Zechariah 1:1

Introduction

1:1 In the eighth month of Darius’1 second year,2 the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah,3 son of Berechiah son of Iddo, as follows:

Sign up for the Verse of the Day

Get beautiful Bible art delivered to your inbox. We’ll send you a new verse every day to download or share.

1	sn Darius is Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia from 522–486 b.c.
2	sn The eighth month of Darius’ second year was late October—late November, 520 b.c., by the modern (Julian) calendar. This is two months later than the date of Haggai’s first message to the same community (cf. Hag 1:1).
3	sn Both Ezra (5:1; 6:14) and Nehemiah (12:16) speak of Zechariah as a son of Iddo only. A probable explanation is that Zechariah’s actual father Berechiah had died and the prophet was raised by his grandfather Iddo. The “Zechariah son of Barachiah” of whom Jesus spoke (Matt 23:35; Luke 11:51) was probably the martyred prophet by that name who may have been a grandson of the priest Jehoiada (2 Chr 24:20–22).