PEDAIAH

(Pe·daiʹah) [Jehovah has ransomed].

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

2. Father of Jehoiakim’s mother Zebidah; Pedaiah lived in Rumah.—2 Ki. 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. (1 Chron. 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.—Ezra 5:2; Matt. 1:12.

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

5. A descendant of Parosh who helped Nehemiah repair Jerusalem’s wall.—Neh. 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.—Neh. 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.—Neh. 13:6, 7, 12, 13.