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.

Verse 22. - In the obscurity that obtains on the subject, there is one somewhat bright star of light in a succeeding name, Hattush, to which this verse leads us. This verse purports to help on the line of genealogy by a contribution of two descents, the effective names being Shemaiah and Neariah, the line coming to its close by aid of two other effective names, Elioenai and (say) Hodaiah, contained in the last two verses of the chapter. Although one manifest error in ver. 22 (involved in the number "six" when only five sons have been read) betokens the insecurity of the text, yet the summary measures of the ingenious Lord A. C. Hervey (see his valuable work on the 'Genealogies of our Lord Jesus Christ,' pp. 103, 307, 322; and articles in Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' 1:666, 667) can scarcely be warranted, when he wishes first to omit altogether the words and the sons of Shecaniah; Shemaiah; and next, to regard Shemaiah as Shimei, the brother of Zerub-babel, and, as matter of course, those who followed as the descendants of this brother of Zerubbabel, instead of Zerubbabel himself. Now, a passage in the Book of Ezra helps us much here. Ezra mentions, as one of those of the "sons of David" who went up with him from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 8:2, 3), Hattush, "of the sons of Shechaniah." There is not only nothing to prevent this Hattush being the same as the elder brother of Neariah, who comes fourth in succession from Zerubbabel (i.e. on the hypothesis that the six names of ver. 21 are brothers, not a line of descents), but at the above-mentioned average of twenty years the dates will admirably synchronize - the last date of Zerubbabel being about B.C. 520, and that of Neariah B.C. 440; while the date of Ezra's journey was B.C. 458 (see 'Speaker's Commentary,' 3:186, 187). This coincidence of names and dates must not be regarded as con-elusive; but, pending further discovery, it strongly disfavours the idea of the names of ver. 21 constituting a succession, and it keeps well in check the rate of succeeding generations, bringing the last member of the succession to a date that may be harmonized with others which have for the most part held their ground. That in ver. 22 only five names are given for what are summed up as "six," must lead to the supposition that one has dropped out; and since no known manuscript of the Hebrew text, nor the Septuagint or Vulgate versions supplies us with the missing name, the Syriac and Arabic versions, which supply the name Azariah between Neariah and Shaphat, must be viewed with some suspicion. Igeal is, in the Hebrew, a word (יגִךאל) identical with the Igal of Numbers 13:7; 2 Samuel 23:36 - Septuagint in the latter passages Ἰλαὰλ or Ἰγάλ, but in the present place Ἰωὴλ. Of the other persons in this verse little or nothing else is known.

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