Zerubavel, Governor of Judah
570 BCE–500 BCE · Biblical · Babylonia (exile era)
Zerubavel son of Shealtiel (Zerubbabel) was a prince of the house of David and governor of Judah in the first generation of the Return from Babylon. The book of Chronicles lists him among the descendants of King Yehoyachin, who had been taken captive to Babylon (1 Chronicles 3:17-19). He heads the list of those who came back (Ezra 2:2). With the High Priest Yehoshua he rebuilt the altar and laid the foundations of the Second Temple (Ezra 3:2, 3:8-10). He refused the neighbouring peoples' offer to build with them (Ezra 4:3), and the work then stalled. In 520 BCE the prophets Chaggai and Zechariah roused him to finish it (Haggai 1:1, 1:12-14; Ezra 5:1-2). Zechariah's message to him was 'Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit' (Zechariah 4:6), with the promise that his hands would complete the House (Zechariah 4:9). Chaggai called him God's chosen 'signet' (Haggai 2:23). After 520 he disappears from the record. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 38a) records a tradition that Zerubavel and Nechemiah were the same man.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the orchard map →
Babylonia (exile era)Babylonian exile
What they did here
As a grandson of the exiled King Yehoyachin (1 Chronicles 3:17-19), Zerubavel was almost certainly born in Babylonia. The Talmud reads his name as 'sown in Babylon' (Sanhedrin 38a), and scholars likewise derive it from Akkadian 'seed of Babylon'. The text does not state his birthplace.
About Babylonia (exile era)
Babylonia in the exile era refers to Mesopotamia (Iraq) during and after the Babylonian Exile, when the population of the Kingdom of Judah was deported by Nebuchadnezzar following the destruction of the First Temple (586 BCE). The biblical books of Ezekiel and Daniel are set among the exiles in Babylonia, and the Esther narrative unfolds in the Persian period that followed; this community became the seed of the great Babylonian Jewish center.
In Babylonia (exile era) at the same time
Baruch HaSofer, Yechezkel HaNavi, Daniel, Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol, Zecharyah HaNavi
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Zerubavel, Governor of Judah’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Baruch HaSofer, Yechezkel HaNavi, Daniel, Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol, Chaggai HaNavi, Zecharyah HaNavi
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Zerubavel, Governor of Judah’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.