“In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came.” The Bible does not say what day of the eighth month God spoke to Zechariah. This was the beginning of his visions and hearing from God. His next vision came about four months later, on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (Zech. 1:7).

“Zechariah the prophet.” Zechariah was also a priest (Zech. 1:1, 7; Neh. 12:4), but what is important here is his prophetic calling.

“the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo.” Zechariah was the son of Berechiah, who was the son of Iddo. As is sometimes done in biblical genealogy, names are omitted for various reasons. That is the case in the genealogy of Zechariah in the book of Ezra, where Zechariah is called the son of Iddo, when he was actually the grandson of Iddo (Ezra 5:1; 6:14). It is likely that Berechiah was left out of the genealogy in Ezra because he was not as prominent as Iddo, and also perhaps because he died young and so Iddo was the primary influence in his life. These are things that would have been known when Zechariah lived but are lost to us today.