Chroniques 1 3:19 Halakha : Mishneh Torah, Repentance

Great, indeed, is repentance for it brings man nigh to the Shekinah, even as it is said: "Return, O Israel, unto the Lord thy God" (Hosea, 14. 2); and it is further said: "Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord" (Amos, 4.6); and it is yet again said: "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, yea, return unto Me" (Jer. 4.1), as if saying: "If thou wilt turn in repentance ye will cleave unto Me". Repentance brings near the far apart. But yesterday this sinner was hateful to the presence of God, scorned, ostracized and abominate, and to-day he is beloved, desirable, companionable and a friend. Thou findest, moreover, that in the very language God employs to distance the sinners He employs to bring nigh unto Him the penitent whether the individual or the many, even as it is said: "And it shall come to pass that, instead of that which was said unto them, 'Ye are not My people', it shall be said unto them: 'Ye are the children of the living God'. And, again it is said of Jeconiah: "Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days, (Jer. 22.30) though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon My right hand yet would I pluck thee thence" (Ibid. – 24); but when he repented, being in exile, it is said of his son Zerubbabel: "In that day, saith the lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, My servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet" (Haggai, 2.23).⁴Coniah, Jehoiachin, Joiachin, Jeconiah and Jeconiahi are all one and the same king, who in 11. Chr. 36.9 is said to have been eight years old when he ascended the throne of David, and reigned three years and ten days, and in Second Kings, 24.8, is said to have been eighteen years old, and reigned three years. He was the grandfather of Zerubbabel, and was a prisoner thirty-seven years. However, in First Chr. 3.19, it is said that Zerubbabel was the son of Pedaiah, brother of Shealtiel. Maimonides, evidently did not accept this version. G.