So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.
I think it more than probable, that the HOLY GHOST had some object in view in the division made of the three equal proportions of fourteen generations, in this genealogy of CHRIST. But though I am inclined to this opinion, yet I am free to confess I cannot explain it. But surely God the SPIRIT must have watched over those records with peculiar regard, or they could not but have been lost during the wars of Canaan, and the captivity in Babylon, which followed. And the correctness of this genealogy by Matthew, is striking. For the Targum is in perfect correspondence with it, only with this difference, and which is yet worthy of more particular regard, for that difference; namely, that while both the Targum, and Matthew, make the number of the generations from Zerubbabel fourteen: the Targum call the last Anani, saying at the same time, ``this is the King Messiah, who is to be revealed.'' And this is worthy of the greater attention, in that as the Targum is supposed to have began in the days of Ezra; therefore the Messiah, according to their own tradition, must have been long since. So that here is an additional evidence, (if it were needed), to all the cloud of witnesses with which. we are encompassed, to the truth as it is in JESUS.