86 GREG GOSWELL silence of the Bible on this matter is no different in principle from its failure to tell us anything about his co-leader Joshua (Jeshua) after the second year of Darius. Both Zerubbabel and Jeshua leave the story in the second year of Darius, but there is no mystery given the tendency of Ezra- Nehemiah to downplay the role of leaders. A similar people focus is found in the prophecy of Haggai, wherein the bulk of the oracles consists of messages about the people (1,2; 2,14) or addressed to the people (1,4-11.13; 2,3-9.15-19) 39, and the people-focus is also the probable explanation of Haggai’s silence about the subsequent career of Zerubbabel. 8. Zerubbabel’s Davidic lineage Haggai is silent about Zerubbabel’s Davidic lineage, and it is a matter of debate how much significance the reader is meant to see in his patronym (“ the son of Shealtiel”) (1,1.12.14; 2,2.23). Shealtiel was the son of Jeconiah (= Jehoiachin), the deposed and exiled Judahite king (cf. 1 Chr 3,17-19). Despite the fact that 1 Chr 3,19 mentions Pedaiah (brother of Shealtiel) and not Shealtiel as the father of Zerubbabel, it is clear that Zerubbabel was a direct descendent of Jehoiachin. His patronym is also used in Ezra-Nehemiah (Ezra 3,2.8; 5,2; Neh 12,1), and it is not to be assumed without argument that this is designed to foreground a Davidic linkage, for in neither book is Zerubbabel explicitly identified as a Davidide. It is significant that the narrator of Ezra-Nehemiah does not stress the royal lineage of Zerubbabel. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that the Davidic pedigree of Zerubbabel is ignored and concealed 40. Likewise, nothing is made of any possible Davidic connection of Shesh-bazzar (Ezra 1,8.11; 5,14) if he is to be identified with Shenazzar, a son of Jehoiachin and the uncle of Zerubbabel, mentioned in 1 Chr 3,18. The identification of the names, however, is not at all likely 41. The failure to provide a patronym (eds. R.L. TROXEL – K.G. FRIEBEL – D.R. MAGARY) (Winona Lake, IN 2005) 301-314. Though Rex Mason draws too strong a contrast between the narrative 39 framework and the oracles (see J. KESSLER, The Book of Haggai. Prophecy and Society in Early Persian Yehud [VTS 91; Leiden 2002] 51-56), his basic point is valid: “In the oracles themselves it appears to be the community as a whole which is addressed” (R.A. MASON, “The Purpose of the ‘Editorial Framework’ of the Book of Haggai”, VT 27 [1977] 416). JAPHET, “Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel, I”, 72. By contrast, 1 Esdras (5,5) 40 makes much of Zerubbabel as a Davidide, see JAPHET, “Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel, II”, 218-229. P.-R. BERGER, “Zu den Namen rxbvv und rxanv ”, ZAW 83 (1971) 98-100, 41 argues against the identification, and Dion added his support to Berger’s argumentation that they are separate names, see P.E. DION, “rxbvv and yrwnμs ”,