The line of David is the centrepiece or the heartbeat of Judah’s genealogy. It receives more attention than any other among the Judahites. All the royal lines of the northern kingdom were extinguished. The royal line of David continues.1 With 1 Chronicles 3:1 the Chronicler returns to the genealogy of Ram in 1 Chronicles 2:10–17, which traces the royal line from Ram to Jesse. At this point however, he restricts himself to the line of David that started in 1 Chronicles 2:15, and begins to trace the longest genealogy in Scripture, carrying it through five centuries to about 500 BC.
The prophecy of Jeremiah 22:30 in 597 BC made it quite plain that no merely human descendant of this line would ever occupy the throne of David again. When the Persians authorized the return of the captives to their homeland, they forbade the reinstatement of a king. Still, the Davidic family maintained its importance in the supply of civic leaders, beginning with the first two governors, Shenazzar and Zerubbabel, through 515 BC (Ezra 5:2, Ezra 5:15), and Zechariah prophesied that it would continue to do so (Zechariah 12:7–10). The house of David held the ultimate hope for Israel because from it would arise the Messiah, David's greater Son, whom postexilic prophecy would portray as more than human. "He would be God’s 'fellow' (Zechariah 13:7, KJV), pierced as a man but acknowledged as deity (Zechariah 12:10). He would bring redemption from sin (Zechariah 13:1) and God’s kingdom on earth (Zechariah 14:9).”2
The list of David’s sons, which total nineteen, is divided into two sections based upon the capital cities where they were born, Hebron or Jerusalem. The sources for this material were 2 Samuel 3:2–5 and 2 Samuel 3:14–16.
The narrator inserts family information about a king at critical points in the history of his reign. Here the list of David’s wives and sons serves the purpose of indicating the strengthening of the house of David. The focus of the list is on those sons who were born after David became king (emphasis mine). In such lists only the firstborn son of each wife is mentioned. This should not be taken to mean that he only had one son with each wife or that he had no sons before he was crowned king of Judah.3 None of the history of the many troubles David experienced before becoming king is recorded by the Chronicler.
1 These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite,