Matthew 1:9

Ozias. — Ozias is, of course, the Uzziah of the Old Testament. Three names are omitted between Joram and this king — viz., Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah. Apparently the motive for the omission was simply the desire of bringing the names in each period into which the genealogy is divided to the arbitrary standard of fourteen. Possibly, however, as it was thus necessary to omit three names, the choice of these may have been determined by the fact that they belonged to the time of Athaliah’s disastrous influence in the history of the monarchy of Judah. We learn from this fact that the words “A begat B” are not to be taken literally, but are simply an expression of the fact of succession with or without intermediate links.