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18And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols; so wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. 19Yet He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord; and they testified against them, but they would not listen.
20Then the Spirit of God covered Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest like clothing; and he stood above the people and said to them, “This is what God has said, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have abandoned the Lord, He has also abandoned you.’ ” 21So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the house of the Lord. 22So Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son. And as Zechariah died he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!”
23Now it happened at the turn of the year that the army of the Arameans came up against Joash; and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the officials of the people from among the people, and sent all their spoils to the king of Damascus. 24Indeed, the army of the Arameans came with a small number of men; yet the Lord handed a very great army over to them, because Judah and Joash had abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash.
25When they left him (for they left him very sick), his own servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they murdered him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. 26Now these are the men who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. 27As to his sons and the many pronouncements against him and the rebuilding of the house of God, behold, they are written in the treatise of the Book of the Kings. Then his son Amaziah became king in his place.