Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Arthur Gershman wrote:
> "May the Messiah come speedily in our days."
HH: Here is another aspect of Haggai 2:23 that seems to tie it into the 
thread of messianic prophecy. The verse seems to undo a curse on the 
Davidic line pronounced against Jeconiah. I discuss part of an article 
called "Jeconiah and the Signet Ring," by B. R. Burton, taken from a 
Messianic Jewish website:
http://messianicart.com/chazak/yeshua/jeconiah.htm

Burton writes:

Now, to avoid all confusion, there are several interchangeable names 
applied to Jeconiah. These additional variants are Jehoiakhin and 
Coniah. So, when you see these names differ, please understand they are 
referring to the same individual. Now, Let's look at the text:
    
"As I live," says YHVH, "though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of 
Judah, were the signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off; 
and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into 
the hand of those whose face you fear - the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king 
of Babylon and the hand of the Chaldeans. So I will cast you out, and 
your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born; 
and there you shall die. But to the land to which they desire to return, 
there they shall not return. "Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol 
- A vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his 
descendants, And cast into a land which they do not know? O earth, 
earth, earth, Hear the word of YHVH! Thus says YHVH:  'Write this man 
down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of 
his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And 
ruling anymore in Judah.' " 
Jeremiah 22:24 - 29 . . . .

HH: In reference to a curse on Jeconiah (Coniah) and his seed, Burton 
notes that God compares Jeconiah to a signet ring on his finger that he 
will pull off. Burton continues:

However, the Tanakh seems to indicate that the curse on Jeconiah was 
reversed, through the person of Zerubbabel. Compare this text in Haggai 
2 to Jeremiah 22 above:

In that day, says YHVH Tzva'ot, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my 
servant, the son of Shealtiel, says YHVH, and will make thee as a signet 
ring: for I have chosen thee, says YHVH Tzva'ot.
Haggai 2:23

Notice the phraseology:

" . . . though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the 
signet ring (khotahm,  ~twx) on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off"
Jeremiah 22:24

Now, as noted above, he says to Zerubabbel, the grandson of Jeconiah:

". . . O Zerubbabel, my servant, and will make thee as a signet ring   
(khotahm,  ~twx): for I have chosen thee, says YHVH Tzva'ot."
Haggai 2:23

The phraseology of the "signet ring" here implies that the curse was 
lifted. Moreover, this argument is in full agreement with Jewish 
tradition, unlike the arguments of the anti-missionaries. The Talmud says,

HH: The idea could be that just as the wickedness of Jeconiah brought a 
curse on the house of David, so the godliness of Zerubbabel brought a 
removal of that curse, at least in some future sense. Burton makes the 
point that Haggai's language seems deliberately to allude back to the 
the divine language in the curse against Jeconiah recorded in Jeremiah 
22:24-29.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard