1 Chronicles 3:16

And the sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Jeconiah (Iah establish !)= Jehoiachin (Iahweh establisheth) = Coniah (Jeremiah 22:24; Jeremiah 22:28—an abbreviation of Jeconiah), was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (2Kings 24:15), and Zedekiah his father’s brother, became king in his stead. Hence the supposition that “Zedekiah his son” means “Zedekiah his successor” on the throne. (Comp. margin.) But (1) the phrase “his son” has its natural sense throughout the preceding list; and (2) there really is nothing against the apparent statement of the text that Jeconiah the king had a son named Zedekiah, after his great-uncle. As, like Johanan (1Chronicles 3:15), he did not come to the throne, this younger Zedekiah is not mentioned elsewhere. (See 1Chronicles 3:17, Note.)

Benson Commentary

1 Chronicles 3:16. Zedekiah his son — This was another Zedekiah. How seldom has a crown gone in a direct line, from father to son, as it did here, for seventeen generations! This was the recompense of David’s piety. About the captivity, the lineal descent was interrupted, and the crown went from a nephew to an uncle, a presage of the glory’s departing from that house.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-24 Genealogies. - Of all the families of Israel, none were so illustrious as the family of David: here we have a full account of it. From this family, as concerning the flesh, Christ came. The attentive observer will perceive that the children of the righteous enjoy many advantages.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Of the sons of Josiah, Johanan, "the first-born," who is mentioned in this place only, must, it would seem, have died before his father, or with him at Megiddo; and Shallum (also called Jehoahaz, marginal note and reference) was considerably older than Zedekiah, and was consequently the third, and not the fourth, son. He is perhaps assigned the fourth place here by way of intentional degradation. Compare Jeremiah 22:10-12; Ezekiel 19:3-4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. Zedekiah—called the son of Josiah (compare Jer 1:3; 37:1), but in 2Ch 36:19 he is described as the brother of Jehoiachin, who was the son of Jehoiakim, and consequently the grandson of Josiah. Words expressive of affinity or relationship are used with great latitude in the Hebrew.

Shallum—No king of this name is mentioned in the history of Josiah's sons (2Ki 14:1-29; 23:1-37), but there is a notice of Shallum the son of Josiah (Jer 22:11), who reigned in the stead of his father, and who is generally supposed to be Jehoahaz, a younger son, here called the fourth, of Josiah.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Not his natural son, for he was his uncle, 2 Kings 24:17; but his legal son, or his successor, upon whom the son’s right was devolved by virtue of that law, Numbers 27:8-10, and therefore it is not strange if he have the name of

son with it. See Poole "Luke 3:1". Or this was another Zedekiah; because it is improbable, and without example, that one and the same man should be twice mentioned in the same genealogy as the son of two several parents.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the sons of Jehoiakim; Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son. This is not the Zedekiah mentioned in the preceding verse; for he was not the son but the uncle of Jeconiah, unless he should be called his son because he succeeded him in the kingdom; but he seems to be another of that name, nowhere else mentioned, and not the son of Jeconiah in any sense; he is not reckoned among them in the following verses, but of Jehoiakim.

Geneva Study Bible

And the sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. Jeconiah] This name is sometimes shortened to Coniah (Jeremiah 22:14) and written (with a slight change of meaning) Jehoiachin (2 Chronicles 36:8-9; 2 Kings 24:6 ff.).

Zedekiah his son] Zedekiah was heir, not son, to Jeconiah, whom he succeeded in the kingdom. His relationship to Jeconiah was that of uncle.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Of the above four brothers, sons of Josiah, the second, Jehoiakim, or Eliakim, had a son called Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin - essentially the same word. He was eighteen years of age when he succeeded his father (2 Kings 24:8). A touching glimpse is given of him in Jeremiah 52:31. His name is shortened to Coniah in Jeremiah 22:24 and Jeremiah 37:1, though elsewhere in the same prophet, Jeconiah, and in one place (Jeremiah 52:31), Jehoiachin. The name of Zedekiah occasions difficulty in this verse. In the first instance, following the examples of vers. 10-14, we should presume that this Zedekiah is set forth as a son of Jeconiah, and as it is not said that he reigned after Jeconiah (for it was undoubtedly Jeconiah's uncle Zedekiah who reigned after him), we need only have read it as a statement of one of his sons. Against this, however, there are two tolerably decisive considerations; for, first, the verse opens confessedly by offering us sons of Jehoiakim, and these two, Jeconiah and Zedekiah, will fulfil the promise of that plural; and again, the seventeenth verse enters upon the formal enumeration of sons to Jeconiah. The question, therefore, returns - Who was this Zedekiah, son of Jehoiakim? Some consider him identical with the Zedekiah of the previous verse, and that "his son" means here "his successor." This undoes fewer difficulties than it makes. If the text be not corrupt, the likeliest solution is to suppose that this Zedekiah of ver. 16 is an otherwise unknown brother of Jeconiah, and son of Jehoiakim. 1 Chronicles 3:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 בּנו, son of the preceding, 1 Chronicles 3:10-14; the only omission being that of the usurper Athaliah, because she did not belong to the posterity of David. But in 1 Chronicles 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 2 Kings 23:31, 2 Kings 23:36; 2 Chronicles 36:2, 2 Chronicles 36:5, that Jehoahaz was two years younger than Jehoiakim, and consequently was not the first-born. In Jeremiah 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 (2 Kings 23:24). Zedekiah was at first Mattaniah (2 Kings 24:17). Zedekiah, on his ascending the throne, was younger than Shallum, and that event occurred eleven years after the accession of Shallum equals 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 (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Kings 24:18), while Jehoiakim was the son of Zebudah (2 Kings 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 1 Chronicles 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 1 Chronicles 3:17 and 1 Chronicles 3:18. Jeconiah (cf. Jeremiah 24:1; shortened Coniah, Jeremiah 22:24, Jeremiah 22:28, and Jeremiah 37:1) is called, as kings, in 2 Kings 24:8. and 2 Chronicles 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 בּנו 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 1 Chronicles 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 1 Chronicles 3:10., in which all Solomon's successors in the kingship are enumerated in order with בּנו. But all the kings who succeeded each other from Solomon to Josiah were also, without exception, sons of their predecessors; so that there בּנו 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 צדקיּה for a literal son of Jeconiah, and that so much the more, because the name צדקיּה differs also from צדקיּהוּ, as the name of the king is constantly written in 2 Kings 24:17. and in 2 Chronicles 36:10. But mention is made of this Zedekiah in 1 Chronicles 3:16 apart from the other sons of Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 3:17 and 1 Chronicles 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.