Bible Synapse
Why do the three lists of David’s sons born in Jerusalem differ?
Hard question · Genealogies · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Eleven sons born in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada and Eliphalet.
And these be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia, And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet.
Four sons of Bath-shua, then nine more, with Eliphelet and Nogah added and Elishama for Elishua: thirteen in all.
And these were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shimea, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bath–shua the daughter of Ammiel: Ibhar also, and Elishama, and Eliphelet, And Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia, And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet, nine.
Thirteen sons born in Jerusalem, with Elpalet and Nogah, and Beeliada for Eliada.
And David took more wives at Jerusalem: and David begat more sons and daughters. Now these are the names of his children which he had in Jerusalem; Shammua, and Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, And Ibhar, and Elishua, and Elpalet, And Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia, And Elishama, and Beeliada, and Eliphalet.
The objection
2 Samuel 5:14–16 names eleven sons of David born in Jerusalem. 1 Chronicles 3:5–8 and 14:4–7 name thirteen, adding an Eliphelet (or Elpalet) and a Nogah, so that Eliphelet appears twice in the same list. The names do not match either: 1 Chronicles 3:6 has Elishama where the other lists have Elishua, and 1 Chronicles 14:7 has Beeliada for Eliada. Critics ask which list is right.
The answer
The three lists agree on eleven sons, in the same order. The two extra sons in Chronicles, Eliphelet (Elpalet) and Nogah, were most likely children who died in infancy or very young, so that the writer of Samuel left them out while Chronicles, counting every son, kept them; 1 Chronicles 3:8 even gives the total, nine, after Bath-shua’s four. Keil and Delitzsch explain the list this way, and it also explains why Eliphelet appears twice: a son born later was given the name of a brother who had died. Parents in Israel did this, as families still do.
The other differences are matters of spelling and copying. Shammua and Shimea are two spellings of one name. Beeliada, ‘Baal knows’, is another form of Eliada, ‘God knows’: in David’s time baal, ‘lord’ or ‘master’, could still be used of the LORD (compare Hosea 2:16), but later the word was avoided because of the god Baal, and names containing it were often given another form, as Eshbaal, Saul’s son, became Ishbosheth. Finally, the Elishama of 1 Chronicles 3:6 is very probably a scribe’s slip for Elishua, made because a second son called Elishama follows two verses later (see textual). With these explained, the lists describe the same family.
Other answers Christians give
Samuel names the sons who grew up
On the same view, the list in 2 Samuel 5 is not incomplete by accident. It names the sons who lived to be men; the Chronicler, who often records fuller registers, includes the two who died young. Some copies of the Greek Septuagint of 2 Samuel 5:16 add a second, longer list that also includes a Nogah (Naged) and a second Eliphalet.
From the classic commentators
it has evidently been done deliberately on account of their having died in infancy, or at a very early age. This also furnishes a very simple explanation of the fact, that the name Eliphalet occurs again at the end of the list, namely, because a son who was born later received the name of his brother who had died young.C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on 2 Samuel 5:14–16 (1866–1891)