Bible Synapse
Why does Chronicles name fourteen sons of Heman in one place and Jehiel and Shimei in another?
Hard question · Genealogies · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
In David’s reign, Heman the king’s seer has fourteen sons, Bukkiah to Mahazioth, and three daughters.
Of Heman: the sons of Heman; Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, and Romamti–ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth: All these were the sons of Heman the king’s seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. And God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.
Under Hezekiah, Levites rise to cleanse the temple, among them “of the sons of Heman; Jehiel, and Shimei”.
Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites: and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalelel: and of the Gershonites; Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah: And of the sons of Elizaphan; Shimri, and Jeiel: and of the sons of Asaph; Zechariah, and Mattaniah: And of the sons of Heman; Jehiel, and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun; Shemaiah, and Uzziel.
The objection
1 Chronicles 25:4 lists the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir and Mahazioth. 2 Chronicles 29:14 names “the sons of Heman” as Jehiel and Shimei, neither of whom is in the first list.
The answer
The two passages are about different centuries. 1 Chronicles 25 describes the singers whom David organised for the temple service, and Heman’s fourteen sons were the heads of fourteen of the twenty-four courses of musicians (1 Chronicles 25:9–31). 2 Chronicles 29 is set in the first year of King Hezekiah, roughly two and a half centuries later, when the Levites gathered to cleanse the temple after the reign of Ahaz. Jehiel and Shimei, ‘of the sons of Heman’, were members of Heman’s family of singers in that generation, his descendants, not his own children.
The passage itself makes this plain. The verse before names Levites “of the sons of Elizaphan” and “of the sons of Asaph” (2 Chronicles 29:13), and Elizaphan was the chief of the Kohathites in the time of Moses (Numbers 3:30). In Hebrew, ‘sons of’ a famous man often means his house or guild, as in “the sons of Korah” in the headings of the Psalms. So the first list gives Heman’s sons and the second two of his descendants.