1 Chronicles 3 in Hebrew & English

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Tenakh Study · Read 1 Chronicles in Hebrew and English, one chapter per page. Our Tenakh study meets every Wednesday at 7 pm (Central Time) on Zoom. Text us for the Zoom link. Our Messianic Jewish notes appear below each passage; tap Commentary above to hide them. The full commentary on this chapter is on our 1 Chronicles commentary page.

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Tenakh Study · 1 Chronicles 3:1–24

1 Chronicles, Chapter 3

דברי הימים א ג

The sons of David born in Chevron and in Yerushalayim, the kings of Yehudah from Shlomo to Yoshiyahu and his sons, and the line of Yechonyah after the exile through She’alti’el, Zerubavel and his descendants, down to the seven sons of Elyo’enai.

3:1Now these were the sons of David, which were born unto him in Chevron (Hebron); the firstborn Amnon, of Achinoam (Ahinoam) the Yizre’elit (Jezreelitess); the second Daniyel (Daniel), of Avigayil (Abigail) the Karmelit (Carmelitess):

אוְאֵ֤לֶּה הָיוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י דָויִ֔ד אֲשֶׁ֥ר נֽוֹלַד־ל֖וֹ בְּחֶבְר֑וֹן הַבְּכ֣וֹר ׀ אַמְנֹ֗ן לַאֲחִינֹ֨עַם֙ הַיִּזְרְעֵאלִ֔ית שֵׁנִי֙ דָּנִיֵּ֔אל לַאֲבִיגַ֖יִל הַֽכַּרְמְלִֽית׃

3:2The third, Avshalom (Absalom) the son of Ma’achah (Maachah) the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur: the fourth, Adoniyah (Adonijah) the son of Chagit (Haggith):

בהַשְּׁלִשִׁי֙ לְאַבְשָׁל֣וֹם בֶּֽן־מַעֲכָ֔ה בַּת־תַּלְמַ֖י מֶ֣לֶךְ גְּשׁ֑וּר הָרְבִיעִ֖י אֲדֹנִיָּ֥ה בֶן־חַגִּֽית׃

3:3The fifth, Shefatyah (Shephatiah) of Avital (Abital): the sixth, Yitre’am (Ithream) by Eglah his wife.

גהַחֲמִישִׁ֥י שְׁפַטְיָ֖ה לַאֲבִיטָ֑ל הַשִּׁשִּׁ֥י יִתְרְעָ֖ם לְעֶגְלָ֥ה אִשְׁתּֽוֹ׃

3:4These six were born unto him in Chevron; and there he reigned seven years and six months: and in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) he reigned thirty and three years.

דשִׁשָּׁה֙ נֽוֹלַד־ל֣וֹ בְחֶבְר֔וֹן וַיִּ֨מְלָךְ־שָׁ֔ם שֶׁ֥בַע שָׁנִ֖ים וְשִׁשָּׁ֣ה חֳדָשִׁ֑ים וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֤ים וְשָׁלוֹשׁ֙ שָׁנָ֔ה מָלַ֖ךְ בִּירוּשָׁלִָֽם׃

The sons born in Yerushalayim

3:5And these were born unto him in Yerushalayim; Shim’a (Shimea), and Shovav (Shobab), and Natan (Nathan), and Shlomo (Solomon), four, of Bat-Shua (Bath-shua) the daughter of Ammiel:

הוְאֵ֥לֶּה נוּלְּדוּ־ל֖וֹ בִּירוּשָׁלָ֑יִם שִׁ֠מְעָא וְשׁוֹבָ֞ב וְנָתָ֤ן וּשְׁלֹמֹה֙ אַרְבָּעָ֔ה לְבַת־שׁ֖וּעַ בַּת־עַמִּיאֵֽל׃

3:6Yivchar (Ibhar) also, and Elishama, and Elifelet (Eliphelet),

ווְיִבְחָ֥ר וֶאֱלִישָׁמָ֖ע וֶאֱלִיפָֽלֶט׃

3:7And Nogah, and Nefeg (Nepheg), and Yafia (Japhia),

זוְנֹ֥גַהּ וְנֶ֖פֶג וְיָפִֽיעַ׃

3:8And Elishama, and Elyada (Eliada), and Elifelet, nine.

חוֶאֱלִישָׁמָ֧ע וְאֶלְיָדָ֛ע וֶאֱלִיפֶ֖לֶט תִּשְׁעָֽה׃

3:9These were all the sons of David, beside the sons of the concubines, and Tamar their sister.

טכֹּ֖ל בְּנֵ֣י דָוִ֑יד מִלְּבַ֥ד בְּֽנֵי־פִֽילַגְשִׁ֖ים וְתָמָ֥ר אֲחוֹתָֽם׃

Commentary · 3:1–9

David’s sons in Chevron and Yerushalayim

Our 2 Samuel commentary covered the six sons born in Chevron. Chronicles changes one name: Avigayil’s son, Kil’av in Samuel, is Daniyel, “God has judged me,” which a midrash reads as David’s thanks that God judged his case against Naval before David could shed blood (1 Samuel 25:32–33).

“Shim’a, and Shovav, and Natan, and Shlomo, four, of Bat-Shua the daughter of Ammiel” (3:5). This is Bat-Sheva (2 Samuel 11:3), given the same name Yehudah’s Canaanite wife bore in 2:3. The Chronicler leaves out the sin with Bat-Sheva, Uriyah’s death, Natan’s parable and the dead child. The Talmud has a famous line: “Whoever says that David sinned is simply mistaken” (Shabbat 56a). Does the Chronicler agree? We lean toward a simpler answer. His readers had 2 Samuel; he is not denying it. He is writing a different book, about the throne and the Temple, and about how Hashem kept His promise through a family that did not deserve it. The silence is a decision about what the returned community most needed, not a cover-up.

Natan is listed before Shlomo. Zechariah’s great mourning names “the family of the house of Natan apart” (Zechariah 12:12); the Talmud records Rabbi Dosa’s view that the mourning is “for Mashiach ben Yosef, who was killed” (Sukkah 52a), and Rabbi Palvanov walks through that page in his class “Jesus in the Talmud.” And Luke’s genealogy of Yeshua runs not through Shlomo but through “the son of Natan, which was the son of David” (Luke 3:31).

The kings of Yehudah, to the exile

Fifteen kings in five verses, father to son without a break, four hundred years. Israel’s northern kingdom went through nine dynasties; Yehudah had one, because “thy throne shall be established for ever” (2 Samuel 7:16).

The list has no adjectives. Good and bad stand together: Asa and Yehoshafat beside Yoram and Achazyahu, who married into Achav’s house; Chizkiyahu, of whom the Talmud says Hashem wished to make him the Messiah and Sennacherib Gog and Magog, but he did not sing (Sanhedrin 94a); Menashe, worst of all, who repented in chains and was heard (2 Chronicles 33:12–13; Sanhedrin 103a). The covenant did not depend on the kings’ merit. Matthew copies this list but drops Achazyahu, Yo’ash and Amatzyahu to make his “fourteen generations” (Matthew 1:8, 17); genealogies were often shortened, as the Chronicler shortens them himself.

With Yoshiyahu’s sons the straight line breaks into pieces, because the kingdom was breaking (3:15–16). Jeremiah calls the son who reigned after Yoshiyahu “Shalum” (Jeremiah 22:11), the king 2 Kings calls Yehoachaz; the Talmud takes Shalum as Tzidkiyahu, “in whose days the kingdom of the house of David was completed” (Horayot 11b). Either way, three of one righteous king’s sons wore the crown in its last years, each brought down by a foreign king.

After the exile: She’alti’el, Zerubavel and Anani

Jeremiah had said of Yechonyah: “Write ye this man childless… for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David” (Jeremiah 22:30). Yet here are his sons. The Hebrew of verse 17 can be read “the sons of Yechonyah the captive (assir),” and the Talmud says, “Exile atones for everything”: after he was exiled, “Write ye this man childless” was answered by “The sons of Yechonyah: Asir, She’alti’el his son” (Sanhedrin 37b).

Hebrew lesson: זְרֻבָּבֶל (Zerubavel), “sown in Babylon.” The Gemara reads: She’alti’el, because God planted him (shetalo El); Zerubavel, because he was sown in Babylon (Sanhedrin 38a). Haggai turned the curse into a promise: “I will take thee, O Zerubavel… and will make thee as a signet” (Haggai 2:23). The signet pulled from Hashem’s hand (Jeremiah 22:24) is put back on Yechonyah’s grandson, who led the first return and built the Second Temple (Ezra 3–6).

Messianic reading. The Targum pauses on Anani, the last name in David’s line (3:24): “Anani, he is the King Messiah, who is destined to be revealed.” עֲנָנֵי (ananei) is Daniel’s word: “one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:13). Our Sukkot 5787 shiur “The Son of David” set this beside Sanhedrin 98a: if they merit, with the clouds; if not, lowly, on a donkey. We believe both are true, one for each coming. The book was keeping the line for him.

Sources & method

Hebrew text: The Masoretic text with vowels (nikkud) and cantillation marks (ta’amim), from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (public domain) as published by the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0). Where the written text (ketiv) differs from the reading (qere), the reading is shown and the written form follows in small type. A paragraph mark (ס or פ) inside a verse is shown in small type.
English translation: The King James Version (public domain), lightly modernized by Benei Avraham: “thee/thou/ye” become “you,” older verb forms are updated (“hath” to “has”), and archaic words are replaced only where the meaning would otherwise be unclear. People and places carry their Hebrew names, with the King James spelling in parentheses the first time on each page (e.g., Yehudah (Judah)). The Divine Name (יהוה, “the LORD” in the KJV) is written “Hashem”; “God” (Elohim) is unchanged, and “law” is “Torah” where the Hebrew is תּוֹרָה.
Verse numbers: Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Chronicles they differ from most English Bibles in chapters 5, 6 and 12; a note under the summary on those pages explains how.
Commentary: Written for our Wednesday Tenakh study from a Messianic Jewish perspective, in line with the Benei Avraham Statement of Faith. It reads the passage first in its Torah setting, then with the Sages, and then with the witness of the Brit Hadashah. Its sources include the Talmud and Midrash, Rashi, Radak, Rambam, the First Fruits of Zion End of Days lessons, and teachings of Rabbi Efraim Palvanov and Ariel Cohen Alloro. Numerical readings (gematria) are offered as hints, not proofs. The notes here are short versions of our full 1 Chronicles commentary, which is a draft for our teachers to review. They are shown by default; tap Commentary to hide them.
Quiz: Written by Benei Avraham for young readers (about 11 and up). Every answer is in the chapter on this page. Answers and scores are kept only in this browser (local storage) and can be cleared with Start over.
Hebrew font: SBL Hebrew, by the Society of Biblical Literature.

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1 Chronicles 3 (Divrei HaYamim Alef) in Hebrew and English

1 Chronicles, Chapter 3

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