The kings of Israel and Judah

King Zechariah of Israel

The kingdom of Israel (the north) · Reigned six months (2 Kings 15:8) · Evil before God · 2 Kings 15:8 to 12

Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam II, reigned only six months and did evil like his forefathers. He was assassinated in public by a man named Shallum, who then seized the throne. With his death ended the dynasty of Jehu, exactly as God had promised, that Jehu's sons would sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation, and no longer. He is not the same as the prophet Zechariah or the priest Zechariah of Judah.

This was the word of the LORD which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to pass.2 Kings 15:12 (KJV)

A six-month reign

Zechariah reigned over Israel six months, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He is one of the many kings of the north's final decades who held the throne only briefly before being cut down.

After the long and prosperous reign of his father Jeroboam II, the kingdom entered a period of violent instability, and Zechariah was its first victim.

The end of the house of Jehu

Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against Zechariah, struck him down before the people, and killed him, and reigned in his place. So the dynasty of Jehu ended in the fourth generation.

Scripture points directly to the fulfilled promise: This was the word of the LORD which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to pass. Jehu's obedience against Baal had earned his house four generations, no more and no less, and with Zechariah the promise was exactly and completely fulfilled.

The biblical verdict and where it points

Zechariah is judged evil, a brief and unremarkable king whose chief significance is that his death completed a prophecy given nearly a century before. God's word, spoken to Jehu, held true to the generation.

His story quietly underlines a great theme: the precise reliability of God's word, in blessing and in judgment alike. Jehu's four generations came and went exactly as promised. The same God who keeps such words points his people to the one promise above all others, the everlasting throne pledged to David, fulfilled not in any short-lived northern dynasty but in Christ, whose reign no assassin's hand can end.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Jeroboam II · Shallum of Israel · Jehu · All the kings of Israel and Judah