मत्ती 1:10

"The genealogy is divided into three periods, conformably to three great divisions of the history of the people: from Abraham to the establishment of royalty, in the person of David; from the establishment of royalty to the captivity; and from the captivity to Jesus."

"We may observe that the Holy Ghost mentions, in this genealogy, the grievous sins committed by the persons whose names are given, magnifying the sovereign grace of God who could bestow a Saviour in connection with such sins."

"The second part covers the decline and fall of Israel. It began in her brightest day and extends to the waning of her glory and ends with the break up of the kingdom in the time of Zedekiah. The splendour of Solomon's reign was the brightest point in the nation's history. His father had made the name of Israel to be feared and respected everywhere. Then the decline set in, and kingdom glory gave way to prophetic testimony, when men like Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, etc., etc. — the grandest figures in history — did their service. But, alas! Israel's conduct went from bad to worse, until all had to go."

"There was a divine reason for omitting the particular names of Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah from verse 8 — three generations. Why is it, we may be permitted to ask, that the apostle Matthew drops, of course by inspiration, some of the links of the chain? The Spirit of God was pleased to arrange the ancestry of our Lord into three divisions of fourteen generations each. Now, as there were actually more than fourteen generations between David and the Captivity, it was a matter of necessity that some should be discarded in order to equalize the series, and fourteen only are therefore recorded."

"Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, king of Israel, and wife of Jehoram, had thus entered by marriage the royal house of David; and a sorrowful hour it was indeed for Judah. For Athaliah, enraged at the premature end of her son, king Ahaziah, was guilty of a too successful attempt to destroy the seed-royal. But it could not be complete; for that family was selected out of all the families of God's people, never to be entirely extinguished till Shiloh came."

"Athaliah's descendants are not mentioned even to the third generation. This appears to be the moral reason why we find three persons left out at this particular point."

"The list given is remarkable for its omissions, since three kings, closely connected with the infamous Athaliah, are omitted in verse 8; and the summary as to the 'fourteen generations,' given in verse 17, shows that it is not an accidental omission, but that God disowns and refuses to reckon the kings that sprang more immediately from this devotee of Baal-worship."

"There are some names omitted in this genealogy in connection with Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel. In each division there is a double seven — the perfect number; but to make these sevens, three names are left out. The government of God had great prominence in the Old Testament. That will account for those names being omitted; the house of Ahab was horrible to Him."

"King of Judah: he was son of Hezekiah and father of Amon. He began to reign when twelve years of age, and reigned 55 years: B.C. 698-643. The records concerning him are few, but very sad. He worshipped the host of heaven and built altars for them in the courts of the house of the Lord. He made his son to pass through the fire, and dealt with familiar spirits. Of him it is said that he exceeded the heathen in wickedness! and shed much innocent blood."

"God brought the king of Assyria against Manasseh, who took him 'among the thorns,' or 'bound him with chains of brass,' and carried him to Babylon. There Manasseh, in his affliction, greatly humbled himself, and prayed to the Lord his God. His prayer was heard, and he was restored to Jerusalem. Then he knew that Jehovah was God."

"Thus God gave repentance to this wicked king, for His mercy endureth for ever. He is often held up as a trophy of God's marvellous grace in Old Testament times, as Saul of Tarsus and the thief on the cross are given under the New Testament dispensation."

"I need not dwell particularly upon the names that follow. We might see sin upon sin, stain upon stain, interwoven into their various histories. It was one continuous tissue of that which would cause a Jew to blush — what a man never would of himself have dared to bring out about a king that he honoured. God, in His infinite goodness, would not permit these things to slumber."

"In 'the book of the generation of Jesus Christ' (Matthew 1) the sovereign mercy of God would include the names of four women who otherwise would have no claim to be there; three openly wrongdoers and one a stranger to God's people — a universal testimony to God's abounding grace."