Zechariah 1:1

The writer identified the time when this first word from the Lord came to Zechariah and who he was. "The word of the Lord" is a technical term meaning the prophetic word of revelation. The eighth month of the second year of Darius was October-November of 520 B.C. Evidently Haggai began ministering two months earlier to the same audience and ended his prophetic ministry one month later (Haggai 1:1; Haggai 2:10; Haggai 2:20; cf. Ezra 5:1; Ezra 6:14). Since there was no human king of Israel then, the writer dated the prophecy in reference to Darius, a reminder that Israel was in "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). "The times of the Gentiles" is the time when Gentiles control the destiny of Israel, namely, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to the future millennial reign of Christ. Zechariah’s father was Berechiah, and his more prominent grandfather (or ancestor) was Iddo. Iddo was among the priests who returned from the Captivity with Zerubbabel and Joshua (Nehemiah 12:4; Nehemiah 12:16).