The prophet Zechariah was a Levite born in Babylon (
Nehemiah 12:1,
16). He was the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo the priest (
Zechariah 1:1). Ezra and Nehemiah referred to him as “a descendant of Iddo” (
Ezra 5:1,
6:14;
Nehemiah 12:4,
16), implying perhaps that his father had died young and Zechariah became the successor of his grandfather (Nehemiah 12:4,16).