and Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, at the time of the carrying away of Babylon.
Matthew's list of royal names reaches its lowest point here. A king is carried off to Babylon, and the throne of David goes with him. It raises two long-debated questions. Who is "Jechoniah"? And how could a line under God's judgment still carry the promise of the Messiah?
One reading takes the man named here to be Jehoiakim, called by his son's name:
Jehoiakim is often called by the name of his son Jechoniah. Both names mean the same thing in Hebrew: the Lord will establish. Jehoiakim was carried away into Babylon (2 Kings 24:15). He had brothers, which Jechoniah did not (1 Chron. 3:15). So it becomes clear that Jechoniah here is Jehoiakim.
Commentators differ. Others hold that Matthew leaves Jehoiakim out, so this verse names his son. One writer points to how Hebrew uses the word "begat", and finds either explanation leaves the record intact:
In Hebrew, "begat" is constantly used for a descendant. Whatever Matthew's motive, there is no mistake... It is very possible that the words "Jehoiakim" and "Jehoiachin" are blended in Jechonias. This happens in other authors: the two names are written the same... Or Josiah was the last independent king of David's family, and Jechonias was the one carried away. He is put forward to mark the epoch, and Josiah is named as the last king who had any free place in Israel... In either case, the descent of David's family remains equally made good.
Jehoiakim's name is missing between Josiah and Jeconiah. One writer points to what Jeremiah wrote about that king:
We only need to look at Jeremiah 22:13-19. It gives ample reasons why the name of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah and father of Jeconiah, is left out of Matt. 1:11. "Those who honour Me I will honour, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed."
Why brothers, in a list that otherwise names one man per generation? Judah's last years supply the answer:
Jeconiah's brothers are mentioned for a reason. Several of his close relatives were briefly put on the throne of Judah around the time of the captivity (2 Chron. 36:1-4, 10). Later the king of Babylon set Jeconiah free and treated him well (2 Kings 25:27-30). That is a picture of Judah's royalty being revived.
Jeremiah had pronounced that no descendant of this king would sit on David's throne. That sentence hangs over every name that follows in Matthew's list:
The genealogy shows the ruin hopeless except for God. Joseph, the last of the line here before Christ, is shown to be Jeconiah's son. And against Jeconiah prophecy had declared (Jer. 22:30) that as to the throne he should be "childless... for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah." As far back as Irenaeus this conclusion was pressed: here the direct line of descent is struck with a curse. Yet it was not stripped of the legal title. It could therefore hand on to another what was of no use to itself. The marriage of Joseph and Mary was, in the wisdom of God, the means of accomplishing this. The Lord's birth from Mary made Him the real Son of David (Luke 1:32). The marriage of His mother made Him David's legal heir.
In Babylon the captives were given new names. One writer sees more than politics behind that:
As a matter of policy, the king of Babylon might change their Hebrew names to Babylonian ones. He did the same with Daniel and his three companions. He would naturally seek to erase from their minds all memory of what they were... and if so, this was equally an attempt on Satan's part to swamp God's line of kings in the common mass of Gentile names. They were driven as captives to Babylon. Yet in that confusion the Spirit of God connects Josiah, the last real king of Judah, with his descendant born there.
This deportation closes the middle section of Matthew's list. One writer traces where the last stretch leads:
The second division runs from David until the carrying away to Babylon. The third is from that captivity until Christ. This last was clearly the evening history of Israel's past. But that evening is not the close. It ends with the brightest light of all — a picture of the day when at evening-time there shall be light... The splendour of Israel had declined. Israel was now broken and subject to the Gentiles. Even so, the recorded decline ends in the birth of the true Messiah.
- Ruin named. Here the kingdom falls and Judah's kings go to Babylon.
- Ruin recorded. Matthew drops Jehoiakim's name on purpose. Jeremiah 22 gives the reason.
- Ruin sealed. Jeconiah's line kept the legal title to the throne but carried a curse: none of his offspring would rule in Judah.
- Ruin outflanked. Mary gave the Lord real descent from David; Joseph's marriage gave Him the legal claim.
- Ruin answered. The evening section of the genealogy ends not in darkness but in the birth of the true Messiah.
And after the carrying away of Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel, and Salathiel begat Zorobabel,
One short verse carries David's royal line across the exile in Babylon. It runs that line straight through Jeconiah, a king God had cursed.
The first name in this verse belongs to a king the Old Testament calls by several other names.
He was the son and successor of Jehoiakim king of Judah… Jehoiachin went to Babylon as a captive and stayed in prison for thirty-six years. When Evil-merodach came to the throne, he freed him and raised him above the other captive kings. Jehoiachin ate at the king's table for the rest of his life. Scripture calls him JECONIAH in 1 Chronicles 3:16-17 and Esther 2:6… It also calls him CONIAH in Jeremiah 22:24, 28, and JECHONIAS in Matthew 1:11-12.
Commentators differ over exactly how verses 11 and 12 handle Jehoiakim: some read Jehoiakim as omitted from verse 11, while Gaebelein argues that "Jehoiakim is often called by the name of his son Jechoniah," so that "in the twelfth verse we have Jechoniah, the son of Jehoiakim."
Jeremiah had called this same king childless. This verse shows what that word did and did not mean.
"Childless" here does not mean he had no descendants. The prophecy itself mentions his offspring. It means he had "no direct lineal heir to the throne" (Fausset). Matthew 1:12 proves he had descendants ("Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel"), and so does 1 Chronicles 3:17… Anyway, God made no mistake. He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast. "And the word of our God will stand forever."
If none of Jeconiah's descendants could reign, naming him here looks like the end of the promise. One writer shows how the cursed line could still pass on a right it could not use.
The genealogy shows a ruin that is hopeless apart from God. It shows Joseph, the last of the line here before Christ, to be Jeconiah's son. And prophecy had spoken against Jeconiah (Jeremiah 22:30): as to the throne he would be "childless… for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David." …so a curse strikes the direct line of descent, yet the line still keeps the legal title. It could therefore hand on to another what was of no use to itself. The marriage of Joseph and Mary was, in the wisdom of God, the means of accomplishing this. The Lord's birth from Mary made Him the real Son of David, while the marriage of His mother made Him David's legal heir.
That is also why "was the father of" in this verse does not always mean birth.
So Jechoniah was not the actual father of Salathiel. Matthew gives the succession, not the strict birth line. We must now look for the heir to David's throne in the line of another of David's sons. Luke 3:27 shows this: Salathiel's real father was Neri, a descendant of Nathan, son of David.
In Babylon the captives were losing even their Hebrew names.
As a matter of policy, the king of Babylon might change their Hebrew names to Babylonian ones. He did this with Daniel and his three friends. It would be natural for him to erase from their minds all memory of what they were, and all thought of their country and of God's temple. If so, Satan was just as much trying to drown God's line of kings in the common mass of Gentile names… Yet in that confusion, as they went to Babylon as captives, the Spirit of God connects the last real king of Judah — Josiah — with his descendant born in Babylon… In Matthew the promised Seed appears, the last of the line. He will have no successor, for He lives for ever.
The last name in this verse appears again in Haggai. There God takes up the same picture of a ring that He had used against Jeconiah.
Haggai 2:20-23 is another message from God. It looks again to the future, when all nations will be shaken. Then God will take the true seed of David and make Him like a signet ring. Haggai still calls this seed "Zerubbabel my servant," a picture of Christ as the prince of the house of David. Coniah, or Jeconiah, king of Judah, was faithless, and God pulled him off like a signet ring from His right hand (compare Jeremiah 22:24). Christ is the opposite: He is the signet on God's right hand, to seal all His purposes concerning the nations and His chosen people Israel.
- Curse. Jeremiah did not say Jeconiah would have no children. He said none of his offspring would ever sit on David's throne.
- Title. The cursed line kept the legal right it could never use, and so was able to hand it to another.
- Marriage. Joseph's marriage to Mary joined the two lines. Birth from Mary made Christ the real Son of David. The marriage made Him the legal heir.
- Preservation. Babylon could change names and carry off a nation, yet God kept the link from Josiah to a descendant born there.
- Signet. God tore the ring from His hand in Jeconiah. He puts it back on in Zerubbabel's greater Son, who seals God's purposes and will have no successor.