Bible Synapse
Was Solomon Bathsheba’s second son or her fourth?
Hard question · Genealogies · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
The child Bathsheba bore to David dies; David comforts her, and “she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon”.
And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. …
Born in Jerusalem: “Shimea, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bath–shua the daughter of Ammiel”.
And these were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shimea, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bath–shua the daughter of Ammiel:
Samuel’s own list of David’s Jerusalem sons begins “Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon”.
And these be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon,
The objection
2 Samuel 12 tells how Bathsheba’s first son by David died, and how she then bore Solomon, which seems to make Solomon her second son. But 1 Chronicles 3:5 lists her sons as Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, which seems to make him her fourth.
The answer
Neither passage numbers Solomon. 2 Samuel 12:24 says only that after the child’s death Bathsheba “bare a son, and he called his name Solomon”; it does not call him her second son. 1 Chronicles 3:5 lists four sons of Bath-shua (a form of Bathsheba; her father Eliam, 2 Samuel 11:3, is here Ammiel, the same two parts reversed) without ordinal numbers, unlike the Hebron sons just before, who are numbered one by one, from “the firstborn Amnon” to “the sixth Ithream”. It simply gives the total, four. So the passages conflict only if the Chronicles list is in order of birth, and the Bible gives good reason not to assume that.
Chronicles does not always list brothers by age. In the same chapter the sons of Josiah are given as “the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum” (1 Chronicles 3:15). Yet Shallum, who reigned as Jehoahaz (Jeremiah 22:11), was twenty-three when he became king, and Zedekiah only twenty-one when he became king eleven years later (2 Kings 23:31; 24:18), so Shallum was much the older. Keil and Delitzsch explain that Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, who each reigned eleven years, are named before him, and that he stands beside Zedekiah, his full brother (both were sons of Hamutal, 2 Kings 23:31; 24:18). Solomon may likewise be named last of Bathsheba’s sons because his is the line the chapter goes on to trace: “And Solomon’s son was Rehoboam” (1 Chronicles 3:10). The same order appears in Samuel itself (2 Samuel 5:14), and the writer of Samuel, who tells of Solomon’s birth in chapter 12, evidently saw no conflict.
Other answers Christians give
Youngest first
The medieval Jewish commentator David Kimchi suggested that the four names run from the youngest to the eldest, so that Solomon, though named last, was the eldest of Bathsheba’s surviving sons.
Solomon born later
Others take the list as birth order and read 2 Samuel 12:24 as telling of Solomon’s birth at that point because it completes the story of David’s sin and restoration, not because he was born next. Keil and Delitzsch note that Solomon was probably not born until after the capture of Rabbah. On this view Shimea, Shobab and Nathan were older, and Solomon was chosen as heir by God and by David’s oath (1 Kings 1:17; 1 Chronicles 22:9), not by age. The difficulty is that verse 24 most naturally reads as Bathsheba’s next child.
Still open
Scripture does not say in what order Bathsheba’s sons were born, so Christian commentators differ between the explanations above. Either way, neither passage says what the objection needs it to say.
From the classic commentators
According to age, they should have followed each other in this order - Johanan, Jehoiakim, Shallum, and Zedekiah; and in respect to their kingship, Shallum should have stood before Jehoiakim.C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on 1 Chronicles 3:15 (1866–1891)