What Does 1 Chronicles 3:19 Mean?

(19) **And the sons of Pedaiah were, Zerubbabel, and** **Shimei.**—Zerubbabel, the famous prince who, with Joshua the high priest, led the first colony of restored exiles from Babylon to Canaan, under the edict of Cyrus (B.C. cir. 536). Zerubbabel (LXX., Σοροβάβελ), means *born at Babel.* His father is appropriately named Pedaiah (*Iah hath redeemed*)*.* Zerubbabel is called son of Shealtiel (Haggai 1:1, &c.; Ezra 3:2; Ezra 5:2—part of the chronicle it should be remembered; Matthew 1:12). Hence some expositors, ancient and modern, have assumed that the six persons named in 1Chronicles 3:18, including Pedaiah, the father of Zerubbabel, were sons, not brothers of Salathiel (Shealtiel). In this way they bring Zerubbabel into the direct line of descent from Shealtiel. But our Hebrew text, though peculiar, can hardly mean this. It makes Zerubbabel the son of Pedaiah, and nephew of Shealtiel. If Zerubbabel, for reasons unknown, became adopted son and heir of Shealtiel, his uncle, the seemingly discordant statements of the different passages before us are all reconciled; while that of our text is the more exact. **And** **the sons of Zerubbabel.**—The Hebrew received text has “*and the son.*” This is not to be altered, although some MSS. have the plural. (Comp. 1Chronicles 3:21; 1Chronicles 3:23.) This use of the singular is characteristic of the present genealogical fragment (see 1Chronicles 3:17-18), “And the sons of Jeconiah captive—Salathiel his son, and Malchiram,” &c. **Meshullam, and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister.**—This seems to mean that the three were the offspring of one wife.