lord. The light was covered over for a time, but it was not put out.
The same list that erases three kings keeps names no family would boast about.
We may notice that the Holy Spirit mentions in this genealogy the grievous sins committed by the people whose names are given. This magnifies the sovereign grace of God. He could give a Saviour in connection with sins like those of Judah, with a poor Moabite woman brought in among His people, and with crimes like those of David.
- Gap. "Joram the father of Uzziah" jumps three reigns — Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah. A comparison with 1 Chronicles 3:11-12 shows it.
- Deliberate. The missing names sit in the best-known part of Israel's history. Any child could supply them. The omission was intentional, not careless.
- Cause. All three kings descend from Athaliah, daughter of Ahab. Cutting them out carries out the second commandment's warning about the third and fourth generation.
- Warning. Jehoshaphat was a good man himself. Yet his alliance with the world brought his family a curse where David had brought blessing.
- Grace. The line was nearly wiped out, yet the light was not put out. The same genealogy that blots out three kings keeps sinners in, magnifying the grace that could give a Saviour through such a line.
and Ozias begat Joatham, and Joatham begat Achaz, and Achaz begat Ezekias,
This verse carries the royal line through four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. The question the verse raises is how God's promise of a Messiah from David survived the failures of the men in it.
Translations spell the first name in this verse in different ways. Where the ESV has Uzziah, older versions read Ozias. The Old Testament also uses a third name for the same king:
He is called Azariah in 2 Kings 14:21; 2 Kings 15:1-27; 1 Chronicles 3:12; and Ozias in Matthew 1:8-9.
Uzziah's name opens this verse, and it marks the point where the royal line reappears. Three kings between Joram and Uzziah are missing from Matthew's list. One writer reads that gap as deliberate, not careless:
I have no doubt myself that the aim was to mark God's solemn sentence on Joram's connection with his wife Athaliah, who came from the wicked house of Ahab. (Compare verse 8 with 2 Chronicles 22 – 26.) Ahaziah disappears, then Joash, then Amaziah. The line reappears here in Uzziah. God blots out these generations along with that wicked woman.
Uzziah himself is a warning:
Uzziah is a solemn example of a man who walked well until he grew "strong." God had not chosen him for priestly service, yet he tried to carry it out. His history shows the truth that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
His son Jotham went the other way. The record gives a reason for his strength:
Jotham did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and built much on Ophel. In the mountains of Judah he also built cities, fortresses and towers. He conquered the Ammonites, and for three years they paid him tribute. He became mighty because he prepared his way before the Lord his God.
Then comes Ahaz. Two enemy kings joined forces against him, and the danger reached far past his own throne:
Isaiah 7 takes us into some historical details of the reign of Ahaz, which 2 Kings 15 and 16 also record. He did much evil. Now an alliance threatened him: Pekah, who had seized the throne of the ten tribes, and Rezin of Syria. If they had killed or removed Ahaz, they would have broken the line of descent by which Christ came as a man, as Matthew 1:9 shows. God was not going to allow this.
Ahaz would not ask God for a sign. God gave one anyway, and it reached far beyond that moment. It settled the safety of the line this verse records:
Ahaz did not like God to come too near. God answered it by Immanuel — God with us... Was it not the most marvellous grace to promise such a thing to such a man? ... If man refuses to ask through unbelief, God still gives a sign for His own glory: the virgin's Son, the woman's Seed, Immanuel! ... In the presence of this sign, the security of David's royal line and its rights matters far more than the foretold ruin of scheming Ephraim. Here is the truth of truths: God with us!
This list does not hide the sins of the men in it. One writer sees why:
We may notice that the Holy Spirit mentions, in this genealogy, the grievous sins committed by the people whose names are given. This magnifies the sovereign grace of God. He could give a Saviour in connection with sins like those of Judah, with a poor Moabite woman brought in among His people, and with crimes like those of David.
- Named. The Uzziah of this verse is the Azariah of Kings and Chronicles, and older translations call him Ozias.
- Broken. God blotted out three generations along with Athaliah of the house of Ahab. The royal line reappears at Uzziah.
- Tested. Uzziah walked well until he grew strong, and then he overstepped. His son Jotham "became mighty because he prepared his way before the Lord his God."
- Threatened. An alliance against Ahaz would have cut the line of descent by which Christ came. God would not allow it.
- Secured. Ahaz would not ask, so God Himself gave the sign of Immanuel and secured David's line. The record keeps the sins of these men, and God's grace in giving a Saviour through them stands out all the more.