Zechariah of Israel

Summary

Zechariah (Hebrew: זְכַרְיָה Zəḵaryā, meaning "remembered by Yah"; also Zachariah, Zacharias; Latin: Zacharias) was the fourteenth king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel, and son of Jeroboam II.

Zechariah
Portrait from Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum (1553)
King of Northern Israel
Reignc. 752 BC (reigned 6 months)
PredecessorJeroboam II
SuccessorShallum
Died752 BC
Kingdom of Israel
Names
Zechariah ben Jeroboam
FatherJeroboam II

Zechariah became king of Israel in Samaria in the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, king of Judah. (2 Kings 15:8) William F. Albright has dated his reign to 746 BC – 745 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 753 BC – 752 BC.[1]

The account of his reign is briefly told in 2 Kings (2 Kings 15:8–12). According to the Bible, Zechariah did what was evil in the Lord's sight, as the previous kings of Israel since Jeroboam I had done. Zechariah ruled Israel for only six months before Shallum, a captain from his own army, murdered him and took the throne. This ended the dynasty of Jehu after four generations of his descendants, fulfilling the prophecy in 2 Kings 10:30.

References edit

  1. ^ Edwin Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, (1st ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1951; 2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965; 3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983). ISBN 0-8254-3825-X, 9780825438257
Zechariah of Israel
House of Jehoshaphat
Contemporary Kings of Judah: Uzziah/Azariah
Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Israel
753–752 BCE
Succeeded by