2 Chronicles 24:15-22 - Joash's Apostasy

¹⁵ Now when Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, he died. He was a hundred and thirty years old at his death. ¹⁶ They buried him in the City of David among the kings, because he had done good [things] in Israel and toward God and His house.

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada [the priest, who had hidden Joash], the officials of Judah came and bowed down to King Joash; then the king listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols; so [God’s] wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for their sin and guilt. ¹⁹ Yet God sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord; these prophets testified against them, but they would not listen.

²⁰ Then the Spirit of God came over Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them, “This is what God has said: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have abandoned (turned away from) the Lord, He has also abandoned (turned away from) you.’” ²¹ So they conspired against Zechariah and stoned him [to death] at the command of the king, in the courtyard of the house of the Lord. ²² Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but he murdered his son. And when Zechariah was dying, he said, “May the Lord see this and require an accounting!”