Chapter 2

This chapter starts with the sons of Israel.

It specifically goes through the genealogy to David, son of Jesse.  But it just goes right on past that as if it was just another birth. 

There are little snippets by some of the names, as if everyone would understand what the snippet was about.  For instance in vs. 7, it says "...Achan, the troubler of Israel, who broke faith in the matter of the devoted thing;..." Achan is the one who secreted some loot from an early conquest in Canaan and brought God's wrath on all Israel.  He and all his family were put to death over it  So this is a "tie" to where we are chronologically in the genealogy.  (Who knows how much information is in here that would have to be sifted grain by grain to truly appreciate it all.  Does any other nation possess such a detailed genealogical history of it's people?  Does any other religion with a "creation story" trace the people created from that creation to the present day?  ONLY the Bible, I believe, even attempts such a thing.)  From this point on, many of the wives and mother's are mentioned, along with the specific sons that they had.  It continues this way to the end of Chapter 2.

2024 -  How did I miss this?  In addition to seven sons, ending with David, two of Jesse's daughters are also named.  One is Zeruiah.  David's sister.  Zeruiah has three sons, two of which are Joab and Asahel.  These two commanders are David's own nephews, AND they are brothers!  Joab kills his own brother in a deceitful way! Joab was not a good man...yet he conquers many kingdoms for Israel.  AND, David's other sister was named Abigail, the same as his first wife.  Abigail was the mother of Amasa, another big name in David's life, another nephew.  Jether, an Ishmaelite, was Amasa's father.

The lineage of both Shallum and his grandson Elishama are here also.  Same ones I wonder?

2021 - 24 After the death of Hezron, Caleb went in to Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron his father, and she bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa. [1Ch 2:24 ESV].  This is clearly against Mosaic Law.  Amos, the prophet, was from Tekoa.  Tekoa is mentioned many times in the Bible - 11 times in ESV.

So the reason this comes in here is just that it's a good place to put it.  It is a genealogy, not really tied to any historical narrative.  Perhaps it is here because of when it was supposedly written - 450 BC or less.  I Chron is all genealogy through Chapter 9.  Chapter 10 starts with the death of Saul and his sons.  So we need to get to there to be current with what is going on in 2 Samuel, as David becomes King of Israel.  Looking ahead at the coming reading, there are many Psalms mixed in, but we are reading through I Chron 10 before coming back to 2 Samuel.