19
1Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the LORD.
2These testified against them, but they would not pay attention.
Joash's Treachery
20 3Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah
4the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, "Thus says God,
5'Why do you break the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper?
6Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.'"
21
But
7they conspired against him,
8and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the LORD.
22
Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, "May the LORD see
9and avenge!"
Joash Assassinated
23 At the end of the year
10the army of the Syrians came up against Joash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.
24
Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men,
11the LORD delivered into their hand a very great army,
12because Judah had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. Thus they
13executed judgment on Joash.
25
When they had departed from him, leaving him
14severely wounded,
15his servants conspired against him because of the blood of
16the son of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David,
17but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.