And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. The genealogy continues through the exile and into the post-exilic period. Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah who led the first return from Babylon and whose name appears in Haggai and Zechariah as the one through whom the restoration of the temple and the renewed covenant community would come. Haggai 2:23 uses the signet-ring imagery of royal appointment for Zerubbabel — a counter to the curse on Jechoniah, a renewed appointment within the same family line. Matthew traces the thread of the covenant through the exile's darkness into the dim light of the restoration period.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse