Zechariah
Name meaning: "same as Zachariah"
Zechariah (Hebrew Zekaryah, “the LORD has remembered”) is one of the most common names in the Old Testament, borne by more than two dozen men. By far the most prominent is Zechariah the prophet, son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo (Zechariah 1:1), a priest-prophet of the return from exile. Beginning in 520 BC, alongside Haggai, he stirred the discouraged remnant to finish rebuilding the temple (Ezra 5:1-2; Ezra 6:14).
His book opens with a summons to repentance — “Return to me… and I will return to you” (Zechariah 1:3) — followed by a series of eight night visions assuring the people of God’s renewed presence, the cleansing of the high priest Joshua, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Zechariah 3:1-5). To Zerubbabel came the enduring word, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). The visions are crowned by a symbolic crowning of Joshua that foreshadows a coming priest-king, “the Branch” who will build the temple of the LORD (Zechariah 6:12-13).
Zechariah’s later chapters are among the richest messianic prophecy in the Old Testament, repeatedly quoted in the Gospels’ passion narratives. He foretells Zion’s king coming “humble and mounted on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9), the thirty pieces of silver thrown to the potter (Zechariah 11:12-13), the people who “look on me, on him whom they have pierced” and mourn (Zechariah 12:10), the shepherd struck so the sheep are scattered (Zechariah 13:7), and the fountain opened to cleanse from sin (Zechariah 13:1) — closing with the LORD reigning as king over all the earth (Zechariah 14:9).
Other notable bearers of the name include Zechariah king of Israel, last of Jehu’s dynasty, assassinated after a six-month reign (2 Kings 15:8-12), and Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, stoned in the temple court for rebuking the people — whom Jesus named as the last of the martyred prophets, “from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah” (2 Chronicles 24:20-22; Matthew 23:35). The Greek form of the name, Zacharias, belongs to the father of John the Baptist.