As Keil and Delitzsch observe:
The kings of the house of David from Solomon till the exile. - Until Josiah the individual kings are mentioned in their order, each with the addition בּנו, son of the preceding,
1 Chronicles 3:10-14; the only omission being that of the usurper Athaliah, because she did not belong to the posterity of David. But in
1 Chronicles 3:15 four sons of Josiah are mentioned, not "in order to allow of a halt in the long line of David's descendants after Josiah the great reformer" (Berth.), but because with Josiah the regular succession to the throne in the house of David ceased. For the younger son Jehoahaz, who was made king after his father's death by the people, was soon dethroned by Pharaoh-Necho, and led away captive to Egypt; and of the other sons Jehoiakim was set up by Pharaoh, and Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar, so that both were only vassals of heathen lords of the land, and the independent kingship of David came properly to an end with the death of Josiah. Johanan, the first-born of the sons of Josiah, is not to be identified with Jehoahaz, whom the people raised to the throne. For, in the first place, it appears from the statement as to the ages of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim in
2 Kings 23:31,
2 Kings 23:36;
2 Chronicles 36:2,
2 Chronicles 36:5, that Jehoahaz was two years younger than Jehoiakim, and consequently was not the first-born. In
Jeremiah 22:11 it is expressly declared that Shallum, the fourth son of Josiah, was king of Judah instead of his father, and was led away into captivity, and never saw his native land again, as history narrates of Jehoahaz. From this it would appear that Shallum took, as king, the name Jehoahaz. Johanan, the first-born, is not met with again in history, either because he died early, or because nothing remarkable could be told of him. Jehoiakim was called Eliakim before he was raised to the throne (
2 Kings 23:24). Zedekiah was at first Mattaniah (
2 Kings 24:17). Zedekiah, on his ascending the throne, was younger than Shallum, and that event occurred eleven years after the accession of Shallum equals Jehoahaz. Zedekiah was only twenty-one years old, while Jehoahaz had become king in his twenty-third year. But in our genealogy Zedekiah is introduced after Jehoiakim, and before Shallum, because, on the one hand, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah had occupied the throne for a longer period, each having been eleven years king; and on the other, Zedekiah and Shallum were sons of Hamutal (
2 Kings 23:31;
2 Kings 24:18), while Jehoiakim was the son of Zebudah (
2 Kings 23:36).
According to age, they should have followed each other in this order - Johanan, Jehoiakim, Shallum, and Zedekiah; and in respect to their kingship, Shallum should have stood before Jehoiakim. But in both cases those born of the same mother, Hamutal, would have been separated. To avoid this, apparently, Shallum has been enumerated in the fourth place, along with his full brother Zedekiah. In
1 Chronicles 3:6 it is remarkable that a son of Jehoiakim's son Jeconiah is mentioned, named Zedekiah, while the sons of Jeconiah follow only in
1 Chronicles 3:17 and
1 Chronicles 3:18. Jeconiah (cf.
Jeremiah 24:1; shortened Coniah,
Jeremiah 22:24,
Jeremiah 22:28, and
Jeremiah 37:1) is called, as kings, in
2 Kings 24:8. and
2 Chronicles 36:9, Jehoiachin, another form of the name, but having the same signification, "Jahve founds or establishes." Zedekiah can only be a son of Jeconiah, for the בּנו which is added constantly denotes that the person so called is the son of his predecessor. Many commentators, certainly, were of opinion that Zedekiah was the same person as the brother of Jehoiakim mentioned in
1 Chronicles 3:15 under the name Zidkijahu, and who is here introduced as son of Jeconiah, because he was the successor of Jeconiah on the throne. For this view support was sought in a reference to
1 Chronicles 3:10., in which all Solomon's successors in the kingship are enumerated in order with בּנו. But all the kings who succeeded each other from Solomon to Josiah were also, without exception, sons of their predecessors; so that there בּנו throughout denotes a proper son, while
King Zedekiah, on the contrary, was not the son, but an uncle of Jeconiah (Jehoiachin). We must therefore hold צדקיּה for a literal son of Jeconiah, and that so much the more, because the name צדקיּה differs also from צדקיּהוּ, as the name of the king is constantly written in
2 Kings 24:17. and in
2 Chronicles 36:10. But mention is made of this Zedekiah in
1 Chronicles 3:16 apart from the other sons of Jeconiah (
1 Chronicles 3:17 and
1 Chronicles 3:18), perhaps because he was not led away captive into exile with the others, but died in Judah before the breaking up of the kingdom. (Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78])
In addition, Shallum was an utter disgrace and would have been listed last by the chronicler by virtue of this, along with the aforementioned reasons.
