Zechariah of Israel
King of the Kingdom of Israel; son of Jeroboam II
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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 זְכַרְיָה | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Portrait from Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum (1553) | |||||
| King of Israel (Northern Kingdom) | |||||
| Reign | c. 752 BC (reigned 6 months) | ||||
| Predecessor | Jeroboam II | ||||
| Successor | Shallum | ||||
| Died | 752 BC Kingdom of Israel | ||||
| |||||
| Father | Jeroboam 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 746–745 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 753–752 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.