TEXT [Commentary]

4. Zechariah rules in Israel (15:8-12)

8 Zechariah son of Jeroboam II began to rule over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of King Uzziah’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria six months. 9 Zechariah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, as his ancestors had done. He refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit. 10 Then Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against Zechariah, assassinated him in public,[*] and became the next king.

11 The rest of the events in Zechariah’s reign are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel. 12 So the LORD’s message to Jehu came true: “Your descendants will be kings of Israel down to the fourth generation.”

NOTES

15:8 Zechariah. This is the fifth and final king from the dynasty of Jehu. Zechariah’s name means “Yahweh has remembered.” Interestingly, there are over 30 different Zechariahs named in the Bible.

15:9 Jeroboam son of Nebat. See note on 14:24.

15:10 Shallum son of Jabesh. The town of Jabesh (Gilead) may well be in view here (cf. Cogan and Tadmor 1988:170); if so, we find a reference to Shallum’s clan affiliation rather than to the specific name of his father. Shallum’s name probably means “he for whom compensation has been made” (cf. ABD 5.1154, which further points out [following Jones 1984:521] that Shallum’s usurpation here may well have represented the result of Transjordanian opposition to the house of Jehu).

assassinated him in public. This is a defensible translation of the difficult Hebrew—or actually partly Aramaic—text which reads qabol-‘am [TH6904/5971A, ZH7692/6639] (“before [the] people”; the word qebol is Aramaic). Many commentators, however, want to emend the text to read beyible‘am [TH2991, ZH3300] (“at Ibleam”) or the like (cf. NLT mg; this would involve the shift of only one letter [Qoph to Beth and Yodh] in the consonantal text). Lucianic mss of the LXX read “in Ibleam,” and as Cogan and Tadmor (1988:170-171) point out, one would expect the site of the attack to be specified (cf. 9:27 where it was “near Ibleam” that Jehu assassinated Ahaziah of Judah [see the third note on that verse for the probable location of the town]). If this reading is accepted, we would find, among other things, an ironic inclusio (literary repetition) linking together the beginning and the end of Jehu’s dynasty (Jones 1984:521-522). In any case, Sweeney (2007:371) is probably correct to see Shallum’s motivation as the desire to bring an end to that dynasty and its historic alignment with Assyria as opposed to Aram.

15:11 are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel. See “Literary Style” in the Introduction.

15:12 down to the fourth generation. See 10:30; also the commentary on 10:18-31.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Ironically, as we come to the end of a string of assassinations in Judah (cf. the previous commentary section), we begin to read about a number of them in Israel (“In my anger I [Yahweh] gave you kings, and in my fury I took them away” [Hos 13:11]). Indeed, as has already been seen (see the commentary on the reign of Jeroboam II [14:23-29]), this also represents the beginning of the end for the northern kingdom, with Jeroboam II the last powerful king to reign over it. Although there will be six kings after him, none will be anywhere near as important as he was.

Here we also reach the end of the Jehu dynasty, with its remarkable stability. Zechariah’s brief six months on the throne represent indeed a “fourth” generation of kings beyond Jehu himself, and since the Hebrews tended to reckon years inclusively (e.g., the “50th” Year of Jubilee probably occurred on the seventh sabbatical year, which we would count as year 49), Zechariah as the “fifth” king in that dynasty (counting Jehu himself), would be an extra, “bonus” monarch. Be that as it may, nothing good could be said about his half-year on the throne (cf. Zimri back in 1 Kgs 16:19 [see the note there], who apparently sat on the throne for only one week). Sometimes, it seems, one can be a “placeholder” in history and still be tainted by the sins of predecessors. At least, this is how 2 Kings “remembers” Zechariah son of Jeroboam II.