Lives of Scripture

Usage & licensing

No Bible verse text is quoted or stored on this site, in any translation — references are chapter:verse only. Genealogy data is seeded from BibleData by Brady Stephenson (CC BY 4.0). Portrait illustrations are AI-generated or hand-authored line art — no claim of historical likeness. See About for full sourcing.

Illustration pending

Zechariah

OT Post-Exile/Intertestamental

Post-exilic prophet whose eight night visions encouraged the temple's rebuilding, and whose later chapters contain some of the Old Testament's most specific messianic prophecies — the triumphal entry, the betrayal price, and the pierced shepherd.

For younger readers

Zechariah was a prophet who preached at the same time as Haggai, encouraging the people who had returned from exile to finish rebuilding God's temple. He had a series of unusual night visions, including one where the high priest's dirty clothes were replaced with clean ones, showing how God removes guilt and makes people new. Zechariah's book is famous for including many detailed predictions about the coming Messiah, written hundreds of years before Jesus was born — like a king riding humbly on a donkey, and thirty pieces of silver connected to a betrayal. The Gospels show these very predictions coming true in Jesus's life. Zechariah's story reminds us that God had been planning the story of Jesus long before it happened, with amazing detail woven throughout the Old Testament.

Life Story

Zechariah, grandson of the priest Iddo, began prophesying only two months after Haggai, in the same effort to encourage the returned exiles to rebuild the temple (Zechariah 1:1; Ezra 5:1). His book opens with eight night visions — including a rider among myrtle trees, a measuring line stretched over Jerusalem, and the high priest Joshua's filthy garments exchanged for clean ones, picturing God's removal of the nation's guilt (Zechariah 1-6). Zechariah's later chapters contain some of the Old Testament's most specific messianic prophecy: a coming king "righteous and having salvation... humble, and mounted on a donkey," which the Gospels record Jesus deliberately fulfilling at His triumphal entry (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:1-9); thirty pieces of silver thrown to a potter, language Matthew applies to Judas's betrayal money (Zechariah 11:12-13; Matthew 27:3-10); a promise that the people would "look on Me, the one they have pierced," which John connects to the crucifixion (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:37); and a shepherd struck down so the sheep scatter, which Jesus applied to Himself and His disciples the night of His arrest (Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:31). Zechariah's closing vision looks toward a day when the Mount of Olives splits and "the LORD will be king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:4, 9).

First named in 2 Chronicles 26:5

References: 2 Chronicles 26:5; Ezra 5:1; Ezra 6:14; Nehemiah 8:4; Nehemiah 12:16; Zechariah 1:1-7; Zechariah 7:1-8; Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51

Genealogy

Father

Berechiah

Mother

—

Spouse(s)

—

Children

—

Connections

View full connections graph →

See on the full timeline →