Zechariah I


 * ''This article concerns the high priest who was summarily executed by order of King Joash of Judah. For his descendant, see Zechariah II. For other characters of this name or variants thereof, see Zechariah (disambiguation).

Zechariah ("Name means::Remembered by YHWH") (ca. 889–m. 870–fl. 840–840 BC) was the eighteenth high priest of Israel and perhaps the one who had the briefest career. Sadly, he died by an act of royal murder.

Career
Zechariah's career was probably not longer than three months. As long as his father Jehoiada was alive, King Joash of Judah remained faithful to God. But when Jehoiada died, Joash took the bad advice of his courtiers and allowed his kingdom to fall away from God and to rebuild high places and re-erect Asherah poles.

Zechariah took exception to this and protested. In retaliation, Joash gave secret orders to several of his courtiers to stone Zechariah to death in the court of the Temple of Jerusalem. As he died, he cried,

He would not live to see the Lord's vengeance. Joash suffered a humiliating defeat by a Syrian force, paid them a tribute, and then was murdered in his bed by a conspiracy quite like that which murdered Zechariah.

New Testament reference
When Jesus Christ angrily rebuked a group of Pharisees who had protested when He did not wash his hands at the dinnertable, He told them that God would avenge the murders of the prophets,

He might have been speaking of this particular Zechariah, because the altar in question was probably the bronze altar of burnt offerings, which would be in the Temple court. Or He might have been speaking of the named prophet Zechariah who wrote the book that bears his name.

Genealogy
He was likely born in 889 BC, the son of Jehoiada, his predecessor, and Jehosheba, princess of the House of David. He probably married early, because the Bible gives no reason to suppose that his son, Zadok II, was too young to succeed him at his death.