Zechariah of Israel

Zechariah (spelled Zachariah in the KJV and Zacharias in the DRB; Hebrew: זכריה‎, meaning "remembered by the Lord"; Latin: Zacharias) was a king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel, and son of 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 BC – 745 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 753 BC – 752 BC.

The account of his reign is briefly told in 2 Kings (2 Kings 15:8-12). Zachariah ruled Israel for only six months before Shallum 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.

However, more recent research done by Walter R. Dolen and Floyd N. Jones suggests that Zachariah may have in fact reigned 12 years instead of six months. The argument in favor of this is a timeline of the Jewish kingdoms based on the Southern Kingdom of Judah as a reference point instead of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Basing the research off of Judah rather than Israel results in a complete reworking of the Jewish Kingdom's chronology that upholds the Biblical narrative while making it significantly easier to reconcile seeming contradictions in Kings and Chronicles. Concerning Zachariah of Israel, the verse that refers to the figure of six months is absent a single, but very important word. Began. In this case, 2nd Kings 15:8 simply says that Zachariah reigned for six months in the 38th year of Azariah of Judah (Uzziah). Absent is the word began. All other references to a king's reign include that word. Example: "In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel BEGAN to reign in Samaria". 2 Kings 14:23. This nearly imperceptible difference could mean a great deal, indicating that Zachariah did not begin reigning in the 38th year of Azariah, but simply that he reigned 6 months into the 38th year of Azariah, with these months being the last six of what is in reality a much longer reign. Under this chronological scheme, Zachariah thus most likely reigned over Israel from 784-772 BC.1