1 Chronicles 3:19

Zerubbabel. The question is raised, Is this the prince who with Joshua the high priest led the Jews on their return from exile following the decree of Cyrus (Ezra 2:2)? That one was called the son of Shealtiel (Ezra 3:2; 5:2; Neh. 12:1; Haggai 1:1; Matt. 1:12; Luke 3:27). There are several possibilities. The two Zerubbabels may have been cousins, since Salathiel and Pedaiah were brothers (1 Chron. 3:17, 18), although in that case it seems strange that Salathiel’s son was left out of the present genealogy. If this Zerubbabel, the son of Pedaiah, is also the “son of Shealtiel,” it is possible that he was adopted by his apparently childless uncle, or that he was the actual child of one man, and the official son of the other through a levirate marriage (see on Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5-9). Another explanation is that Zerabbabel, although actually the son of Pedaiah, is called the son of Shealtiel because he succeeded Shealtiel as head of the family through whom David was descended.