In the previous article I stated that we were not told which of the sons of Elimelech married Orpah, and which married Ruth. This is true so far as Ruth 1:2-5 is concerned, but it has now been pointed out to me that Ruth 4:10 calls Ruth “the Akabitess, the wife of Mahlon”. In the genealogy on page 66, I hazarded a guess which is in fact correct. Readers wishing to correct the genealogy are invited to delete the question marks at that point and add Ruth 4:10 to the list of passages used.
1. The Descendants of Ram
Section 2 – From David to Rehoboam (Fig. 4) (1 Chronicles 3:1-10)
This section is mainly concerned with the ramifications of David’s immediate family, his wives and children. We have numbered the wives on the genealogy in the apparent order in which they were taken by David. What follows will not be very intelligible unless the Scriptural passages related to are looked up and the genealogy in Fig.4 referred to.
Michel, the daughter of Saul, was David’s first wife (1 Sam.18:27). She is not mentioned in Chronicles, since she was condemned to be childless because she inwardly despised and outwardly mocked David for dancing before the Lord when the ark was brought back into Jerusalem (2 Sam.6:16-23). When David was fleeing from Saul, Michel was given in marriage to Phaltiel the son of Laish, who appears to have been a man of Saul’s own tribe of Benjamin, for he was an inhabitant of Gallim (1 Sam. 25:44), a city apparently in Benjamin (Isa. 10:30). When David was enthroned in Hebron he demanded, and got, Michel back as his wife (2 Sam.3:15).
Ahinoam and Abigail were both taken by David during the period of his flight from Saul. Ahinoam was from Jezreel and Abigail from Carmel, both these places being cities of Judah (Josh.15:55-56), not the more well-known places of those names in the north of Israel. Jezreel is placed by George Adam Smith in his “Historical Geography of the Holy Land” as just to the south of the wilderness of Ziph, so David must have taken Ahinoam to wife when he was in that area (1 Sam.23:14). Carmel was a little further to the south, near to Maon where Abigail’s first husband, Nebel, a descendant of Caleb, had his possessions (1 Sam.25:2-3).
The suggestion is made in Sister Walker’s “Jesse’s Rod” (Bible Student Sept/ Oct ’77 p.129) that Maachah, Haggith, Abital and Eglah were previously the wives of Saul. We know from 2 Sam.12:8 that these became David’s. Nothing further is known of the last three, but Maachah is stated to be the daughter of the king of Geshur, a small kingdom thought to be immediately east of the Sea of Galilee. At one time the Gileadite branch of the tribe of Manasseh had possessed this territory, part of which was called Maachathi (Deut.3:14), but they had presumably lost this in the wars of the times of the Judges. When Absalom, Maachah’s son, fled after he had murdered Amnon, it was to his mother’s home country that he went (2 Sam.13:37).
Bathsheba is said in 2 Sam. 11:3 to be the daughter of Eliam, this being a reversed form of the name Amndel in 1 Chronicles. This Eliam was the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s trusted but treacherous friend (2 Sam.23:34). Gilon was a city of Judah,(Josh.15:51; 2 Sam15:12), and is thought to have been about six miles from Hebron, so David presumably became acquainted with Ahithophel when he ruled from Hebron. Eliam was one of David’s mighty men, along with Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband (2 Sam.23:39); this connection perhaps explains how Eliam’s daughter became Uriah’s wife. The connection with Ahithophel has been advanced in Blunt’s “Undesigned Coincidences” as the reason why Ahithophel turned against David; he was disgusted at the murder of his grandson-in-law and the defilement of his granddaughter.
19 sons of David are named in 1 Chronicles 3. The six sons born in Hebron are also given in 2 Sam.3:2-5, except that Daniel appears as Chileab. No mothers’ names are given for the last 9 in 1 Chronicles 3; presumably these are the sons of the wives and concubines referred to in 2 Sam.5:13-16, where 7 of these 9 are named. A further son, Jerimoth, has been added to the genealogy from 2 Chron. 11:18.
The only daughter of David to be named is Tamar, although we know from 2 Sam. 5:13 that he had others. She is no doubt mentioned because of the part she plays as the object of Amnon’s lust in 2 Sam.13. It has been assumed that she was Absalom’s full sister, because of his action in avenging the wrong done to her, and because Absalom named his only daughter after her (2 Sam.14:27). In fact, this daughter was the only child of Absalom’s to survive, for although 3 sons are mentioned in 2 Sam. 14:27, it is clear from 2 Sam.18:18 that they died before Absalom.
The 4 sons of David who are prominent in Scripture are, of course, Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah and Solomon. All were born of separate mothers; all were ultimately found wanting in their behavior. The first three, all born in Hebron, met with violent deaths. No doubt the atmosphere of the harem, with the rivalry between wives, and competition between sons, together with the fact that David obviously could not devote sufficient time to the proper instruction of so large a family, meant that the environment was hardly conducive to developing a godly character.
The other son of David whose name springs fairly readily to mind is Nathan, and that because he was in the line which leads to Mary, the mother of Jesus, rather than the kingly line which led to Joseph. However, the Old Testament is silent regarding this son, apart from the mere fact of his existence; it is only from the genealogy of Luke 3 that we know that his line continued down to Mary.
The intermarriage between cousins and second cousins in the family of David is noteworthy. One of David’s sons, Jerimoth, married his cousin Abihail, the daughter of David’s eldest brother Eliab. A daughter called Mahalath was the product of this marriage and she married her cousin Rehoboam, king of Judah (2 Chron. 11:18 RSV. The AV is hardly likely to be correct, since the daughter of David’s eldest brother must surely have been much older than Rehoboam). It would appear from the following verse that Rehoboam also married another cousin, Maachah the daughter of his uncle Absalom. However, it would seem that Maachah was in fact the granddaughter of Absalom, for Absalom’s only daughter was called Tamar (2 Sam.14:27), and Maachah is elsewhere stated to be the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah (2 Chron. 13:2. The same woman is clearly being referred to, for she is Abijah’s mother who, in 2 Chron. 11:20 is said to be Maachah). Presumably, therefore, Uriel married Tamar. The idea of a grandson of David marrying a great-granddaughter of David is not incongruous, when we remember that Absalom was one of David’s oldest sons, born in Hebron, whilst Rehoboam’s father Solomon was born a few years later in Jerusalem, and may even have been the youngest son of David. Maachah was named after her great-grandmother, the daughter of the king of Geshur. More will be said of Maachah next time, God willing.
The Solution