What Does 1 Chronicles 2:35 Mean?

(35-41) The line of Sheshan-Jarha is pursued for thirteen generations of direct descent, but nothing is known of any of its members from any other source. Elishama, the last name (1Chronicles 2:41), is the twenty-fourth generation specified from Judah. The list thus extends over a period of at least 720 years; and if we reckon from the Exodus (circ. 1330 B.C.), we get B.C. 610 as an approximate date for Elishama. Now an Elishama was living about that time, who is mentioned (Jeremiah 36:12) as one of the princes of Jehoiakim, king of Judah; Jeremiah 41:1 perhaps mentions the same person again, calling him “of the seed of the kingdom.” It is at least a coincidence that several of the names recur in the house of David: Nathan (1Chronicles 2:36) in 1Chronicles 3:5; Obed, as David’s grandfather in 1Chronicles 2:12; Azariah, as a byname of King Uzziah, in 1Chronicles 3:12; Shallum, as a son of Josiah, in 1Chronicles 3:15; Jekamiah, as a brother of Salathiel (Shealtiel), in 1Chronicles 3:18; and Elishama, as a son of David, in 1Chronicles 3:8—a coincidence of six out of thirteen names. The passage Deut. Xxiii. 7, 8 rules that in the third generation persons of Egyptian blood are to be treated as full Israelites. This whole section proves that an Egyptian element was recognised in Judah. (Compare Exodus 12:38; Numbers 11:4.) Even the name Jarha has an Egyptian cast (comp. *larō,* the Memphitic name of the Nile, with the Vulg. spelling of the word Jeraa); perhaps it is *Iar-aa,* great river, (*i.e.,* the Nile).