King Zechariah (Israel)

Zechariah son of Jeroboam II reigned only six months in Samaria before Shallum son of Jabesh struck him down in public and took the throne (2 Kings 15:8–12). He was the fourth generation of Jehu's dynasty, after Jehoahaz, Joash and Jeroboam II, and 2 Kings presents his death as the fulfillment of God's promise to Jehu that his sons would sit on Israel's throne to the fourth generation (2 Kings 10:30). Hosea had also warned that God would "avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu."

His murder ended the longest dynasty in the northern kingdom's history, nearly a century in power, and opened its final collapse. From his reign to the fall of Samaria in −722, about thirty years, six kings ruled Israel; four of them, Zechariah, Shallum, Pekahiah and Pekah, were assassinated, while the Assyrian empire under Tiglath-pileser III closed in.