And the sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei. And the sons of Zerubbabel Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister,
Verse 19 comes near the end of a family list that starts with David's sons, and it names Zerubbabel, in whom the royal line reappears after Babylon. It raises two questions: why is he Pedaiah's son here but Shealtiel's son elsewhere, and why does the list keep going once the throne is gone?
One writer explains Zerubbabel's two fathers by levirate marriage — a brother married the dead man's widow and raised children in his name.
Zerubbabel was the leader of the returning captives. His name means "seed of Babylon." He is called the son of Shealtiel, who was the son or grandson of Jeconiah. So Zerubbabel was a descendant of David. His name appears in the two genealogies of Matthew (1:12) and Luke (3:27). In 1 Chronicles 3:19 he is called the son of Pedaiah, who was Shealtiel's brother. This double parentage may well be explained by Pedaiah marrying Shealtiel's widow under the levirate law.
Commentators differ on the exact answer. One argues that certainty is not needed: in these family lists "son" reaches further than we assume, and a possible explanation is enough to clear the charge of contradiction.
The truth is that in these Jewish genealogies grandsons are called sons, and nephews and cousins are called brothers. Children raised up to a man by a brother who takes his widow are then counted as the dead husband's seed. The registers we have are also defective as mere human testimony. So no objection carries much weight, and answers can only be suppositions. But these suppositions are quite enough. When someone must prove a contradiction, a case that is merely possible shows for certain that there is no contradiction.
Another writer makes Zerubbabel Pedaiah's son and Shealtiel's heir, not his child:
He was probably the son of Pedaiah, and the nephew and heir of Salathiel, or Shealtiel, though he is called his son. He was a 'prince of Judah'.
The list reaches Zerubbabel, and with him the royal title drops away. Hananiah and other names in this line are missing from Matthew's genealogy.
From verse 15 onward, after faithful Josiah's reign, we find the kings at the time of Judah's final ruin. The series ends with Zerubbabel, back from captivity but no longer carrying the title of king. After Zerubbabel, Chronicles records five more generations, down to Hodaviah and his brothers... The names corresponding to Hananiah, Shechaniah, Neariah, Elioenai, and Hodaviah do not appear in the genealogy of Matthew 1. Some have suggested that the Babylonian rulers may have changed them (compare Dan. 1:6-7) to erase every trace of kingship from the minds of the Jews. That idea is not confirmed, but it could well be true.
Judah survived as a people while the ten tribes did not, and God's pledge about David's throne is the reason.
If Judah is worse than Israel, why is Judah in captivity preserved as a people? Why not dispersed and lost among the nations, as are the ten tribes? Because God had a purpose of grace to carry out, and He delayed full judgment. God had set David on the throne, and that was a pledge that Christ must sit there too... During the captivity, while the Gentile held the throne, God kept the line of true heirs safe as something sacred. After the return from Babylon, Matthew carries that line on to the birth of Christ, and in Him it ends.
The same writer notes where each list stops.
The genealogy in Chronicles ends, of course, with the return from Babylon. In Matthew the promised Seed appears, the last of the line. He will have no successor, for He lives for ever.
Zerubbabel never wore a crown. The closing message in Haggai looks past him to the true seed of David, and calls Him a signet — the ring a ruler used to stamp his authority.
Haggai 2:20-23 is still another message from God. It points again to the future, when all nations will be shaken. Then God will take the true seed of David — here still called "Zerubbabel My servant", a picture of Christ as "the prince of the house of David" — and make Him as a signet. The faithless Coniah, or Jeconiah, king of Judah, was a signet plucked from God's right hand (compare Jer. 22:24). Christ, in contrast, is the signet on God's right hand, to seal all His purposes concerning the nations and concerning His chosen people Israel.
- Name — "Zerubbabel" means seed of Babylon. He was a prince of David's house, born in exile, called Pedaiah's son here and Shealtiel's son elsewhere.
- Puzzle — The two fathers fit either a levirate marriage or an heirship. In these lists "son" can mean grandson, nephew or heir, so the charge of contradiction fails.
- Loss — The list reaches Zerubbabel with the royal title gone. Hananiah and other names in this line are missing from Matthew's genealogy.
- Guarding — God kept Judah as a people and guarded the line of heirs under Gentile rule, because He had pledged David's throne to Christ.
- Promise — Haggai's last message looks past the uncrowned Zerubbabel to Christ, the signet on God's right hand. Jeconiah was the ring plucked off; Christ is the last of the line and needs no successor.
and Hashubah, and Ohel, and Berechiah, and Hasadiah, [and] Jushab-hesed, five.
This verse ends a group of five names in David's line, listed long after Judah's kings had lost the throne. Why does Scripture keep the names of men we know nothing else about?
The chapter walks down from David through the kings to the captivity, and then keeps going. One commentator follows the royal line down to Zerubbabel, who came home without his title, and then past him into names Matthew's genealogy never uses — with a possible reason why:
From verse 15 on, after faithful Josiah's reign, we meet the kings who ruled while Judah fell. The series ends with Zerubbabel, back from captivity but no longer carrying the title of king. After Zerubbabel, Chronicles records five more generations, down to Hodaviah and his brothers. The names matching Hananiah, Shechaniah, Neariah, Elioenai, and Hodaviah do not appear in the genealogy of Matthew 1. Some have thought that the rulers of Babylon may have changed them (compare Daniel 1:6-7), to wipe every trace of kingship out of the minds of the Jews. Nothing confirms this, but it could well be true.
after
A reference work can say only this much about the third name in the list:
Berechiah. Descendant of the royal family of Judah. 1 Chr. 3:20.
These very verses help date the whole book:
1 Chron. 6:15 shows that the book was written after the captivity. We also find the names of Zerubbabel's descendants in 1 Chron. 3:19-24. Zerubbabel was one of the leaders of the exile who returned from the captivity, and his descendants are listed here. So Chronicles must date from some time after the return from Babylon.
after
The lists are selective, and that selection is the point. Names enter the record because of their place in God's plan, not because of their fame:
The tables do not mention all the names; many are omitted. This makes clear at once the object of these long lists of names. It records only the men who had a part in accomplishing God's purpose — the channels God chose, through whom the Lord carried out that purpose. People often think these genealogies are useless, yet they teach many lessons. What 2 Timothy 3:16 says covers even these opening chapters of Chronicles: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."
after
In exile a family record looked worthless. What a family did with its own papers showed where its faith stood:
These genealogies were imperfect. Israel's condition still carried the marks of the ruin that had fallen on them. It also carried the marks of God's goodness. He had brought back a remnant, and He had kept safe everything needed to enter those who made up that remnant in the record of His people. Happy the man who kept his own record, who valued the Lord's heritage enough to treasure it! It was a proof of faith. Someone might have said: what use are these genealogies in Babylon?
after
One purpose lies behind the survival of these five men. God kept Judah, and David's family inside it, until the promised King was born:
God had set David upon the throne, and it was a pledge that Christ must sit there also. For Christ on the throne of David is God's centre of blessing for this earthly sphere. So God keeps the tribe the King was to come from, right up to the appointed time when Jesus is born in Bethlehem. During the captivity, while a Gentile held the throne, God guards the line of the true heirs. After the return from Babylon, Matthew carries that line on to the birth of Christ, and in Him it ends.
after
- Kept through ruin. The kings' line ends in disaster, yet the list does not stop: Zerubbabel came home without the royal title, and five more generations of David's family follow him.
- Kept in writing. These descendants lived after the exile, so Chronicles itself dates from after the return from Babylon.
- Kept by choice. God's purpose, not a man's achievements, puts a name in this record. Even name lists are profitable Scripture.
- Kept by faith. In Babylon a family record looked useless. Keeping one anyway valued the heritage God had given.
- Kept for Christ. The throne is the whole point. God guards the royal family until Matthew can carry the line to Jesus, where it comes to rest.
And the sons of Hananiah Pelatiah and Isaiah; the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shechaniah.
These names come after Zerubbabel, the leader who brought the exiles home from Babylon, in a royal family tree that had no throne left. Why does Scripture record such obscure heirs of David, and what were they still waiting for?
Chronicles does not stop at the captivity, as the other history books do. It carries David's family past the return — and one man named here, Shecaniah, has a son who may turn up again in Nehemiah.
The Chronicles, with Ezra and Nehemiah as their immediate sequel, go much further... So we see in them that the family line of David does not end with Zerubbabel, the royal head of Judah who returned from captivity. It continues past him to the fifth generation, Hodaviah and his brothers (1 Chron. 3:19-24). In the same way we meet Shemaiah, the son of Shechaniah (1 Chron. 3:22), of the third generation after Zerubbabel, who — if this is the same person — returned from Babylon in Nehemiah 3:29.
Hananiah, whose sons open the verse, was Zerubbabel's son. He may also stand in Luke's genealogy of Jesus under a different name:
Son of Zerubbabel. 1 Chr. 3:19, 21. Some think this Hananiah is the Joanna of Luke 3:27 in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus.
That link is not certain, and Matthew's genealogy raises a harder question:
The names matching Hananiah, Shechaniah, Neariah, Elioenai, and Hodaviah do not appear in the genealogy of Matthew 1. Some have supposed that the Babylonian rulers may have changed them (cf. Dan. 1:6-7) to erase every trace of kingship from the mind of the Jews. No one has confirmed this claim, but it could well be probable.
The second half of the verse is harder to follow. Some translations read it as a list of separate families — "the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shecaniah" — not as one father-to-son chain. One writer gives two possible explanations:
The sons of Rephaiah are either separate family stocks, as Chronicles gives again and again. Or they link to the royal race just mentioned through daughters or unnamed sons of one branch or another. Hattush, a grandson of one of them, returned with Zerubbabel, and that confirms it. So as a genealogy these branches date from before Zerubbabel's return — side branches of the royal race alongside Zerubbabel.
These men were royal heirs with no crown. Chronicles keeps listing them, and the line runs on to the birth of Christ:
The kingdom sinks under waves of judgment. Yet, as we have seen in the genealogies (1 Chron. 3:19, 24), feeble representatives of the royal line still exist — without titles, without privileges, without authority and without a kingdom. After them the line grows ever more obscure and low. It carries on in silence until we reach a poor carpenter who becomes the supposed father of the "woman's Seed." Christ is born!
Judah came home from exile while the ten tribes vanished. One writer explains why:
If Judah is worse than Israel, why is Judah in captivity preserved as a people? Why not scattered and lost among the nations, as the ten tribes are? Because God still had a purpose of grace to carry out, and full judgment waited. God had set David upon the throne, and it was a pledge that Christ must sit there also... During the captivity, when Gentile rulers held the throne, the line of true heirs was guarded with care. After the return from Babylon, Matthew carries it on to the birth of Christ, in Whom it ends.
These records also served a purpose for the people who came home:
These genealogies served as a means to recognise the people. Happy is the man who had preserved his own, and who so valued the heritage of Jehovah that he attached worth to it! It was a proof of faith; for someone might have said, What use are these genealogies in Babylon?
- Record. Only Chronicles carries David's family past the captivity. It lists five generations after Zerubbabel, and this verse is one link in that chain.
- Remnant. These men held a royal name with no throne, no titles and no kingdom, yet God kept registering them.
- Faith. Guarding a family record in Babylon looked pointless. The people who did it still counted God's promised inheritance as real.
- Grace. God kept Judah together instead of scattering her. His purpose of grace was still running, and David's throne was a pledge that Christ must sit on it.
- Christ. The line sinks lower and lower until it reaches a carpenter's home. There the record finds its point and stops.
And the sons of Shechaniah Shemaiah; and the sons of Shemaiah Hattush, and Jigeal, and Bariah, and Neariah, and Shaphat, six.
This verse belongs to the last stretch of David's family record, the part that runs on past Zerubbabel, the leader who brought Judah home from Babylon. Three questions sit behind these strange names: when was the list written, why did anyone keep it, and what was it guarding?
This part of the chapter is one of the clearest clues to when Chronicles was written:
Chronicles, with Ezra and Nehemiah following straight on, carries the account well past the captivity. Every part of the text also bears the mark of a later date, after the return from the captivity in Babylon. So the family record of David does not end with Zerubbabel, the royal head of Judah who came back from captivity. It carries on past him to the fifth generation, Hodaviah and his brothers. In the same way we meet, in 1 Chronicles 3:22, Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, of the third generation after Zerubbabel — and if he is the same man, he is the one who came back from Babylon in Nehemiah 3:29.
If the Shemaiah of Nehemiah 3:29 is the man named here, his name and his father's are worth reading. One writer gives the meaning of both:
The east gate was repaired and kept by Shemaiah, the son of Shechaniah. From Ezekiel's prophecy we learn that the glory of the Lord left by the east gate, and that it will enter by that gate again when it returns to the temple of Ezekiel's vision. The east gate faces the rising sun. It suggests the coming of the Lord for His people. And here the two names fit in beautifully. Shemaiah means "heard of the Lord"; even so He will hear His people and some day will answer their prayer for His coming. Shechaniah means "habitation of the Lord." We shall be with Him.
Hattush, the first son listed here, also appears among those who came up from Babylon with Zerubbabel. One writer uses him to place these branches of the family:
The sons of Rephaiah are either separate family lines, which Chronicles often gives, or they are joined to the royal line just named through daughters, or through sons who are not named, in one branch or another. Hattush, the grandson of one of them, confirms this by coming up with Zerubbabel. So as a genealogy they are earlier than Zerubbabel's coming up. They are branches of the royal family running alongside Zerubbabel, sons of some of Salathiel's sons or of others.
Look for Shecaniah and Neariah in Matthew's opening genealogy and you will not find them. One writer reports a possible reason, and marks it as unproven:
The names matching Hananiah, Shechaniah, Neariah, Elioenai, and Hodaviah do not appear in the genealogy of Matthew 1. Some have supposed that the rulers of Babylon changed them (compare Daniel 1:6-7), to wipe every trace of kingship out of the mind of the Jews. No one has proved this claim, but it could well be true.
One writer starts from a question about Judah in exile:
Why is Judah kept as a people while in captivity? Why not scattered and lost among the nations, as the ten tribes are? Because God still had a purpose of grace to carry out, and He held full judgment back. God had set David on the throne, and that was a pledge that Christ must sit there too. So He keeps the tribe the King would come from until the appointed time, when Jesus is born in Bethlehem. Through the captivity, while the Gentile held the throne, God guards the line of the true heirs as something holy. After the return from Babylon, Matthew carries that line on to the birth of Christ, in Whom it comes to an end.
There was also a practical reason to hold on to such a list:
The Jews had lost heart at a destruction they would never believe in until it came. They might have thought, "What is the use of a genealogy? What is the use of caring now about our lands or houses? Everything is ruined. All is gone." But the man who believed God knew that seventy years would see them return from their captivity. So care for God and confidence in His Word would make them guard their genealogies with care, so that when they did return they might enter on the portion God had allotted them.
- Kept for a reason. God carried Judah through exile because a purpose of grace was still unfinished. He guarded David's family until Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
- Kept in hope. Families guarded their genealogies while everything else lay in ruins. God's word promised a return, and with it a portion of land from Him.
- Kept past Zerubbabel. The line does not stop with the leader who came home. It runs on through Shecaniah and Shemaiah to a fifth generation, so Chronicles came together after the exile.
- Kept though the names changed. Some of these names are missing from Matthew's list. One writer suggests Babylon renamed the heirs to wipe out any memory of kingship, and calls it likely, not proven.
- Kept to the very edges. Chronicles records even the side branches. Hattush of this household came up with Zerubbabel, so the royal family mattered down to its smallest shoots.
And the sons of Neariah Elioenai, and Hezekiah, and Azrikam, three.
These three sons of Neariah close the last stretch of David's family line recorded in the Old Testament. Why does God keep count of heirs who never wore a crown?
Zerubbabel led the Jews back from exile in Babylon, but he held no royal title. The list keeps going after him, down to Neariah and his three sons. One writer notes how far the record reaches, and a puzzle about these names:
From verse 15 onward, after faithful Josiah's reign, we find the kings who reigned at the time of Judah's final ruin. The series ends with Zerubbabel, back from captivity but no longer holding the title of king. After Zerubbabel, Chronicles records five more generations, down to Hodaviah and his brothers. If we knew the dates of one of these men, that would give us the approximate date when Chronicles was written. The names matching Hananiah, Shechaniah, Neariah, Elioenai, and Hodaviah do not appear in the genealogy of Matthew 1. Some have supposed that the Babylonian rulers changed them (compare Dan. 1:6-7) to wipe every trace of kingship out of the minds of the Jews. That claim is not confirmed, but it could well be true.
Neariah's three sons inherited a name and nothing else. The kingdom had collapsed, and what survived was a family, not a government:
Yet a time comes when the ruin looks beyond repair, and Satan's victory in the struggle seems certain. The kingdom sinks under waves of judgment. Even so, as we have seen in the genealogies (1 Chron. 3:19, 24), weak representatives of the royal line live on — with no titles, no rights, no authority and no kingdom. After them the line grows more obscure and more lowly, and carries on in silence, until we reach a poor carpenter who becomes the supposed father of the "woman's Seed." Christ is born!
The ten northern tribes were scattered and lost. Judah went into exile too, yet Judah's family records survived. One writer gives the reason:
Because there was a purpose of grace to carry out, and full judgment was put off. God had set David on the throne, and that was a pledge that Christ must sit there too... So the tribe the King would come from is kept until the appointed time, when Jesus is born in Bethlehem. This tribe is kept while the ten are hidden in the dust of the earth. It holds the leading and only place in the books of Chronicles, and David's family stands first in that tribe. During the captivity, when the Gentile held the throne, God carefully guarded the line of true heirs. After the return from Babylon, Matthew carries that line on to the birth of Christ, in Whom it ends.
Someone had to keep these names safe while living as a captive in Babylon. Darby sees that effort itself as faith:
These genealogies were imperfect. Israel's condition carried the mark of the ruin that had come on them. It also carried the mark of the goodness of God, who had brought back a remnant, and who had kept everything needed to place those who made up that remnant in the record of His people. For these genealogies served as a means of recognising the people. Happy is the man who had kept his own record, and who valued the heritage of Jehovah enough to treasure it! It was a proof of faith. Someone might have said, What use are these genealogies in Babylon?
We learn nothing about these three men beyond their names and their number. That silence is worth pausing over:
It deeply sobers the soul to be allowed to read through such a record of names. Man forgot them long ago, but God has remembered every one of them, with every detail of their path through this world. Some day our names likewise will be lost to mankind, but neither we nor our ways will be forgotten by God.
Anyone comparing these names with other lists runs into apparent contradictions. One writer answers with a caution, not a dismissal:
What has been said already should be enough to warn Christians who try to study the genealogies and stumble over apparent contradictions at every step. The subject itself does build us up, as the whole Word of God does. But it is useless to take it up with nothing more than our own intelligence.
One word holds this verse together: kept.
- Kept counting. The list does not stop at the fall of the kingdom, or even at Zerubbabel. It runs five generations further, down to Neariah's three sons.
- Kept without a crown. These heirs had "no titles, no rights, no authority and no kingdom" — the family survived while the kingdom lay in ruins.
- Kept for Christ. God set David on the throne as a pledge that Christ would sit there too. So He guarded the royal family until Bethlehem, where Matthew's line ends.
- Kept by faith. Keeping a genealogy in Babylon looked useless. Doing it anyway valued God's inheritance when nothing visible backed it up.
- Kept in God's memory. He remembers names the world forgot, with every detail of their path — and He will remember ours.
And the sons of Elioenai Hodaviah, and Eliashib, and Pelaiah, and Akkub, and Johanan, and Delaiah, and Anani, seven.
David's family list in this chapter ends with seven obscure names, born long after the throne had fallen. Why does Scripture keep counting a royal family that no longer rules, and why should anyone read a list like this?
The last names in the chapter come long after the exile. Writers use them to date the book, because the list does not stop at Zerubbabel, who led the return from Babylon:
All through its text, Chronicles carries the mark of having been written later, after the return from the Babylonian captivity. So we see that the genealogy of David's family does not end with Zerubbabel, the royal head of Judah who returned from captivity. It continues past him to the fifth generation, made up of Hodaviah and his brothers (1 Chron. 3:19-24).
Judah went into captivity and came back as a people. The ten tribes were scattered and lost. One writer asks why, and points to God's pledge about David's throne:
If Judah is worse than Israel, why did Judah survive the captivity as a people? Why were they not scattered and lost among the nations, as the ten tribes are? Because God had a purpose of grace to carry out, so He held back full judgment. God had set David upon the throne, and that was a pledge that Christ must sit there also... God carefully kept the line of true heirs through the captivity, while Gentile rulers held the throne. After the return from Babylon, Matthew carries that line on to the birth of Christ, in Whom it ceases.
A claim to a throne needs proof on paper. The same writer sees these records giving that proof in two ways at once:
God kept these family records in a wonderful, indeed divine, way. So the title of Jesus of Nazareth to the throne stands firm in both law and birth: by law the Son of Joseph, by birth the Son of Mary. Then, once the Christ had appeared, full judgment overtook Judah. There was no reason for further delay.
Set Matthew's genealogy beside the end of this chapter and the names do not match. One commentator notes the gap and passes on a suggested reason, without backing it:
The names matching Hananiah, Shechaniah, Neariah, Elioenai, and Hodaviah do not appear in the genealogy of Matthew 1. Some have supposed that the Babylonian rulers may have changed them (compare Dan. 1:6-7) to wipe out every trace of kingship from the minds of the Jews. That claim is not confirmed, but it could well be likely.
The verse ends by counting the sons of Elioenai: seven. That number mattered in family life, and this verse is listed among the passages that show it:
To be the mother of seven or more sons counted as a clear honour in family life (see Gen. 46:25; 2 Sam. 1:8; 2 Sam. 2:5; Job 1:2; Job 42:13; 1 Chron. 3:24; Jer. 15:9).
Chronicles came together when everything looked finished. Faith is what made people guard their family records through the ruin:
The Jews... might have thought, "What is the use of a genealogy? What is the use of caring now about our lands or houses? Everything is ruined. All is gone." But the man who believed God knew that seventy years would see them return from their captivity. So care for God and confidence in His Word would make them guard their genealogies closely, so that when they did return they could take up the portion God had allotted them.
Anani and his brothers left no recorded deeds, yet Scripture keeps their names. One writer turns that into comfort for every ordinary reader:
There is something deeply sobering to the soul in being allowed to read through a record of names that people forgot long ago. Yet God has remembered every one of them, with every detail of their pathway through this world. Some day our names likewise will be lost to mankind, but neither we nor our ways will be forgotten by God.
- Kept beyond exile. David's line runs on past the captivity. It reaches five generations beyond Zerubbabel, down to Hodaviah and his brothers.
- Kept for a pledge. Judah survived the captivity as a people because God had set David on the throne. That was a pledge that Christ must sit there too.
- Kept as a title deed. These records prove Jesus of Nazareth's right to the throne: by law through Joseph, by birth through Mary. The line ceases in Him.
- Kept though disputed. Several names here are missing from Matthew 1. Some suggest Babylon renamed them to wipe out Israel's kingship, though that idea stays unconfirmed.
- Kept by God. Faith guarded these lists when all seemed ruined. People forget names; God remembers them, and He will remember ours.