2 Chronicles 24:25
And when the Arameans had withdrawn, they left Joash severely wounded. His own servants conspired against him for shedding the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
Sermons
Sad Successive StagesW. Clarkson 2 Chronicles 24:17-25
Divine RetributionsT. Whitelaw 2 Chronicles 24:23-27














I. JUDAH INVADED BY THE SYRIANS. (Ver. 23.) Zechariah had predicted that prosperity should no longer attend Judah in consequence of her apostasy from Jehovah (ver. 20); and, before breathing his last, had prayed, and so practically predicted (James 5:16), that Jehovah would avenge his murder upon the king, his princes, and people (ver. 22). That this incursion of Hazael (1 Kings 19:15), who had first assassinated Benhadad II. and seized upon the throne (2 Kings 8:7-15), and whose historicity is guaranteed by an inscription on Shalmaneser's black obelisk, which says, "In my eighteenth year, for the sixteenth time the Euphrates I crossed. Hazael of Damascus to battle came ... . In my twenty-first campaign, to the cities of Hazael of Damascus I went. Four of his fortresses I took" ('Records,' etc., 5:34, 35; Schrader, 'Keilinschriften,' p. 206) - that this incursion of the Syrian monarch into Judaean territory, as far even as to Jerusalem, was an instalment of the wrath which the nation's apostasy had stirred up against itself, several things convinced the Chronicler.

1. The time when it happened. "At the end," or revolution, "of the year." No doubt Divine judgment often tarries, and when it does inert are apt to question its existence (Psalm

1. 20). But sometimes it hastens on the heels of crime, as it did in the cases of Cain (Genesis 4:8, 9), Pharaoh (Exodus 14:27), Israel in Shittim (Numbers 25:4), the murderers of Ishbosheth (2 Samuel 4:12), Ahab (1 Kings 22:34-37), Haman (Esther 7:10), Judas (Acts 1:18; Matthew 27:5), and others; and their observers instinctively exclaim, "Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth" (Psalm 58:11).

2. The success it attained.

(1) The Syrian army, having probably conquered Israel, succeeded in capturing Gath, one of the five cities of the Philistines (Joshua 13:3), which David annexed to Judah (1 Chronicles 18:1), and which may still have belonged to the kingdom of Jonah.

(2) Next it moved upon Jerusalem, which was not far distant, and defeated the Judaean troops in a pitched battle, in which all the princes of Judah were cut off, and Joash himself seriously wounded.

(3) As an inducement to make peace and withdraw his forces from the capital, Hazael obtained from Joash "all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated," which had been recovered from the temple of Baal (ver. 7), "and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the Lord and in the king's house" (2 Kings 12:18).

(4) That which specially revealed the hand of God in this disaster was not so much the extent as the incidence of it. The blow descended, indeed, upon the common people, who are chief sufferers in most wars; but in this instance a striking fitness was visible in the cutting off of the princes who had instigated the sovereign and his subjects to idolatry, and in the despoliation of the temple, which they had desecrated by their idolatries.

3. The weapon it employed. A small army, which had routed Judah's large host. This was reversing the experience of Judah, as, e.g., when Asa with five hundred and eighty thousand soldiers defeated Zerah with a million of infantry and three hundred charioteers (2 Chronicles 14:10). As Asa's victory was due to Jehovah's help, so Joash's surrender was explicable only on the supposition that Jehovah had forsaken him and Hazael been commissioned to execute wrath upon him.

II. JOASH SLAIN BY CONSPIRATORS. (Ver. 25.)

1. When? "After the Syrians had departed from him." Though he had escaped the doom which sought him on the battlefield, it seemed as if justice would not suffer him to live (cf. Acts 28:4). Scarcely had the Syrians departed than the sleuth-hound of retribution was again upon his trail. Only wounded by soldiers' spears, he was slaughtered by assassins' swords.

2. Where? In his castle-palace at Mille (2 Kings 12:20), and on his bed, i.e. while invalided by his wounds. Death found him in a fortress, behind which he doubtless expected to be secure, and at a moment when, perhaps, that expectation was high through the healing of his wounds.

3. By whom? His own servants, whose names are given: "Zabad [or Jozakat, Kings] the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess." Led astray by those who should have been his servants, the princes, he was put to death by his actual servants. He had betrayed his country to foreign gods, by men of foreign extraction he was destroyed. Divine retributions frequently correspond to the character of the offence they punish.

4. Why? Because of the "blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest." They meant to reward him for his truculent deed against Zechariah. How they came to champion the cause of Jehoiada's murdered son is not said. Perhaps they shared the popular feeling, which trod never wholly approved of the murder; and when they witnessed the disaster which had come upon their arms, with the judgment that had fallen on the princes, they concluded that Zechariah's blood must be avenged if prosperity was again to return to Judah; and believing they would find, in the public mind, approval for their action, they despatched the wounded man upon his bed at Mille. Their calculations concerning the verdict of the people were not astray. Nobody regretted Joash's untimely end. His subjects "buried him in the city of David," where his fathers lay entombed, but they suffered not his carcase to desecrate the mausoleum of the kings. Learn:

1. The overruling providence of God. Things come to pass at his ordering.

2. The certainty that sin will be punished. Though judgment be delayed, it is not averted. - W.

But slew his son.
The picture here drawn of the failure of the best of tutors and governors is unfortunately only too typical. was educated by a distinguished Christian prelate, , and was trained in a strict routine of religious observances; yet he repudiated Christianity at the earliest safe opportunity. His apostasy, like that of Joash, was probably characterised by base ingratitude. At Constantine's death the troops in Constantinople massacred nearly all the princes of the imperial family, and Julian, then only six years old, is said to have been saved and concealed in a church by Mark, Bishop of Arethusa. When Julian became emperor, he repaid this obligation by subjecting his benefactor to cruel tortures because he had destroyed a heathen temple and refused to make any compensation.

(W. H. Bennett, M.A.)

People
Amaziah, Aram, Athaliah, David, Jehoiada, Jehozabad, Joash, Levites, Shimeath, Shimrith, Syrians, Zabad, Zechariah, Zibiah
Places
Beersheba, Damascus, Jerusalem
Topics
Bed, Blood, Body, Broken, Buried, Bury, Conspired, David, Death, Departed, Design, Didn't, Died, Dieth, Disease, Diseases, Graves, Jehoiada, Jehoi'ada, Joash, Killed, Kings, Leaving, Murdered, Murdering, Officials, Priest, Resting-place, Secret, Sepulchers, Sepulchres, Servants, Severely, Sick, Slay, Slew, Sons, Themselves, Tombs, Town, Withdrew, Wounded
Outline
1. Joash reigns well all the days of Jehoiada
4. He gives order for the repair of the temple
15. Jehoiada's death and honorable burial
17. Joash, falling into idolatry, slays Zechariah the son of Jehoiada
23. Joash is spoiled by the Syrians, and slain by Zabad and Jehozabad
27. Amaziah succeeds him

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Chronicles 24:25

     9050   tombs

2 Chronicles 24:25-26

     5817   conspiracies

Library
The King's Farewell
'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30. And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Joash
'And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.... 17. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.'--2 CHRON. xxiv. 2, 17. Here we have the tragedy of a soul. Joash begins life well and for the greater part of it remains faithful to his conscience and to his duty, and then, when outward circumstances change, he casts all behind him, forgets the past and commits moral
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Glad Givers and Faithful Workers
'And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to repair the house of the Lord. 5. And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it not. 6. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Channel of Power.
A Word that Sticks and Stings. I suppose everyone here can think of three or four persons whom he loves or regards highly, who are not christians. Can you? Perhaps in your own home circle, or in the circle of your close friends. They may be nice people, cultured, lovable, delightful companions, fond of music and good books, and all that; but this is true of them, that they do not trust and confess Jesus as a personal Savior. Can you think of such persons in your own circle? I am going to wait a
S.D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on Power

The Prophet Joel.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The position which has been assigned to Joel in the collection of the Minor Prophets, furnishes an external argument for the determination of the time at which Joel wrote. There cannot be any doubt that the Collectors were guided by a consideration of the chronology. The circumstance, that they placed the prophecies of Joel just between the two prophets who, according to the inscriptions and contents of their prophecies, belonged to the time of Jeroboam and Uzziah, is
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Conclusion
"Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. 19:6). In our Foreword to the Second Edition we acknowledge the need for preserving the balance of Truth. Two things are beyond dispute: God is Sovereign, man is responsible. In this book we have sought to expound the former; in our other works we have frequently pressed the latter. That there is real danger of over-emphasising the one and ignoring the other, we readily admit; yea, history furnishes numerous examples of cases of each. To emphasise
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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