2 Kings 15:8–12, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Kings 15:8–12
Zechariah's murder ends Jehu's fourth generation
Zechariah's six months close Jehu's promised generations
Zechariah son of Jeroboam reigns six months in Samaria. He does what is evil and does not depart from the sins of Jeroboam. Shallum son of Jabesh conspires against him, strikes him down before the people, and reigns in his place. The rest of Zechariah's acts are in Israel's chronicles.
The narrator then underlines the point: this was the word of the Lord that he spoke to Jehu — your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. And so it came to pass. A measured reward ends on a public murder. Dynasty was never the same as reform, and the clock on Jehu's house was always four generations, not forever.
How this should shape us
Do not confuse a promised run of successors with a blank check. If God named an ending, a public conspiracy can be the form that ending takes. Live the years you actually have without treating a throne as immortal.
Teach it back
Explain 2 Kings 15:8–12 in your own words. Include its movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, one affected or obscured person, and one misuse the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The received narrative supplies its theological interpretation, but the precise source history, chronology, motives, and external correlation remain open to graded historical judgment.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
2 Kings 15:8–12, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 15:8–12
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 649–651, translation and translator notes for 15:8–12
Supports: Unit-level literary, compositional, historical, and theological orientation used as one concise scholarly synthesis rather than consensus.
Dietrich, '1 and 2 Kings,' Oxford Bible Commentary (2001), printed pp. 257–261, exposition covering 2 Kings 15:8–12
Supports: Only the abstract-supported conclusion that regnal synchronisms, MT-LXX differences, and reconstruction remain contested without consensus.
McKenzie and Villar Vegas, 'The Royal Chronology of the Books of Kings,' Oxford Handbook (2024), official abstract and metadata for pp. 216–230
Supports: Only publisher-visible framing for Judah under Israelite, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Babylonian power using texts, inscriptions, and archaeology with limits.
Hasegawa, 'History and Archaeology: The Kingdom of Judah,' Oxford Handbook (2024), official abstract and metadata for pp. 243–257
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Kings 15:8–12, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 15:8–12
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 649–651, translation and translator notes for 15:8–12
Open source ↗scholarly commentary chapter
1 and 2 Kings
Walter Dietrich
The Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2001
Supports: Unit-level literary, compositional, historical, and theological orientation used as one concise scholarly synthesis rather than consensus.
Exact location: Dietrich, '1 and 2 Kings,' Oxford Bible Commentary (2001), printed pp. 257–261, exposition covering 2 Kings 15:8–12
Open source ↗scholarly handbook chapter abstract and metadata
Royal Chronology
Steven L. McKenzie and David Villar Vegas
The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings, Oxford University Press, 2024
Supports: Only the abstract-supported conclusion that regnal synchronisms, MT-LXX differences, and reconstruction remain contested without consensus.
Exact location: McKenzie and Villar Vegas, 'The Royal Chronology of the Books of Kings,' Oxford Handbook (2024), official abstract and metadata for pp. 216–230
Open source ↗scholarly handbook chapter abstract and metadata
History and Archaeology: The Kingdom of Judah
Shuichi Hasegawa
The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings, Oxford University Press, 2024
Supports: Only publisher-visible framing for Judah under Israelite, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Babylonian power using texts, inscriptions, and archaeology with limits.
Exact location: Hasegawa, 'History and Archaeology: The Kingdom of Judah,' Oxford Handbook (2024), official abstract and metadata for pp. 243–257
Open source ↗