When Jerusalem fell to Babylon, the direct male line of David's house was cut off, but God had already arranged for the dynasty to continue elsewhere. Jeremiah, fleeing to Egypt, was entrusted with King Zedekiah's daughters. According to tradition, in 569 BC he arrived in Ireland, an island already colonized by Israelites of Dan and Jews of the line of Zerah. With him came Tea Tephi (or Tamar Tephi), a daughter of Zedekiah and heir to David's throne, along with an Irish prince who had met her in Jerusalem during the siege and married her after the city fell in 585 BC. Their young son accompanied them. The prince, a descendant of Zerah, took the throne as Herremon. His marriage to Tea Tephi, a descendant of Pharez, and the reign of their son over Israelites healed the ancient breach between Judah's two sons, Pharez and Zerah. The crown of David thus passed from the line of Pharez to a descendant of Zerah. The dynasty continued unbroken through Ireland's kings, was transplanted to Scotland around AD 487 with Fergus I, and then to England in AD 1603 with James I, a line that continues today. These transplantings fulfilled Ezekiel 21:25-27. In this way the scepter promise of Genesis 49:10 continues until Christ, the Messiah, returns to claim the throne.

Though Zedekiah's sons and Judah's princes were killed at Jerusalem's fall, Zedekiah was survived by at least two daughters, who appear among the king's daughters Ishmael carried captive from Mizpah (Jeremiah 41:10). One of them had recently married an Irish prince of Judah's Zerah branch, in a marriage that took place during or shortly before the siege. Because she descended from Perez, the line of David, the union healed the breach between the twin branches of Judah (Perez and Zerah) and joined the two monarchies in one family. In this way God perpetuated the Davidic throne, fulfilling His unconditional promise in II Samuel 7:16 and the assurance in Jeremiah 33:17 that David would never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. Jeremiah, commissioned to root out and pull down but also to build and plant (Jeremiah 1:9-10), escorted the couple, along with his secretary Baruch, to Ireland by way of Spain, arriving about 569 BC. Their son, tradition says, was born in Spain. The throne was therefore neither planted in Babylon nor hidden in Jerusalem, and it remains intact until Christ returns to claim it.

Zedekiah's daughters survived the Babylonian conquest even though his sons were killed before his eyes at Riblah and no male heirs to Judah's throne remained. Jeremiah records that Johanan took the remnant of Judah, including "the king's daughters," along with Jeremiah and Baruch into Egypt, and that they eventually escaped with Jeremiah (Jeremiah 43:5-7). Their survival matters because the scepter promise, which runs through Judah, Pharez, David, and Zedekiah and culminates in Christ, must continue forever (II Samuel 7:16). The breach between Pharez and Zerah, Judah's twin sons, could be healed only by a marriage between a Pharez heir to the throne and someone of the Zerah line. Ezekiel 21:25-27 foretells this by saying the crown would be removed from Zedekiah, the lowly Zerah line exalted, and the Pharez line abased, with the throne overthrown three times until Christ comes. The surviving daughters are thus the link by which the crown of David passes from the Pharez line to a descendant of Zerah.

When Babylon took Jerusalem in 585 BC, Zedekiah's sons were killed before his eyes and he was blinded and carried to Babylon, where he died in prison, leaving no male heirs to the throne of Judah. Yet Jeremiah records that Zedekiah's daughters survived. Johanan took the remnant of Judah, including the king's daughters, Jeremiah, and Baruch, into Egypt, and they eventually escaped with Jeremiah (Jeremiah 43:5-7). Jeremiah was entrusted with the daughters, and their story shows how the breach between Pharez and Zerah, the twin sons of Judah, was healed. According to Irish tradition, in 569 BC an elderly white-haired patriarch, Jeremiah, came to Ireland with an Eastern king's daughter bearing a Hebrew name, Tea Tephi (or Tamar Tephi), a daughter of Zedekiah. She married a descendant of Zerah, so God removed David's crown from the line of Pharez and placed it on a descendant of Zerah. This dynasty continued unbroken through the kings of Ireland, was transplanted to Scotland and then to England, and so fulfilled the prophecy of the throne's threefold overturning in Ezekiel 21:25-27. It continues in the British monarchy, which God is keeping in place as David's throne until Christ returns to claim it, in keeping with the promise that David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne (Jeremiah 33:17).

When Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, all of King Zedekiah's sons were killed, but his daughters were spared along with Jeremiah and Baruch (Jeremiah 43:6). With no male heirs, Hebrew law let a daughter inherit as though she were a son, passing the right of descent to her male seed, provided she married within her own tribe (Numbers 27:8; 36). This preserved David's line, in keeping with God's promise that David would never lack a man on the throne. The daughters were taken to Egypt with Jeremiah, who carried the Bethel Stone, Jacob's anointed pillar. Irish records speak of an eastern king's daughter traveling with an aged prophet, Olam Filaw, identified as Jeremiah, and his scribe, Baruch, bringing David's harp, the Ark of the Covenant, and the stone called Lia Fail. Zedekiah had two daughters, Scota and Tea Tephi. Scota, the younger, married in Spain, where Jeremiah's company stopped. Tea Tephi married Heremon, king of Ireland, and became queen. She and her husband were crowned on the stone, and Ireland's kings were crowned on it for 1,040 years. The stone then passed to Scotland and finally to Westminster Abbey, where British monarchs, including Elizabeth II, have been crowned on it as fulfillment of God's covenant with David (Psalm 89:34-37). The throne's three overthrows (Ezekiel 21:27) run from Jerusalem to Ireland, Scotland, and England, until Christ returns to reign.

Zedekiah's daughters appear only briefly, in speculation about the Irish tradition that Ebed-Melech traveled to Ireland with Jeremiah. Jeremiah 43:6 places the daughters, along with Jeremiah and Baruch, among the remnant left in the land by the Babylonians, which supports the idea that they accompanied the prophet. Since the long journey from Palestine to the British Isles required help with heavy baggage such as Jacob's Pillar, which Jeremiah and the daughters surely did not carry themselves, God may have used Ebed-Melech to assist. It is therefore possible that Ebed-Melech served Zedekiah's daughters, even in Ireland. No scriptural proof exists for this, and the account rests on tradition. Ebed-Melech's help to the prophet would have given him a share in a prophet's reward (Matthew 10:41).