“Then I broke
My second staff,
Union.
This annulled
The family ties
Between Judah and Israel.”
Zechariah broke the 2nd staff named unity to indicate that the family ties between northern Israel and southern Judah were broken. Perhaps, this was the final break between the northern Israelites or Samaritans and the southern Judeans of Judah. Sometime in the 4th century BCE, the northern Samaritans built a temple at Mount Gerizim that opposed worship in southern Jerusalem.
