Hephzibah

The Greek repeats the formula "X begot Y" (ἐγέννησεν) for every link in the chain. To keep the list moving at a natural spoken pace, the verb is rendered simply as "the father of" and the connective δέ is left untranslated, since in English the rhythm of the list itself carries the sequence. The alternative, a full clause for each name ("Hezekiah begot Manasseh"), is more literal but heavy on the ear when read aloud. The name here is given as "Amos," following the reading of the earliest manuscripts; many renderings instead use "Amon," the spelling of the Judean king known from the Hebrew Scriptures. Greek forms of the Hebrew names are kept in their familiar English shapes (Hezekiah, Manasseh, Josiah) rather than transliterated from the Greek (Hezekias, Manasses, Josias).

The manuscripts divide between Ἀμώς (Amos) and Ἀμών (Amon) in both occurrences of the name in this verse. The oldest and most weighty witnesses read Ἀμώς, while a large body of later manuscripts reads Ἀμών, which matches the Hebrew name of King Amon of Judah. The variant most likely arose as a scribal correction toward the familiar Old Testament spelling, though some hold that Ἀμώς is itself an early confusion with the name of the prophet Amos. Similar spelling harmonizations occur elsewhere in this genealogy (for example Asaph/Asa in verses 7–8).

The verb ἐγέννησεν is the aorist of γεννάω, "to beget, to father." In the active voice it normally has the male parent as subject, which is why the entire list is framed through fathers — a pattern broken only at the end of the genealogy, where Joseph is said not to have fathered Jesus. The names themselves are Greek adaptations of Hebrew: Ἑζεκίας from Ḥizqiyyahu, "the LORD strengthens"; Μανασσῆς from Menashsheh, "one who causes to forget"; Ἰωσίας from Yoshiyahu, "the LORD supports/heals."

Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon and Josiah reigned in Judah from the late eighth into the late seventh century BC. Hezekiah and Josiah are remembered as reformers who purged foreign worship; Manasseh, whose reign was the longest in Judah's history, and his son Amon are remembered for the opposite. Amon was assassinated by his own officials after only two years on the throne, and the people of the land installed the boy Josiah in his place.

The genealogy makes no moral distinction among the names: the reformer and the idolater stand side by side in the same unbroken line. That Manasseh, held responsible in the historical books for Judah's deepest apostasy, is a direct ancestor of the Messiah has long been read as a sign that the coming of Christ rests on God's faithfulness rather than on the merit of the family through which he comes.