2 Chronicles 24:17-37

content/bible_journal/2chronicles/24:17-37.md

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+title = "2 Chronicles 24:17–37"
+date = "2025-03-31"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2Chronicles24.17-37)
+
+With Jehoiada dead, King Joash began to listen to the advice and counsel of the princes of Judah.
+Together, they abandoned the worship of the Lord and began serving the gods of the Caananites of old.
+The Lord was displeased, and sent warnings and trials in order to turn the people back to Himself.
+Even Jehoiada's son, Zechariah (not to be confused with the Zechariah, son of Berechiah, who wrote the book of prophecy centuries later) began preaching publicly against the cultural changes.
+In response, the princes and the king conspired together to have him stoned in the courtyard before the temple of the Lord.
+Zechariah calls on the Lord to see the injustice being done and to avenge his death.
+
+The Lord does so by the end of the year.
+He raises up a relatively small band of Syrians to raid Judah, and He gives them extraordinary success.
+They defeat the much larger army of Judah that is sent against them.
+They kill all of the idolatrous princes, but they only wound King Joash.
+While the king is bed-ridden from his wounds, his servants take the reveng on Zechariah that he asked from the Lord.
+They remembered the goodness of Jehoiada and how his son had followed in his footsteps in seeking the Lord.
+To further emphasize their disapproval, they do not bury Joash with the other kings of Judah, though he is still buried in Jerusalem.
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+* * *
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+May You be our only source of righteousness, and not merely follow along with what the people around us say is right.