King Zachariah or Zechariah (Hebrew זכריה, remembered by YHWH) (r. 772 according to Ussher,[1] or r. 753 according to Thiele[2]) was the fourteenth king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the last of the House of Jehu. He reigned for six months only and died from an act of murder.
Accession
Zachariah was the next king after his father Jeroboam II. However, Ussher states that at the end of Jeroboam's reign, the kingdom had fallen into civil disorder, so that a twelve-year interregnum intervened between Jeroboam's death and Zachariah's succession. Thiele assumed that no interregnum took place and, furthermore, that Jeroboam II's viceroyalty with his father Joash ran concurrently with his reign. He then assumed that Uzziah's own reign began as a viceroyalty with his father Amaziah.
Both Ussher and Thiele agree with the Bible, which states that Zachariah came to the throne in the 38th year of the reign of Uzziah.[3]
Reign and Murder
Zachariah reigned only six months, and then Shallum, whose tribal affiliation the Bible never specifies, killed him in public and took over his kingdom. Thus came the end of the House of Jehu, four generations after Jehu had reigned and died, exactly as the prophet Elisha had predicted.[4]
References
- ↑ James Ussher, The Annals of the World, Larry Pierce, ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN 0890513600), pghh. 567-568
- ↑ Leon J. Wood, A Survey of Israel's History, rev. ed. David O'Brien, Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1986 (ISBN 031034770X), p. 278
- ↑ II_Kings 15:8
- ↑ II_Kings 15:9-12
