Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 24

Verse 1

Joash [was] seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also [was] Zibiah of Beersheba.

And he reigned forty years. — See 2 Kings 12:1 .

His mother’s name also was Zibiah of Beersheba. — Whatever his mother was, his foster mother, his aunt Jehoshebah, did all the offices of a good mother to him; but he ill requited her in her son Zechariah. It is said of the Irish, Camden’s Elisab. that the love of foster brothers amongst them far surpasses all the loves of all men.

Verse 2

And Joash did [that which was] right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

And Joash did that which was right all the days of Jehoiada. — Education doth something, as the boat moveth some little time upon the water by virtue of the former stroke. Nero, for his first five years, while he hearkened to his two tutors, Seneca and Burrhus, was very fair conditioned. That speech of his, Quam vellem nescire literas, when he was to set his hand to a warrant for the execution of any condemned person, occasioned Seneca to write his book of clemency, in which he propounds him for a pattern. See 2 Kings 12:2 .

Verse 3

And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters.

And Jehoiada took for him two wives. — What could his own father, if living, have done more for him?

Verse 4

And it came to pass after this, [that] Joash was minded to repair the house of the LORD.

Joash was minded to repair. — Hereby he showed his thankfulness to God, who in that house had so graciously preserved him, and done so great things for him. See 2 Kings 12:4-5 .

Verse 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.

Howbeit the Levites hastened it not. — See on 2 Kings 12:6 .

Verse 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 the collection, [according to the commandment] of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the congregation of Israel, for the tabernacle of witness?

Why hast thou not? — Wonder that Jehoiada should need a chiding from Joash. See 2 Kings 12:7 .

The collection, according to the commandment of Moses. — Heb., The collection of Moses, i.e., such as Moses used. Exodus 30:12 ; Exodus 30:16 ; Exodus 25:2-9 to the which this was somewhat like, and therefore thus called. See the like, 2 Kings 12:7 Judges 1:11 , …

Verse 7

For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD did they bestow upon Baalim.

For the sons of Athaliah. — This they might do before they were slain by the Arabians. 2 Chronicles 21:17 Her son Ahaziah, who escaped them, was wholly ruled by her. Jerome and Lyra by her sons understand her Baal’s priests, whom she cherished and chuckered as if they had been born of her body.

Verse 8

And at the king’s commandment they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of the LORD.

And at the king’s commandment. — See 2 Kings 12:9 .

And set it without at the gate. — Near the altar, that men might be encouraged to it, as to an offering made to God, saith Wolphius.

Verse 9

And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the LORD the collection [that] Moses the servant of God [laid] upon Israel in the wilderness.

The collection that Moses. — See on 2 Chronicles 24:6 .

Verse 10

And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end.

Ver. 10-12. See 2 Kings 12:10-11 .

Verse 13

So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in his state, and strengthened it.

And the work was perfected by them. — Heb., The healing went up upon the work. Metaphora tracta a corporibus quae medicina curantur: so the sun is said in spring to "heal" those deformities that winter had brought upon the earth. Malachi 4:2

Verse 14

And when they had finished [it], they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the LORD, [even] vessels to minister, and to offer [withal], and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD continually all the days of Jehoiada.

Whereof were made vessels. — Instead of those that had been taken away, partly by the Arabian plunderers, and partly by Athaliah’s sacrilegious sons.

Verse 15

But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old [was he] when he died.

But Jehoiada waxed old. — And therefore, haply, had been the more remiss. 2 Chronicles 24:6

And was full of days. — See on 1 Chronicles 23:1 .

When he died. — The good people were ready to wish, as the Romans did of Augustus, that either he had never been born, or had never died.

Verse 16

And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house.

And they buried him among the kings. — A great honour surely, the like whereunto was lately done here to that most reverend archbishop Ussher, Narration of his life and death by Dr Bernard. who, though Jehoiada-like he had done much good in our Irish and English Israel, both towards God and toward his house, as it is here, yet died praying for pardon of his sins, and in special of his omissions, though he was never known to omit an hour, but ever employed in his Master’s business.

Verse 17

Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.

Came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. — Rabbi Solomon saith that they persuaded him that he was more than a man, and gave him divine honours: but this is not likely. In most fawning and flattering manner did these court parasites present themselves before him, suavia potius quam sana consilia atque remedia illi propinantes, persuading him that during the days of Jehoiada he had been a king without a kingdom, a lord without a dominion, a subject to his subjects, …: that he should do well to take knowledge of his great power, and to show it by granting to every man a liberty to worship God as he list, and where he best liketh, not tied to the temple, but doing his devotions in other places besides, as high places, groves, …

And the king hearkened unto them. — As fair words make fools fain, and princes’ minds are easily altered for the worse, quando non deligunt quos diligant, sed consiliarios adhibent parasitos, sputa illorum instar canum lingentes, …, when they give ear to flatterers.

Verse 18

And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.

And wrath came upon Judah. — Let our church forsakers chew on this: let them see what good patriots they are.

Verse 19

Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.

Yet he sent prophets to them. — As God loveth to foresignify; such is his pity and patience.

And they testified against them: but they would not give ear. — The Vulgate rendereth it, Quos Protestantes illi audire nolebant: which Poynes Preface to his book Of the Sacraments. Sic et Duacerises, Anglice the Papist construeth thus, Whom those Protestants would not hear; and therehence, very doctor like, inferreth that it was foretold in the Old Testament that the Protestants were a malignant church, whereas Protestantes there is to be referred to prophets going before; and so it followeth better that the name of Protestants - though in contempt put upon the reformed churches by the Papists, by reason of their protestation against the Romish religion made at Spires above a hundred years since - yet is ancient and honourable; and that they were idolaters that would not give ear to those Protestants of old - as neither will they to this day - who called heaven and earth to witness against them.

Verse 20

And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.

Zechariah the son of Jehoiada. — Called, say some, elsewhere Barachias, that is, the blessed of the Lord; which title he might have given him, as Jedediah was to Solomon, for honour’s sake.

Which stood above the people. — And earnestly inveighed against the evil manners of king, princes, and people, who thereupon taxed him as a traitor, likely, and a trumpet of rebellion, as the Papists did Luther, and gave him his passport out of the world.

Verse 21

And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

And stoned him with stones. — This is mercis mundi: this is the lot of downright dealing prophets, even the same as of hares that will needs give laws to lions: it is Aristotle’s comparison. In Politic. The post truly saith,

“ Nihil est violentius aure tyranni. ”

Tyrants are very touchy: Tange montes et fumigabunt, Touch those mountains, and they will smoke: none but silken words will down with them. Maneinellus, for his plain dealing in a sermon preached at Rome before Pope Alexander VI, had first his hands cut off, and then his tongue cut out, of which wound he died. Savanarola was served in like manner; so was Lambert, bishop of Trajectum, for reproving King Pipin, … Muleasses, king of Tunes, cruelly tortured to death the Manifet and Mesnar by whose means especially he had attained to the kingdom, grieving to see them live to whom he was so much beholden, and therefore rewarded them with such sharp punishment. Who knoweth but Joash might be of the same mind toward good Zechariah? See 2 Chronicles 23:11 .

Verse 22

Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon [it], and require [it].

Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness. — This was monstrous ingratitude, such as was that also of Hercules, who, for a sharp word, knocked on the head his tutor Linus: Hoc ictu ceu didactro accepto Linus mortuus est. Johannes Scotus and Cassianus Brixiensis, two famous schoolmasters, were stabbed to death by their unruly scholars with their penknives; Seneca was suffocated in a bath by the command of his pupil Nero. Cicero was beheaded by Papilius Laenas, a soldier whose life he had saved. παλαια μεν ευδει χαρις: αμναμονες δε ανθρωποι , saith Pindarus: Good turns are as soon forgotten by men, as eaten bread is by children. Do them nineteen kindnesses, and if ye fail them in the twentieth - which yet, perhaps, would prove no kindness to them - all is lost.

“ Sunt homines humeris quos siquis gestat ad urbem

Ausoniam, domiti quae caput orbis erat;

Nec tamen ad portam placide deponat eosdem,

Gratia praeteriti nulla laboris eris. ” - Ausonius.

Pythias royally entertained and feasted Xerxes and all his huge army, proffering him also a great sum of gold toward the charges of the war, after which, Xerxes having pressed his five sons for the war, Pythias went to him entreating him to release his eldest son, to be a comfort and support to his old age; but Xerxes, being angry at his request, most ungratefully caused his son to be cut into two pieces, and laid in the way for his army to march over. Herodot.

The Lord look upon it. — Or, The Lord will look upon it and require it. He did so, and that forthwith, 2 Chronicles 24:23-26 for "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," his suffering saints especially. Epiphanius In Vit. Zacha. saith that from the death of this high priest, God answered the Jews no more by Urim and Thummim.

Verse 23

And it came to pass at the end of the year, [that] the host of Syria 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 the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus.

And it came to pass, … — Agminatim mala irruunt: now began their misery in answer to Zechariah’s last, whether prayer or prophecy. Sir Con. MacGenis, one of the late Irish rebels, after he had murdered one Mr Trug, a minister, was so haunted with the furies of his own conscience, that he thought his ghost followed him day and night. Mr Clark’s Martyrol., 36. The like we may very well think of bloody Joash. But besides what he felt within, "the Syrians before and the Philistines behind came upon him with open mouth to devour him; and for all this God’s anger was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still." Isaiah 9:12 See Trapp on " 2 Kings 12:17 " See Trapp on " 2 Kings 12:18 "

And destroyed all the princes. — Those cursed clawbacks that had marred a good king. 2 Chronicles 24:17 Now it comes home to them, by God’s special direction to the enemy, who executed judgment upon Joash. 2 Chronicles 24:24

Verse 24

For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the LORD delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash.

So they executed judgment against Joash. — Ignominiosa iudicia, saith the Vulgate; they used him basely, by whipping, torturing, or otherwise wounding him, so that he fell grievously sick upon it. Jerome saith they upbraided him with his killing of Zechariah, as Nebuchadnezzar afterwards did Zedekiah with his perjury; 2 Kings 25:6 and as Sapores, king of Persia, dealt with Valerian the emperor, who was at first so mild and favourable to Christians, that his house, frequented by them, seemed to be a very church; but afterwards, being corrupted by a certain Egyptian magician, he so raged against those whom he had before honoured as the people of God, that he exceeded all his predecessors in cruelty towards them. He was author of the eighth persecution. But God met with this Joash too; for, being taken captive by the king of Persia, he was used like a slave as long as he lived, Sapores setting his foot upon his neck whensoever he mounted on horseback. Thus he lived seven years in reproaches, and then died a violent death. Eusebius saith his eyes were pulled out, wherewith he died. Agathias saith he was flayed alive, and rubbed all over with salt.

Verse 25

And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings.

And when they were departed from him. — So that he had time to repent, but did not.

For they left him in great diseases. — Such, perhaps, as was that of Count Felix of Wurtemburg, who threatened to ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans, but died choked in his own blood; Act. and Mon., 1902. or that of Charles IX of France, author of the Parisian massacre, who died of a like disease; or that of Ladislaus, king of Bohemia and Hungary, who most unjustly had caused Ladislaus, son to Hunniades - who had better deserved of him - to be beheaded. He afterwards died of a pestilent sore in his groin.

For the blood of the sons of Jehoiada, — i.e., Of the son: called sons, say some, because he was to his father instead of many sons.

Verse 26

And these are they that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess.

Zabad. — Slaves they were both, born of bondwomen, but God’s executioners. He was just, though they were unjust.

Verse 27

Now [concerning] his sons, and the greatness of the burdens [laid] upon him, and the repairing of the house of God, behold, they [are] written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

And the greatness of the burdens. — 2 Kings 12:18 Not heavy enough to break his hard heart.