And the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei: Zerubbabel, who is the fifty-third generation from Adam, is listed here as one of the sons of Pedaiah; but in other Old Testament texts, he is called the son of Shealtiel (see, for example, Ezra 3.2, 8; 5.2; Neh 12.1; Hag 1.1). The Septuagint, in fact, reads “sons of Shealtiel” instead of sons of Pedaiah. Perhaps Pedaiah died without children and his brother Shealtiel (verse 17) fathered Zerubbabel in accordance with the principle of levirate marriage (Deut 25.5-10). Or perhaps the text here contains a scribal error. It is also possible that Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel refers to a different Zerubbabel. Fortunately, translators do not have to solve the difficulty in order to translate this verse.

And the sons of Zerubbabel is literally “and the son of Zerubbabel.” Revised Standard Version and nearly all other versions change the singular “son” to sons as the context requires. The final three letters in the Hebrew word for “Babylonia” are the same as the final three letters in the name Zerubbabel. Therefore some interpreters suggest that the Hebrew for this phrase originally said “and the sons of Zerubbabel [born] in Babylonia” and that verse 20 then refers to sons of Zerubbabel born in Jerusalem after the return from the exile in Babylonia (see option 2b in the comments on verse 20).

And Shelomith was their sister means Shelomith was the sister of Meshullam and Hananiah. In some languages it may be more natural to identify Shelomith as the “daughter” of Zerubbabel rather than as the sister of her two brothers (so Good News Translation, New Living Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). Compare verse 9, where the same structure is used.

Apart from Zerubbabel, the other persons listed in verses 19-24 are not mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .