Bible Synapse
Why do the lists of Saul’s sons differ?
Hard question · Genealogies · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
“Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishui, and Melchi–shua”, with two daughters, Merab and Michal.
Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishui, and Melchi–shua: and the names of his two daughters were these; the name of the firstborn Merab, and the name of the younger Michal:
“Saul begat Jonathan, and Malchi–shua, and Abinadab, and Esh–baal.”
And Ner begat Kish, and Kish begat Saul, and Saul begat Jonathan, and Malchi–shua, and Abinadab, and Esh–baal.
The same four sons of Saul are repeated in the list of the family of Gibeon.
And Ner begat Kish; and Kish begat Saul; and Saul begat Jonathan, and Malchi–shua, and Abinadab, and Esh–baal.
On Mount Gilboa the Philistines kill “Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi–shua, Saul’s sons”.
And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi–shua, Saul’s sons.
After Saul’s death, Abner makes “Ish–bosheth the son of Saul” king.
But Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s host, took Ish–bosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim;
The objection
1 Samuel 14:49 names Saul’s sons as Jonathan, Ishui and Melchishua. 1 Chronicles 8:33 and 9:39 name them as Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab and Eshbaal. Ishui is missing from Chronicles, and Abinadab and Eshbaal are missing from Samuel’s list. Critics ask who Saul’s sons really were.
The answer
Taken together, the passages give Saul four sons by his wife: Jonathan, Ishui (also called Abinadab), Malchishua and Eshbaal (also called Ish-bosheth). The list in 1 Samuel 14:49 names three of them, and they are exactly the three who later died with their father on Mount Gilboa. There Samuel itself calls them “Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi–shua” (1 Samuel 31:2), so Ishui (Hebrew Yishwi) is very probably another name for Abinadab. Keil and Delitzsch take it so, as does the STEPBible lexicon. A second name was common in Israel: Gideon was also Jerubbaal (Judges 7:1).
The fourth son, Eshbaal, is the man whom Abner made king after Saul’s death; Samuel calls him Ish-bosheth (2 Samuel 2:8). Eshbaal contains the word baal, ‘lord’ or ‘master’, which could still be used in a good sense in Saul’s day; in Ish-bosheth, ‘man of shame’, it has been replaced by bosheth, ‘shame’, because of the god Baal, just as Gideon’s name Jerubbaal becomes Jerubbesheth (2 Samuel 11:21). The same change appears in Jonathan’s son, Merib-baal in 1 Chronicles 8:34 and Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 4:4. Samuel does not say why 1 Samuel 14:49 leaves Eshbaal out, but it is a short summary, and it also omits Saul’s two sons by his concubine Rizpah (2 Samuel 21:8). No list says ‘these and no others’.
Other answers Christians give
Ishui as Eshbaal
Some scholars, followed by the Brown–Driver–Briggs lexicon, take Ishui to be a damaged or altered form of Eshbaal’s name, so that it is Abinadab whom 1 Samuel 14:49 leaves out. Either way the lists describe the same family.
Saul’s family early in his reign
1 Samuel 14:49–51 closes the account of Saul’s early reign. Some suggest it describes his family as it stood then, before Eshbaal had come of age. Keil and Delitzsch thought the reason could not be determined and allowed that the name might have dropped out in copying.
Still open
Whether Ishui is Abinadab or Eshbaal, and why 1 Samuel 14:49 names only three sons, cannot be settled from the text.
From the classic commentators
Only three of his sons are mentioned, namely those who fell with him, according to 1 Samuel 31:2, in the war with the Philistines. Jisvi is only another name for Abinadab (1 Samuel 31:2; 1 Chronicles 8:33; 1 Chronicles 9:39).C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on 1 Samuel 14:49 (1866–1891)