Bird's-eye view
At first glance, this passage appears to be just another dry list of names, the kind of text that modern readers are tempted to skim. But to do so would be to miss a profound lesson in the surprising and meticulous providence of God. The Chronicler is tracing the lineage of Judah, the royal tribe, and here he focuses on the line of Jerahmeel. The central point of the entire passage pivots on a crisis: a man named Sheshan has no sons. In the ancient world, this was a familial dead end. But God is the God of resurrection, and He makes a way where there is no way. Through a creative and faithful act involving an Egyptian slave, the line of Sheshan is not only preserved but flourishes. This section is a miniature portrait of the gospel itself: God's covenant faithfulness is not bound by our biological limitations or social conventions. He delights in grafting in the outsider and bringing life out of situations that appear barren and hopeless, all to preserve the line that would ultimately lead to Christ.
This genealogy, therefore, is not a dusty record but a vibrant testimony. It demonstrates God's sovereignty over the womb, His care for the details of His people's lives, and His plan to include the nations in His covenant promises. It is a story of faith in the face of a crisis, and the abundant blessing that follows.
Outline
- 1. The Descendants of Jerahmeel (1 Chron 2:25-41)
- a. The Sons of Jerahmeel by His First Wife and Atarah (1 Chron 2:25-26)
- b. The Lines of Ram and Onam (1 Chron 2:27-33)
- i. The Problem of Childless Men (1 Chron 2:30, 32)
- c. The Crisis and Solution in Sheshan's Line (1 Chron 2:34-35)
- i. The Problem: No Sons (1 Chron 2:34a)
- ii. The Provision: An Egyptian Slave (1 Chron 2:34b-35)
- d. The Flourishing of the Renewed Line (1 Chron 2:36-41)
Context In 1 Chronicles
The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are a massive genealogical project. The Chronicler is writing to the generation that has returned from the Babylonian exile, a people seeking to reestablish their identity as the covenant people of God in the promised land. To do this, they needed to know who they were. These genealogies were not about ancestor worship; they were about covenant standing. They answered the questions: Who belongs to the people of God? Who are the priests? And most importantly, from where will the Messiah King come? This section, focusing on the descendants of Hezron in the tribe of Judah, is a critical part of that third question. The Chronicler is meticulously tracing the royal line, and every name, every marriage, every birth is a testament to God's patient, persistent faithfulness in preserving the seed through whom the ultimate Son of David would come.
Key Issues
- The Theological Significance of Genealogies
- God's Sovereignty Over Barrenness and Posterity
- The Inclusion of Gentiles in the Covenant Line
- The Nature of Servitude in the Old Testament
- Creative Faithfulness in the Face of Apparent Dead Ends
- The Importance of Naming and Remembrance
The Faithfulness of God in the Fine Print
We live in an age that disdains memory. We are encouraged to live in the moment, to invent ourselves, and to treat the past as either irrelevant or an embarrassment. The Bible operates on a completely different set of assumptions. For the biblical authors, history is the story of God's dealings with mankind, and genealogy is the spine of that story. These lists of names are the rivets holding the entire structure of redemptive history together. They are a tangible demonstration that God keeps His promises to specific people in specific times and places. God promised Abraham a seed, and these chapters are the multi-generational fulfillment of that promise. When we learn to read these lists with covenantal eyes, they cease to be boring and become a powerful testimony to the God who never forgets His word and who meticulously works all things according to the counsel of His will.
Verse by Verse Commentary
25-26 And the sons of Jerahmeel the firstborn of Hezron were Ram the firstborn, then Bunah, Oren, Ozem, and Ahijah. Jerahmeel had another wife, whose name was Atarah; she was the mother of Onam.
The Chronicler begins this section with the family of Jerahmeel, the firstborn son of Hezron. These names are recorded with a simple, declarative certainty. God knows His people by name. The mention of a second wife, Atarah, is not a moral commentary but a historical fact. The Old Testament records the polygamy of the patriarchs without commending it. God's plan from the beginning was one man and one woman, but He graciously worked His sovereign purposes even through the tangled and sinful family structures of His people.
27-33 The sons of Ram, the firstborn of Jerahmeel, were Maaz, Jamin, and Eker. The sons of Onam were Shammai and Jada. And the sons of Shammai were Nadab and Abishur. The name of Abishur’s wife was Abihail, and she bore him Ahban and Molid. The sons of Nadab were Seled and Appaim, and Seled died without sons. The son of Appaim was Ishi. And the son of Ishi was Sheshan. And the son of Sheshan was Ahlai. The sons of Jada the brother of Shammai were Jether and Jonathan, and Jether died without sons. The sons of Jonathan were Peleth and Zaza. These were the sons of Jerahmeel.
Here the register unfolds, branching out through various lines. We see the names of wives recorded, like Abihail, reminding us that women were essential to the covenant, not mere footnotes. Tucked into this list are two somber notes: "Seled died without sons" and "Jether died without sons." In a culture where one's name and inheritance were carried on through sons, this was a tragedy. It meant the end of a particular family line. The Chronicler includes these details to show that the continuation of the covenant line was not a given. It was not a natural, automatic process. It was a gift of God, and its absence was keenly felt. These two dead ends create a tension that the subsequent verses will resolve in a glorious way.
34-35 Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters. And Sheshan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jarha. Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant as a wife, and she bore him Attai.
This is the pivot point of the whole passage. Sheshan, a descendant of Jerahmeel, faces the same problem as Seled and Jether, but on a larger scale. He has no sons at all. His entire line is at a dead end. What is he to do? He could despair. He could rage against God. Instead, he acts with remarkable faith and creativity. He has an Egyptian slave named Jarha. Notice, he is not a Hebrew. He is an outsider, a Gentile. Sheshan does not treat Jarha as mere property. He brings this servant into his family at the deepest level, giving him his own daughter as a wife. This act effectively makes Jarha his son and heir. The line will now continue through his daughter and his servant. This is a stunning picture of grace. An Egyptian slave is grafted into the tribe of Judah. An outsider is made an insider. This is not just a clever solution to a domestic problem; it is a foreshadowing of the mystery of the gospel, where God takes slaves to sin, foreigners to the covenant of promise, and makes them sons and heirs through His Son.
36-41 Attai became the father of Nathan, and Nathan became the father of Zabad, and Zabad became the father of Ephlal, and Ephlal became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jehu, and Jehu became the father of Azariah, and Azariah became the father of Helez, and Helez became the father of Eleasah, and Eleasah became the father of Sismai, and Sismai became the father of Shallum, and Shallum became the father of Jekamiah, and Jekamiah became the father of Elishama.
What is the result of Sheshan's faithful and unconventional act? An explosion of life. The Chronicler now lists twelve generations flowing from the union of Sheshan's daughter and Jarha the Egyptian. The repetitive formula, "and X became the father of Y," is like a steady drumbeat of God's faithfulness. The line that was about to die out becomes a flourishing branch. God honored Sheshan's faith with an abundance of descendants. He took a barren situation and made it fruitful. This long list of names is not tedious; it is a monument to the God who blesses those who trust Him and who brings life out of death.
Application
First, we must learn to see the hand of God in the ordinary and seemingly mundane details of life. Our God is the God of genealogies. He cares about names, families, and the preservation of His people through time. This means He cares about your family, your work, and your legacy. Nothing is too small for His sovereign attention.
Second, we must learn to respond to our "dead ends" with the creative faith of Sheshan. We all face situations that seem hopeless, whether in our families, our finances, our health, or our ministries. The temptation is to despair or to assume there is no way forward. Sheshan teaches us to look at the resources God has given us, even the unexpected ones, and trust Him to make a way. God's solutions often lie outside our conventional thinking.
Finally, this passage is a beautiful illustration of the grace of adoption. We, like Jarha the Egyptian, were outsiders. We were slaves to sin, without God and without hope in the world. But God, in His great love, did not leave us there. He took us, foreigners and slaves, and through the marriage of His Son to His bride, the Church, He made us His own children. He gave us His name, His inheritance, and a place in His family forever. The story of Jarha is our story. Every time we are tempted to think that God's grace is only for the well-born or the respectable, we should remember the Egyptian slave who was grafted into the royal line of Judah, and rejoice that our God is a God who makes sons out of slaves.