The
Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you disobey Yahweh’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’” They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house.
2 Chronicles 24:20-21
2 Chronicles 24 [15.] But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; one hundred thirty years old was he when he died. They buried him in David’s city among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king listened to them. They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols; and wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness. Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.
2 Chronicles 24 [20.] The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you disobey Yahweh’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’”
2 Chronicles 24 [21.] They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house. Thus Joash the king didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, “May Yahweh look at it, and repay it.” At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus. For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and Yahweh delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash.
2 Chronicles 24 [25.] When they were departed for him (for they left him very sick), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in David’s city, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings. These are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid on him, and the rebuilding of God’s house, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
Meaning:
These verses tell of the martyrdom of Zechariah, a priest and prophet in the days of King Joash of Judah. Jesus referred to his death when he spoke of “the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar” (Matthew 23:35).
- “The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada”
When Joash was a baby, Jehoiada the priest and his wife hid him from Athaliah “in God’s house six years” (2 Chronicles 22:11-12). “Joash did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes all the days of Jehoiada the priest” (2 Chronicles 24:2), but after Jehoiada died the princes led him into idolatry. Zechariah, the son of the priest who had saved the king, was moved by God’s Spirit to warn them: “Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.”
- “stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king”
Instead of repenting, they killed the messenger in the temple court at the king’s command. Joash “didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son” (2 Chronicles 24:22). As he died, Zechariah said, “May Yahweh look at it, and repay it.” Within a year the Syrian army invaded, “So they executed judgment on Joash” (2 Chronicles 24:24).
The Significance of 2 Chronicles 24:20-21
- From Abel to Zechariah
Chronicles is the last book of the Hebrew Bible, so Jesus’ words “from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah” covered the martyrs of the Scriptures from first to last. Zechariah’s death showed the pattern of rejecting God’s messengers that would reach its climax in the rejection of Jesus.
Cross-References:
Acts 7:60: “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” Stephen, stoned like Zechariah, prayed for his killers.
2 Chronicles 15:2: “if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” The same warning given to King Asa.
Conclusion: Zechariah, son of the priest who saved King Joash, was stoned in the temple court for calling the people back to God. His death, the last murder of a prophet recorded in the Hebrew Bible, warns against ingratitude and rejecting God’s word, and Jesus pointed to it when he warned his own generation.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible