have been separated. To avoid this, apparently, Shallum has been enumerated in the fourth place, along with his full brother Zedekiah. In 1Ch 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 1Ch 3:17 and 1Ch 3:18. Jeconiah (cf. Jer 24:1; shortened Coniah, Jer 22:24, Jer 22:28, and Jer 37:1) is called, as kings, in 2Ki 24:8. and 2Ch 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 1Ch 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 1Ch 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 2Ki 24:17. and in 2Ch 36:10. But mention is made of this Zedekiah in 1Ch 3:16 apart from the other sons of Jeconiah (1Ch 3:17 and 1Ch 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.
Verses 17-24
The descendants of the captive and exiled Jeconiah, and other families. - 1Ch 3:17. In the list of the son of Jeconiah it is doubtful if אסּר be the name of a son, or should be considered, as it is by Luther and others, an appellative, “prisoner,” in apposition to יכניה, “the sons of Jeconiah, the captive, is Shealtiel” (A. V. Salathiel). The reasons which have been advanced in favour of this latter interpretation are: the lack of the conjunction with שׁאלתּיאל; the position of בּנו after שׁאלת, not after אסּר; and the circumstance that Assir is nowhere to be met with, either in Mat 1:12 or in Seder olam zuta, as an intervening member of the family between Jeconiah and Shealtiel (Berth.). But
