1 Chronicles 6:1-15 meaning

1 Chronicles 6:1-15 traces the high-priestly genealogy of Israel from Levi to the Babylonian exile, naming every generation of the line that served at God's altar. The chronicler gives Levi more space than any other tribe--eighty-one verses. He wrote for families returning from exile in Babylon, and for them the most urgent question in these records was the one this chapter answers: who may serve at God's altar, and where do the servants of God's house belong? Before the story of the kings can begin, the worship of Israel must be staffed by the families God appointed.

The record opens at the head of the tribe: The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath and Merari (v 1). Levi himself received his name at his birth, when Leah said, "Now this time my husband will become attached to me," for the name sounds like the Hebrew word for "attached" (Genesis 29:34). The man named "attached" fathered the tribe attached to God's own house. His three sons went down to Egypt with Jacob (Genesis 46:11), and their three families organized the tribe's service from the wilderness onward. Kohath stands second in birth order lists yet first in importance here, because the priests descend from him; his name appears to come from a root meaning "allied." Merari's name comes from the Hebrew word for "bitter"--the same root Naomi reached for when she said, "call me Mara" (Ruth 1:20). Each of these three names will head its own family register later in the chapter.

The line narrows toward the altar: The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel (v 2). Amram's name likely means "exalted people," a fitting banner over the household that produced Israel's deliverers. Izhar fathered Korah, who led the great rebellion in the wilderness (Numbers 16:1). Hebron carries the same name as the city of Judah that will appear later in this chapter as the first priestly town (1 Chronicles 6:55)--the name of a Levite clan and the name of Israel's most storied southern city coincide. Uzziel's sons were the cousins Moses summoned to carry the bodies of Nadab and Abihu out of the sanctuary after their death (Leviticus 10:4). All four names mark clans that will bear the tabernacle's holiest furniture through the wilderness (Numbers 3:27-31).

Verse 3 continues the line of Kohathites with some familiar names: The children of Amram were Aaron, Moses and Miriam (v 3). One household in Egypt produced the first high priest, the lawgiver, and the prophetess who led Israel's song at the sea (Exodus 15:20). Moses received his name from Pharaoh's daughter, "Because I drew him out of the water" (Exodus 2:10). The chronicler says children rather than sons because Miriam belongs in the list; the genealogies of this book pause occassionaly  to honor women whose lives shaped Israel. The list then turns to the priests: And the sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar (v 3). Nadab and Abihu died childless when they offered "strange fire" before the LORD (Leviticus 10:1-2). "So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the lifetime of their father Aaron" (Numbers 3:4). Ithamar's line also served--Eli's family descended from him (1 Chronicles 24:3)--but the high priesthood ran forward through Eleazar.

Then begins the continued drumbeat of succession: Eleazar became the father of Phinehas, and Phinehas became the father of Abishua (v 4). Phinehas turned God's wrath from Israel at Peor when he speared the sinning couple, and God promised him and his descendants "a covenant of a perpetual priesthood" (Numbers 25:11-13). Every verse that follows is that promise written out in table form: a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, kept one birth at a time. Of Abishua Scripture records nothing beyond his place in this chain--and his place in the chain is itself the point. The line held.

And Abishua became the father of Bukki, and Bukki became the father of Uzzi (v 5). Bukki and Uzzi served during the long, largely unrecorded centuries of the judges. Scripture preserves no deeds for them, yet it preserves their names. God's faithfulness ran through quiet generations as surely as through famous ones; the altar fire stayed lit under men history forgot and God remembered.

These next generations likely span the era when the tabernacle stood at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1): And Uzzi became the father of Zerahiah, and Zerahiah became the father of Meraioth (v 6). The names Zerahiah and Meraioth appear again when Ezra the scribe traces his own ancestry through this very list (Ezra 7:3-4)--the priestly line of 1 Chronicles 6 became the family tree of the man who taught the law to the returned exiles.

The next verse states, Meraioth became the father of Amariah, and Amariah became the father of Ahitub (v 7). Amariah and Ahitub are names that recur later in this same list (vv 11-12). Priestly families named sons for grandfathers and great-grandfathers, so the register cycles through the same names. The repetition testifies to a family that knew its own story and kept telling it.

Then we enter the time of David's reign: And Ahitub became the father of Zadok, and Zadok became the father of Ahimaaz (v 8). Zadok carries a name built on the Hebrew word for "righteous." He served David faithfully through Absalom's revolt, and he anointed Solomon king when the throne hung in the balance (1 Kings 1:39). From then on his family held the high priesthood, and centuries later Ezekiel's vision of the restored temple reserved altar service for "the sons of Zadok" (Ezekiel 44:15). Ahimaaz his son was the famous runner who outran the Cushite to bring David news of the battle against Absalom (2 Samuel 18:19-27).

The line continues: And Ahimaaz became the father of Azariah, and Azariah became the father of Johanan (v 9). Azariah means "the LORD has helped," and no name recurs more often in this priestly register--three high priests in this one list carry it (vv 9, 10, 13). A family whose calling was to stand between a holy God and a sinful people kept naming its sons "the LORD has helped." The name was a confession: the help that the priesthood depended on came from the God it served.

In verse 10, one name receives a comment: And Johanan became the father of Azariah (it was he who served as the priest in the house which Solomon built in Jerusalem) (v 10). The parenthesis pauses the list at its high point: the moment the priesthood moved from a tent to the temple. The house Solomon built was the goal toward which all these generations had been serving. Some students of Scripture connect a later Azariah in this line with the courageous high priest who withstood King Uzziah when the king tried to burn incense himself (2 Chronicles 26:17-18); the register's repeated Azariahs make the identification uncertain, but the office he held is the same either way.

And Azariah became the father of Amariah, and Amariah became the father of Ahitub (v 11). The names of verse 7 return--Amariah, then Ahitub. An Amariah served as chief priest under King Jehoshaphat "in all that pertains to the LORD" during that king's reform (2 Chronicles 19:11); the timing fits this stretch of the list, though Scripture leaves the match unconfirmed. The generations now run through the era of Judah's kings, priest after priest serving beside the throne of David's sons.

And Ahitub became the father of Zadok, and Zadok became the father of Shallum (v 12). A second Zadok honors the first--the family reused the name of its greatest ancestor. Shallum appears as Meshullam in the parallel register of 1 Chronicles 9:11, one of several spelling variations this chapter preserves; ancient records freely carried both long and short forms of a name, and the chronicler kept what his sources gave him.

Verse 13 continues the line, stating, And Shallum became the father of Hilkiah, and Hilkiah became the father of Azariah (v 13). Hilkiah bears a name meaning "the LORD is my portion"--and this is evidently the Hilkiah who found the book of the law in the house of the LORD during Josiah's repairs, the discovery that ignited Judah's last great reformation (2 Kings 22:8-13). The priest named "the LORD is my portion" handed his king the book that called Judah back to the LORD. Then, yet another Azariah follows him, the third of the register.

Next we see, And Azariah became the father of Seraiah, and Seraiah became the father of Jehozadak (v 14). Seraiah was the chief priest when Jerusalem fell; the king of Babylon executed him at Riblah (2 Kings 25:18-21). His name also ran forward in another direction: Ezra the scribe was a son of Seraiah's line (Ezra 7:1), so both the last pre-exile high priest and the great post-exile teacher came from this one man. Jehozadak's name means "the LORD is righteous"--a heavy name for the generation it landed on, because the disaster about to fall on Judah was the LORD's righteous judgment, and the name confessed it.

Finally, verse 15 closes out the sons of Kohath with a note on Jehozadak: And Jehozadak went along when the LORD carried Judah and Jerusalem away into exile by Nebuchadnezzar (v 15). The verse names the true actor in the catastrophe: the LORD carried Judah away (v 15), while Nebuchadnezzar was His instrument. The register that began with Levi in Egypt ends with Levi's descendant walking to Babylon--the priesthood shared the nation's judgment. For the chronicler's first readers, this ending carried hope. Jehozadak went into exile with the people. Then, his son, Jeshua (also spelled Yeshua or Joshua), was the high priest who came back from Babylon, rebuilt the altar, and served beside Zerubbabel (Ezra 3:2; Haggai 1:1). 

The name "Jeshua," or "Joshua" (meaning "The LORD is salvation"), is not only the name of the man at the right hand of Moses who brought Israel into the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 34:9), but it is also the name given to the Messiah (Matthew 1:21). "Jesus" (Iēsous in the original Greek) is the Greek version of the Hebrew name "Jeshua." Foreshadowing the coming Jeshua (Jesus), the Savior of the world, the prophet Zechariah was commanded by God to place a crown on Jeshua son of Jehozadak's head:

"Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Then say to him, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the LORD. Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices."'"
(Zechariah 6:11-13). 

The priest ministering among the returned exiles, Jehozadak, stood in an unbroken line that ran through the exile, through Solomon's temple, through Zadok and Phinehas, all the way back to Aaron. Then, it is his son, who stands as a sign of the coming Christ who would save His people from their sins and rule eternally as the true High Priest (Hebrews 8:1-2). The Levite genealogy of 1 Chronicles 6:1-15 shows that God truly kept the covenant of a perpetual priesthood (Exodus 40:15).