PEDAIAH

(Pe·daiʹah) [meaning “Jehovah Has Redeemed”].

1. Father of Joel, who during David’s reign was prince of the half of the tribe of Manasseh dwelling W of the Jordan.​—1Ch 27:20, 22.

2. Father of Jehoiakim’s mother Zebidah; Pedaiah lived in Rumah.​—2Ki 23:36.

3. Third-named son of King Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) born during the Babylonian exile. Pedaiah became father to postexilic Governor Zerubbabel and was therefore a vital link in the line leading to Jesus. (1Ch 3:17-19) Because of some unrecorded circumstance, Zerubbabel is also called the son of Pedaiah’s brother Shealtiel. Shealtiel may have adopted Zerubbabel if Pedaiah died when the boy was young; or, if Shealtiel died before fathering a son, Pedaiah may have performed brother-in-law marriage, fathering Zerubbabel in the name of his brother Shealtiel.​—Ezr 5:2; Mt 1:12.

4. A Benjamite whose descendant lived in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.​—Ne 11:4, 7.

5. A descendant of Parosh who helped Nehemiah repair Jerusalem’s wall.​—Ne 3:25.

6. A postexilic Israelite, probably a priest, who stood at Ezra’s left during the reading of Jehovah’s Law to the assembled people.​—Ne 8:1, 4.

7. A faithful Levite whom Nehemiah, on his second visit to Jerusalem, assigned with Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the copyist to take charge of the contributed tithe.​—Ne 13:6, 7, 12, 13.