And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;
Ver. 15. And Eliud begat Eleazar, &c.] These might be private persons, some of them, as Joseph and Mary were; it being the care and the endeavour of the Herods, and those before, that held the Jews in subjection, to suppress as much as might be the posterity of David, at least to keep them in a low condition; forasmuch as it was a certain and received truth among that people, that "Messiah the Prince" Dan 9:25 should shortly come from that family. And this was that which held up the fainting hearts of the good people of those sad times (when prophecy failed them, and prosperity too), they looked for the "Desire of all nations," for the consolation of Israel, having little else to relieve them, for the external means, unless it were that בת קיל, that echo heard in the temple, they tell us of, which served them for an oracle; and the miracle of the pool of Bethesda granted by God to strengthen them in the true worship of God, under the persecution of Antiochus and other tyrants, till the days of John Baptist and the Lord Christ.