---
title: "John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible"
author: "John Wesley"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 97 of 398
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/97/
cite: "John Wesley, John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible, section 97. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/97/"
---

# John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible

*John Wesley*

Wesley's short, plain notes on the Old and New Testaments, verse by verse.

## 97. 1 Chronicles · 1 of 6

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/97/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/97/#p-N

[¶0] Sheth - Adam begat Sheth: and so in the following particulars. For brevity sake he only mentions their names; but the rest is easily understood out of the former books. This appears as the peculiar glory of the Jewish nation, that they alone were able to trace their pedigree from the first man that God created, which no other nation pretended to, but abused themselves and their posterity with fabulous accounts of their originals: the people of Thessaly fancying that they sprang from stones, the Athenians, that they grew out of the earth.

[¶1] The sons of Japheh - The historian repeating the account of the replenishing the earth by the sons of Noah, begins with those that were strangers to the church, the sons of Japheth, who peopled Europe, of whom he says little, as the Jews had hitherto little or no dealings with them. He proceeds to those that had many of them been enemies to the church, and thence hastens to the line of Abraham, breaking off abruptly from all the other families of the sons of Noah, but that of Arphaxad, from whom Christ was to come. The great promise of the Messiah was transmitted from Adam to Seth, from him to Shem, from him to Eber, and so to the Jewish nation, who were intrusted above all nations with that sacred treasure, 'till the promise was performed, and the Messiah was come: and then that nation was made not a people.

[¶2] The Jebusite - The names which follow until ver.17, are not the names of particular persons, but of people or nations. And all these descended from Canaan, though some of them were afterwards extinct or confounded with others of their brethren by cohabitation or mutual marriages, whereby they lost their names: which is the reason why they are no more mentioned, at least under these names.

[¶3] The sons - Either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, or, these words, the children of Aram, are understood before Uz, out of Gen 10:23, where they are expressed.

[¶4] Begat - Either immediately, or mediately by his son Cainan, who is expressed, Luke 3:35.

[¶5] Divided - In their languages and habitations.

[¶6] Arphaxad - Having given a brief and general account of the original of the world and the people in it, he now returns to a more large and particular account of the genealogy of Shem, from whom the Jews were descended.

[¶7] The sons of Abraham - All nations but the seed of Abraham are already shaken off from this genealogy. Not that we conclude, no particular persons of any other nation but this found favour with God. Multitudes will be brought to heaven out of every nation, and we may hope there were many, very many people in the world, whose names were in the book of life, tho' they did not spring from the loins of Abraham.

[¶8] Timna - There is another Timna, the concubine of Eliphaz, Gen 36:12, but this was one of his sons, though called by the same name; there being some names common both to men and women in the Hebrew and in other languages.

[¶9] Seir - One of another nation, prince of the Horims; whose genealogy is here described, because of that affinity which was contracted between his and Esau's posterity; and those who were not united and incorporated with them, were destroyed by them. See Deut 2:12.

[¶10] These are the dukes of Edom - Let us, in reading these genealogies, think of the multitudes that have gone thro' the world, have successively acted their parts in it, and retired into darkness. All these and all theirs had their day; many of them made a mighty noise in the world; until their day came to fall, and their place knew them no more. The paths of death are trodden paths. How soon are we to tread them?

[¶11] Judah - Whom he puts first, because the best part of the right of the firstborn, namely, the dominion, was conferred upon him, Gen 49:8, and because the Messiah was to come out of his loins.

[¶12] Dara - If these be the same who are mentioned as the sons of Machol, 1Kings 4:31, either the same man had two names, Zerah and Machol, as was usual among the Hebrews: or, one of these was their immediate father, and the other their grand - father. These are named, because they were the glory of their father's house. When the Holy Ghost would magnify the wisdom of Solomon, he saith, he was wiser than these four men. That four brothers should be so eminent, was a rare thing.

[¶13] Carmi - Who is here mentioned, because he was the son of Zimri, who is also called Zabdi, Jos 7:1. Achar - Called Achan, Jos 7:1, and here Achar, with a little variation for greater significancy: for Achar signifies a troubler.

[¶14] Eliab - Called also Elihu, chap.27:18, unless that was another person, and the word brother be taken more largely for a kinsman, as it is frequently.

[¶15] Seventh - He had eight sons, 1Sam 16:10, but probably one of them died presently after that time.

[¶16] Ishmaelite - By birth or habitation, but by profession an Israelite, 2Sam 17:25.

[¶17] Her sons - The sons of Azubah, who is by way of distinction called his wife, when Jerioth probably was only his concubine, and, it may seem, barren: therefore upon Azubah's death he married another wife. And those other sons of this Caleb mentioned, ver.42, are his sons by some other wife distinct from all these.

[¶18] Gilead - Of a man so called: a man of noted valour, and the great champion in those parts.

[¶19] Sons of Machir - Partly to his own sons, and partly to his son - in - law Jair, who by reason of that dear affection which was betwixt them, and his forsaking his own tribe and kindred to fight for them and to dwell with them, is here reckoned as his own son.

[¶20] Tekoa - A known place whose father he is called, because he was either the progenitor of the people inhabiting there: or, their prince and ruler: or, the builder of the city.

[¶21] The sons - An expression often used in prophane authors too, where there is but one son.

[¶22] Jarha - Probably he was not only a proselyte, but an eminent man: else an Israelite would not have given him his only daughter.

[¶23] Beth - zur - A place in Judah.

[¶24] Madmannah - This, and divers other following names are the names of places in Judah.

[¶25] Bethlehem - That is, the inhabitants of Bethlehem.

[¶26] Scribes - Either civil, who were public notaries, that wrote and signed legal instruments: or ecclesiastical. And these were either Levites, or Simeonites, or rather Kenites, and are here mentioned not as if they were of the tribe of Judah, but because they dwelt among them, and probably were allied to them by marriages, and so in a manner incorporated with them.

[¶27] His wife - Possibly so called because she was his first, and therefore most proper wife, though her son was born after all the rest before mentioned, and therefore she and her son are put in the sixth place, the wive being here named only for the sons sake.

[¶28] Four - All David's children by her, as the text positively affirms: and therefore Solomon is called her, only son, Prov 4:3, because she loved him as if he had been so. Ammiel - Called also Eliam, 2Sam 11:3.

[¶29] Eliphelet - And he had two other sons called by the same names, ver.8, probably they were by different wives: and probably they were then distinguished by some additional clause or title, which is here omitted, because the two first were dead before the two second were born, and therefore the names of the deceased were given to these to preserve their memory.

[¶30] Nine - There are but seven mentioned, 2Sam 5:14. Two of them are omitted there, because they died very early, and here we have all the sons of David, which clause is not added 2Sam 5:13 - 16.

[¶31] Shallum - Which most conceive to be the same who is called Jehoahaz, 2Kings 23:30.

[¶32] Zedekiak - This was another Zedekiah. How seldom has a crown gone in a direct line, from father to son, as it did here, for seventeen generations! This was the recompense of David's piety. About the captivity the lineal descent was interrupted, and the crown went from a nephew to an uncle, a presage of the glory's departing from that house.

[¶33] Assir - Or, of Jechoniah the captive, which is added to shew that he begat his son when he was captive in Babylon.

[¶34] Pedaiah - The sentence seems to be short and imperfect, as is frequent in the Hebrew language, and something is here understood, as, the sons also of Salathiel were Malchiram and Pedaiah, &c. as they gather from hence that the same Zerubbabel is called the son of Pedaiah, ver.19, and the son (that is, the grandson) of Salathiel, Matt 1:12.

[¶35] Their sister - Sister to the two last named sons of Zerubbabel, namely, by both parents; and therefore named before the other five, ver.20, who were her brethren by the father, but not by the mother.

[¶36] Shechaniah - All these both parents and their sons blended together, are mentioned as the sons of Hananiah, and branches of the royal stock.

[¶37] Six - Including the father. But the Hebrew word, Shisha, which is rendered six, may be the proper name of one of the sons of Shemaiah.

[¶38] The sons - The posterity: for only Pharez was his immediate son. But they are all mentioned here only to shew Shobal's descent from Judah.

[¶39] Honourably - For courage, and for fervent piety. She records this, that it might be a memorandum to herself, to be thankful to God as long as she lived, for bringing her through that sorrow: and a memorandum to him, that she bore him into a vale of tears, in which he might expect few days and full of trouble. And the sorrow in his name might serve to put a seriousness upon his spirit.

[¶40] Called - When he was undertaking some great and dangerous service. Enlarge - Drive out these Canaanites, whom thou hast commanded us to root out. Grieve - That it may not oppress and overcome me: more is understood than is expressed. He useth this expression in allusion to his name, which signifies grief. And God granted, &c. - Prospered him remarkably in his undertakings, in his studies, in his worldly business, and in his conflicts with the Canaanites.

[¶41] Rechab - From these are sprung the present inhabitants of Rechab, a town not elsewhere mentioned.

[¶42] Father - Of the inhabitants of the valley.

[¶43] Shelah - Having treated of the posterity of Judah by Pharez, and by Zara, he now comes to his progeny by Shelah.

[¶44] Had dominion - Which they ruled in the name and for the use of the kings of Judah, to whom Moab was subject from David's time. Ancient things - The sense is those blessed times are long since past. Our ancestors had the dominion over the Heathen, but their degenerate posterity are slaves in Chaldea, were they are employed as potters or gardeners, or in other servile works.