2 Chronicles 24:17-27

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and did obeisance to the king; then the king listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the sacred poles^[a] and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.^{(A) 19} Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord; they testified against them, but they would not listen.^(B)

²⁰ Then the spirit of God took possession of^[b] Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada; he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus says God: Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you.”^{(C) 21} But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord.^{(D) 22} King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him but killed his son. As he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!”^(E)

Death of Joash

²³ At the end of the year, the army of Aram came up against Joash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the officials of the people from among them and sent all the spoil they took to the king of Damascus.^{(F) 24} Although the army of Aram had come with few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army because they had abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors. Thus they executed judgment on Joash.^(G)

²⁵ When they had withdrawn, leaving him severely wounded, his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son^[c] of the priest Jehoiada, and they killed him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.^{(H) 26} Those who conspired against him were Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite. ²⁷ Accounts of his sons, and of the many oracles against him, and of the rebuilding^[d] of the house of God are written in the Commentary on the Book of the Kings. And his son Amaziah succeeded him.^(I)