Hattush
Hattush is the name attached to several different men in the UPDV. They are gathered under one headword in three numbered buckets: a son of Shemaiah in the post-exilic Davidic genealogy of 1 Chronicles, a descendant of David named in Ezra's caravan and again in Nehemiah's wall and covenant lists, and a priest in the same generation. The biblical material lets each of them be sketched only in the action that names him. Each Hattush appears only in his own list-verse, with the surrounding verses supplying just enough context to tell the men apart.
Son Of Shemaiah In The Davidic Line
The earliest Hattush in the canonical order sits in the Chronicler's continuation of David's house past the exile. The line is traced from Jeconiah down through Shealtiel, Pedaiah, Zerubbabel, Hananiah, and on to Shecaniah and Shemaiah. At that point the verse opens out: "And the sons of Shecaniah: Shemaiah. And the sons of Shemaiah: Hattush, and Igal, and Bariah, and Neariah, and Shaphat, six" (1Ch 3:22). The Chronicler's interest is the survival of David's seed after Jeconiah "the captive" (1Ch 3:17), and Hattush appears in that frame as one of six brothers in a generation several steps below Zerubbabel. This Hattush is listed by himself as bucket #1.
A Descendant Of David Among Ezra's Returnees
The second Hattush returns from Babylon with Ezra. The genealogy of those "who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king" (Ezr 8:1) opens with the priestly families of Phinehas and Ithamar and then names a Davidide: "Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom. Of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. Of the sons of David, Hattush" (Ezr 8:2). The phrase "of the sons of David" places this Hattush in the same royal line whose post-exilic generations the Chronicler traces, though Ezra does not say which generation. This Ezra notice is grouped with three Nehemiah verses under one bucket, treating them all as the Davidic Hattush.
Repairer Of The Wall Under Nehemiah
A Hattush takes a section of Jerusalem's wall in Nehemiah's repair list. He is patronymically distinct from the other Hattushes: "And next to him repaired Hattush the son of Hashabneiah" (Ne 3:10). His section sits between Jedaiah son of Harumaph, who repaired the stretch "across from his house" (Ne 3:10), and Malchijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahath-moab, who "repaired another portion, and the tower of the furnaces" (Ne 3:11). The names around him in the list are not priestly titles but householders and a district ruler — Rephaiah son of Hur, "the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem" (Ne 3:9), is two builders behind him, and Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler of the other half-district, "he and his daughters" (Ne 3:12), is one builder ahead. This Hattush is gathered under the descendant-of-David bucket; the verse itself names only his father, Hashabneiah.
Sealer Of The Covenant
A Hattush is among those who set their seal to the renewed covenant in Nehemiah 10. The list opens with the governor — "Now those who sealed were: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah" (Ne 10:1) — and runs through three names per verse. Hattush's name closes one such triplet: "Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch" (Ne 10:4). The block that he stands in is closed off seven names later with a summary clause: "Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests" (Ne 10:8). The text itself thus marks Hattush of 10:4 as a priest. This verse is grouped with the Davidide of Ezra 8:2 and the wall-builder of Nehemiah 3:10; the sealing list reads him as one of the priestly sealers.
A Priest Who Came Up With Zerubbabel
A Hattush stands in the priestly list of those who came up in the first return. Nehemiah 12 opens this list explicitly: "Now these are the priests and the Levites who went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra" (Ne 12:1). The next verse runs the next three names: "Amariah, Malluch, Hattush" (Ne 12:2). This verse appears twice in the topical frame — once under the descendant-of-David bucket and again under bucket #3, "A priest" — and the second printing is the one that matches the verse's own framing. The Hattush of Ne 12:2 is a priest of the Zerubbabel generation, several decades earlier than the Hattush who returned with Ezra (Ezr 8:2).
Synthesis
The Hattushes of the UPDV stand in five list-verses across four books and at three different points of post-exilic history. The Chronicler's Hattush is a son of Shemaiah several generations down from Zerubbabel in the surviving Davidic line (1Ch 3:22). Ezra's Hattush is "of the sons of David," a Davidide who came up from Babylon in Artaxerxes' reign (Ezr 8:2). The wall-builder is named only by his father Hashabneiah and given a section of Jerusalem's wall (Ne 3:10). The covenant-sealer appears in a triplet that the chapter itself closes with "these were the priests" (Ne 10:8). And the Hattush of Ne 12:2 is named expressly among the priests who came up with Zerubbabel and Jeshua (Ne 12:1). The three topical buckets — son of Shemaiah, descendant of David, priest — collapse the wall-builder and the two priestly Hattushes into the Davidic line; the verses themselves keep the priestly Hattushes distinct from the Davidide of Ezra 8:2 and from each other by separating them by a generation and by the framing of their lists.