1 Chronicles 3
1 Chronicles 3 is the third chapter of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or 4th century BCE. This chapter contains the genealogy of unbroken Davidic line from the time of David to the post-exilic period, providing a possibility of the reinstatement of the Davidic monarchy in Jerusalem with its rightful  heir, should circumstances allow. It is divided into three parts: (1) the sons of David (born in Hebron, verses 1–4; born in Jerusalem, verses 5–9); (2) the kings in Jerusalem (apart from the usurper Queen Athaliah, verses 10–16); (3) the descendants during and after the exile period, verses 17–24. Together with chapters 2 and 4, it focuses on the descendants of Judah: chapter 2 deals with the tribes of Judah in general, chapter 3 lists the sons of David in particular and chapter 4 concerns the remaining families in the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Simeon. These chapters  belong to the section focusing on the list of genealogies from Adam to the lists of the people returning from exile in Babylon ( to 9:34). Text. This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 24 verses. Textual witnesses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus  (B; formula_1; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; formula_1; 5th century). Structure. The whole chapter belongs to an arrangement comprising 1 Chronicles 2:3–8:40 with the king-producing tribes of Judah (David; 2:3–4:43) and Benjamin (Saul; 8:1–40) bracketing the series of lists as the priestly tribe of Levi (6:1–81) anchors the center, in the following order: Another concentric arrangement focuses on David's royal tribe of Judah (2:3–4:23), centering on the family of Hezron, Judah's grandson, through his three sons: Jerahmeel, Ram, and Chelubai (Caleb), as follows: Sons born to David in Hebron (3:1–4). The house of David is the  main focus within the large genealogy of Judah. This section shares almost word for word materials with 2 Samuel 3:2–5. Verse 4. Verse 4 apparently is a rework of . The move from Hebron to Jerusalem is not explained, assuming the readers' knowledge of the narratives in the earlier materials. Sons born to David in Jerusalem (3:5–9). This section shares the same materials as 2 Samuel 5:14-16 (also in 1 Chronicles 14:4–7), and verse 9 from 2 Samuel 5:13; 13:1. Davidic royal line (3:10–16). The kings of Judah are listed here from Solomon up to the period of exile, following  a monotonous formula—"his son was X"—until Josiah, who had several sons succeeding him, so that the Chronicler changes the listing method. The sources could be 2 Kings 22–24 and Book of Jeremiah (which uses Shallum, the alternative name of Joahaz, in ). Parts of the list are repeated in 1 Chronicles 14:4–7, whereas in other parts some kings have different names from the rest of Chronicles (for examples, Azariah instead of Uzziah), and Zerubbabel's father is called Pedaiah, and not Shealtiel, as in Ezra 3:2, 8. Verse 16. Two sons of Jehoiakim are listed here: "Jeconiah" (also called "Jehoiachin" in  2 Kings 24:6–17; 2 Chronicles 36:8–9, and "Coniah" in Jeremiah 22:24) and "Zedekiah", which confirmed in 2 Chronicles 36:10 as the brother of Jeconiah. 2 Kings 24:17 states that king Zedekiah (the last king of Judah who replaced Jeconiah) was Jeconiah's uncle. Jeremiah consistently called Jehoiakim the son of Josiah and never called Zedekiah as the son of Josiah, leading to the assumption that Zedekiah in the book of Jeremiah refers to the brother of Jeconiah. Post-exilic descendants of David (3:17–24). This section lists the descendants of David – in particular, the posterity of Jeconiah – during the exile and  into the early part of post-exilic period. Jeconiah was taken away to Babylon in 597 BCE and among his seven sons, Shenazzar (called Shenazzar in ; both names are the transliteration of Babylon name: "Sin-ab-uṣur"), became the first Persian-period governor of Judah.