Jacob Have I Loved

William Johnstone points out in the first volume of his commentary on 1 & 2 Chronicles that the Chronicler’s (C) list of the kings of Edom oddly repeats the phrase “then king so-and-so died and there reigned in his place” seven times. In part, this places greater stress on kingship, but “the reason for its inclusion may be found in the subtle addition to his Genesis source of an echoing phrase after the eighth and last king: ‘Then Hadad died.’ This is followed by a paragraph marker. The new paragraph then begins: ‘Then there were tribal chieftains in Edom. . .’” (34).

The eight generations of kings from Esau bring the genealogy to thirteen generations after Abraham, and this is “precisely the moment in Israel of the emergence of David as king in the fourteenth generation from Abraham (cf. 1 Chron. 2.1, 4-5, 9-15). At that moment, as C makes explicit beyond Genesis, the rule of the Edomites passes from kings to tribal chieftains and monarchy itself passes from Edom to Israel. The specific way in which Israel is preferred to Esau is in kingship” (35).

The point seems to be that “it is through the Davidic monarchy that God’s dominion is to be exercised on earth.” But that reign is “eventually to be forfeited because of the faithlessness of the kings: thus under Jeroham, the Edomite monarchy is re-established (2 Chron. 21.8)” (35). Thus, the point is not simply about the transfer of kingship from Edom to Israel; Edom’s history serves as a warning and a model for the history of Davidic monarchy: “Just as Edom forfeited kingship, so, too, Israel is destined to forfeit the same institution” (35).

Yet this is not the end of the story. Johnstone draws attention to Zechariah 12:5, which uses the term “tribal chief” to describe the future ruler of Israel. As Edom shifted from king to chief, so shall Israel. But there is good news in that: “The mode by which the LORD’s dominion is to be exercised on earth will, when Israel returned definitively to the land, no longer be monarchy, glorious experiment in its finest hours under David and Solomon though it has been. It can only come through the holiness of God’s people” (35).

Kingship passes from Edomite kings to Davidic kings to a royal people.