1 Chronicles 3:5–8 recounts the names of David's children born to him during his thirty-three-year reign in Jerusalem. In 2 Samuel we read, And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David
(2 Samuel 5:13). Bill T. Arnold makes the following incisive comment:
Though the extended narrative portrays David under the blessing of Yahweh, there may be hints of future trouble here. The new king has taken more wives and concubines in direct violation of the royal law of Deuteronomy 17:17. The expression
concubines and wivesis reversed from the normalwives and concubineselsewhere in the Old Testament, and some suspect the narrator has putconcubinesin an emphatic position in order to critique David’s tendency to accept the trappings of a typical Near Eastern king. Even in this unit emphasizing the blessing of Yahweh on David, troubled times lie ahead.1
The list of sons born in Jerusalem is subdivided further, with those born to Bathsheba (1 Chronicles 3:5) distinguished from other sons
(1 Chronicles 3:6–8). The naming of the mothers of David's sons is theologically significant because it connects the offspring of the woman
promise (Genesis 3:15) with the line of David (2 Samuel 7:16), the line of promise, as opposed to the offspring of the serpent.
The list of the sons born in Jerusalem differs significantly from the Samuel parallel (2 Samuel 5:14–16) as well as from the Chronicler’s parallel list in 1 Chronicles 14:3–7. First mentioned are the four sons born to Bathsheba. She only appears once Chronicles, in this genealogy, and then in the form of Bathshua.
The reason for this name change is unclear. The most common explanation, as is the case with a lot of exegetical problems, is textual corruption, but as Merrill points out, the Chronicler is masking her identity and thus drawing attention away from the sinful manner in which she became David’s wife and Solomon’s mother. This may find support in the fact that her name is missing altogether in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 14:3–7.2
The Chronicler discovered Solomon listed in the fourth position in his source in 2 Samuel 5:13–16. This is odd since Solomon appears to have been the first son born to David and Bathsheba after the death of their child born of their adulterous affair (2 Samuel 12:13–25). As is often the case, the Chronicler reverses the birth order to draw attention to the last person mentioned through whom God intends to further his purposes. (The same is seen, for example, in the listing of Noah's sons. In Genesis 5:32 they are listed in their natural birth order: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But the Chronicler reverses the order and places Shem last to draw attention to the last person through whom God intends to further his purposes.) Solomon is placed in a position of eminence because through him the messianic line continues.
In Jerusalem nine more sons were born, excluding the sons born of concubines (1 Chronicles 3:4–8). None of the names of the mothers is mentioned. The names of Nogah and Eliphelet (not found in the parallel lists in 2 Samuel 5:1–25). Shimea (1 Chronicles 3:5) is rendered as Shammua
in 2 Samuel 5:14 and Elishama (1 Chronicles 3:8) is Elishua
in 2 Samuel 5:15. The second last name in the list of sons was originally named Beeliada, which means the (divine) Master knows
(1 Chronicles 14:7). But this was changed both here and in 2 Samuel 5:16 to Eliada, God knows,
to avoid any associations of the name beel with the pagan god Baal.3
5 These were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four by Bath-shua, the daughter of Ammiel;