2 Chronicleschapter 24
27 verses · KJV2 Chronicles book hub →
Key verse
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.
It stands in Zechariah stoned in the court: the LORD look upon it, verses 20 to 22.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Joash does right all the days of Jehoiada. He repairs the house of Jehovah by setting a chest at the gate for the tax of Moses, and the people rejoice to bring in until the work is finished and vessels of gold and silver are made. But Jehoiada dies at a hundred and thirty, buried among the kings, and the princes flatter the young king into forsaking the house of God for the Asherim. The Spirit of God clothes Zechariah son of Jehoiada: 'Why transgress ye the commandments of Jehovah, so that ye cannot prosper?' They stone him in the temple court, and he dies saying, 'Jehovah look upon it, and require it': the murder Jesus names in Matthew 23:35.
Context
History · Ezra · 2 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
2 Chronicles 24The history
The funding problem is the heart of the chapter. The tax of Moses, the half-shekel each man paid for the service of the tent, had lapsed, and the building had been damaged and stripped by Athaliah's household. The first attempt to raise money through the Levites in the towns went nowhere.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
So they built a collection box: a chest with a hole bored in the lid, set outside at the gate of the house, with a proclamation sent through Judah and Jerusalem. People dropped their coins in until it was full, the king's scribe and the high priest's officer emptied it, and it went back out. Day after day, until there was plenty.
The money paid wages directly to masons, carpenters, and workers in iron and bronze, and the surplus went into vessels for the service. The building was restored to its original design and made stronger.
After Jehoiada dies, the officials come and flatter the young king, and the Asherah poles and idols return. Zechariah, Jehoiada's own son, stands up and says: why do you break the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? They stoned him in the court of the house of the LORD at the king's order, the son of the man who had saved the king's life, killed in the building he had saved. Jesus later refers to a Zechariah killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
The ending is small and exact: a modest Aramean force defeats a much larger army, and Joash is murdered on his bed by his own servants because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada, and is buried in the city but not in the tombs of the kings.
What it meant to them
The chest at the gate was a model for a poor community. Repairs funded by ordinary people, a coin at a time, with honest accounting and named officials, that is how the second temple was maintained too.
But the writer will not let the good half stand alone. The same reign that rebuilt the house murdered a prophet in its courtyard, and he places both in one chapter so no one can separate the building from the behavior.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Chronicles
Where the chapter sits
2 Chronicles 24 falls in Kings of Judah: Rehoboam to Ahaz (chapters 10–28). The divided kingdom narrated from Judah's side only; reform kings (Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Uzziah, Jotham) and evil kings; prophetic interventions unique to Chronicles (Azariah, Hanani, Zechariah son of Jehoiada).
Before it: Solomon's reign, chapters 1–9. After it: Hezekiah to the exile, chapters 29–36.
The whole shape of 2 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. A chest set at the gate, and the house of God repaired
1. (vv. 1-3)
2 Chronicles 24:1
“Joash was seven years old when he began to reign,.... This, and the following verse, are the same with 2Ki 11:21. See Gill on 2Ki 12:1. See Gill on 2Ki 12:2.”
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Chronicles 24:1
“Joash was seven years old - As he was hidden six years in the temple, and was but seven when he came to the throne, he could have been but one year old when he was secreted by his aunt; see on 2Ch 22:10 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:1
“If in a small parish one advanced in years is not to be found, let some younger person who has a good report among his neighbors and is esteemed by them worthy of the office of a bishop—who has carried himself from his youth with meekness and regularity, like a much elder person—after examination and a general good report, be ordained in peace.… Joash governed the people at seven years of age. Wherefore, although the person is young, let him be meek, gentle and quiet.”
Apostolic Constitutions· written before 380· CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 2.1patristic
2 Chronicles 24:1
“This chapter is parallel with 2 Kings 12, but treats the matters common to both narratives in a different and, apparently, supplemental way.”
2 Chronicles 24:2
“Jehoiada lived after the accession of Joash at least 23 years 2Ki 12:6. Thus the idolatries of Joash 2Ch 24:18 were confined to his last 10 or 15 years.”
2 Chronicles 24:3
“Athaliah’s destruction of the seed royal had left Joash without a natural successor, and his marriage at the earliest suitable age, was, therefore, a matter of state policy. One of his wives in question was probably “Jehoaddan of Jerusalem,” the mother of Amaziah 2Ch 25:1, who must have been taken to wife by Joash as early as his 21st year.”
seven years old when: Joash begins forty years on the throne, the same span Chronicles gives David and Solomon, and the formula that carries his goodness names its own limit in the next breath: he did right all the days of Jehoiada the priest. Chronicles alone records that Jehoiada took two wives for him, a detail Kings does not carry, securing the royal line Athaliah had nearly erased in one generation. The qualifier already warns the reader that this king's righteousness is borrowed, resting on a tutor rather than a settled heart of his own.
2. (vv. 4-7)
2 Chronicles 24:4
“And it came to pass after this,.... After his marriage, when he was about twenty or twenty one years of age, perhaps: that Joash was minded to repair the house of the Lord; which in some places might be fallen to decay, having been built one hundred and fifty years or more, and in others defaced by Athaliah, and needed ornamenting, see 2Ki 12:4.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:4
“To repair the house of the Lord - During the reigns of Joram and Athaliah, the temple of God had been pillaged to enrich that of Baal, and the whole structure permitted to fall into decay; see 2Ch 24:7.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:5
“Gather of all Israel money - As the temple was the property of the whole nation, and the services performed in it were for the salvation of the people at large, it was right that each should come forward on an occasion of this kind, and lend a helping hand. This is the first instance of such a general collection for building or repairing a house of God. From year to year - It must have been in a state of great dilapidation, when it required such annual exertions to bring it into a thorough state of repair.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:6
“The collection - of Moses - This was the poll-tax, fixed by Moses, of half a shekel, which was levied on every man from twenty years old and upward; and which was considered as a ransom for their souls, that there might be no plague among them. See Exo 30:12-14.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:6
“The chief - It is observable, that he is not called the chief priest, or high-priest, but only the chief, or the head, which he might be in many other respects, either by reason of his near relation to the royal family: or because he was the chief of one of the twenty- four families.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:7
“The sons - Ahaziah, and his brethren before they were carried away captive, chap. xxi, 17, who did this by her instigation, as this phrase implies. Broke up - Both broke up the treasuries, and defaced the house itself.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
was minded to repair: Chronicles alone explains why the house needed repair: the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God and given its dedicated things to the Baals, so the project answers a specific act of desecration rather than mere age. Joash orders the Levites to gather money by the commandment of Moses for the tabernacle of witness, but the Levites hasten it not, and the king must call Jehoiada to account for the delay. Where 2 Kings 12 records the same slow start without naming a cause, Chronicles supplies the motive: Baal worship had already reached inside the temple once, under the very queen Jehoiada had helped overthrow.
3. (vv. 8-11)
2 Chronicles 24:8
“And at the king's commandment they made a chest,.... See Gill on 2Ki 12:9.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:8
“They made a chest - See the notes on the parallel places, 2Ki 12:4 (note), etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:9
“And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem,.... By heralds appointed for the purpose: to bring in to the Lord; into the house of the Lord, and for the reparation of it; and so for his service, honour, and glory: the collection that Moses the servant of the Lord laid upon Israel in the wilderness; not to bring in the tabernacle of Moses, as the Targum here and in 2Ch 24:6, but such a voluntary gift as Moses moved the children of Israel to bring, when in the wilderness, for the service of the tabernacle.”
2 Chronicles 24:10
“And all the princes and all the people rejoiced,.... When they heard the proclamation, and understood for what use the money was to be given, and in what manner; all was agreeable and pleasing to them: and brought in, and cast into the chest; through the hole that was in the lid of it, 2Ki 12:9, until they had made an end: everyone had given as much as he could, or thought fit to give.”
2 Chronicles 24:11
“Now it came to pass, that at what time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of the Levites,....”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:11
“The king’s scribe ... came and emptied ... - Rather, “the king’s scribe came ... and they emptied” etc. i. e. the Levites who brought the chest from the temple emptied it in the presence of the scribe.”
made a chest, and set: 2 Kings 12:9 credits Jehoiada with boring a hole in a chest lid and setting it beside the altar; Chronicles credits the king's own commandment and places the chest without, at the gate of the house, a small shift in who acts and where the box stands. The proclamation goes out through Judah and Jerusalem, and Chronicles adds a detail Kings omits: all the princes and all the people rejoiced to bring the collection, casting it in until the chest was full. The Levites carry it to the king's office, where the scribe and the high priest's officer empty it and return it, gathering money in abundance day by day.
4. (vv. 12-14)
2 Chronicles 24:12
“And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the Lord,.... That is, they gave it to those who were overseers of them, to pay them with it, 2Ki 12:11. and hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the Lord see 2Ki 12:12. and also such as wrought iron and brass to mend the house of the Lord; where it required any work of that kind.”
2 Chronicles 24:13
They set the house of God in his state - Some prefer, “they set up the house of God in its (old) measure” or “proportions.”
2 Chronicles 24:14
“And when they had finished it,....”
the king and Jehoiada gave: The money passes to workmen who repair and strengthen the house, and the text names its own audit: the workmen wrought faithfully and the work was perfected, the same trust 2 Kings 12:15 rests its accounting on. But where Kings states plainly that no bowls, snuffers or vessels of gold and silver were made from the repair fund, Chronicles records that the leftover money, once the house stood finished, did furnish vessels to minister and to offer withal. The two accounts read as two stages of one project, repair first and vessels after, and burnt offerings resume continually all the days of Jehoiada, the phrase that already marks the limit named at verse 2.
B. Jehoiada dies, and the princes flatter the king away
1. (vv. 15-16)
2 Chronicles 24:15
“But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died,.... A very old man; few at this time arrived to such an age; he was a rare instance: One hundred and thirty years old was he when he died; the oldest man we read of from the times of Moses, and older than he by ten years.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:15
“An hundred and thirty years old - Most critics suppose the number in the text to be corrupt, and suggest 103 or 83 in its stead.”
2 Chronicles 24:15
“Well, Jehoiada finished his course with honour; but the little religion that Joash had was all buried in his grave, and, after his death, both king and kingdom miserably degenerated. See how much one head may sustain, and what a great judgment to any prince or people the death of godly, zealous, useful men is.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Chronicles 24:16
“Among the Hebrews, intramural interment was prohibited in every city but Jerusalem, and there the exception was made only to the royal family and persons of eminent merit, on whom the distinction was conferred of being buried in the city of David, among the kings, as in the case of Jehoiada.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:16
“Israel - In Judah, which was an eminent part of Israel, and the only part of it which owned God, or was owned by God as his Israel, to whom therefore he often appropriates this name.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:16
“They buried him - among the kings - He had, in fact, been king in Judah; for Joash, who appears to have been a weak man, was always under his tutelage. Jehoiada governed the state in the name of the king; and his being buried among the kings is a proof of the high estimation in which he was held among the people.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
waxed old, and was full: Jehoiada dies at a hundred and thirty, a span the text sets down without comment, and the honor that follows stands out to every commentator who notes it: he is buried in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, toward God and toward his house. Keil and Bennett call it an honor without parallel for a priest, a king's grave given for a life of service rather than royal blood. The verse sets up the reversal to come, for the son Jehoiada raised will not extend the same honor to the son Jehoiada leaves behind.
2. (vv. 17-19)
2 Chronicles 24:17
“Some such thing we read of in the book of Chronicles. For Joash the king of Judah at the age of seven was summoned by Jehoiada the priest to the kingdom and by the witness of Scripture is commended for all his actions as long as the aforesaid priest lived. But hear what Scripture relates of him after Jehoiada's death and how he was puffed up with pride and given over to a most disgraceful state.”
John Cassian· written before 435· INSTITUTES 12.21patristic
2 Chronicles 24:18
“It has been suggested that what he had witnessed of the conduct of many of the priests in the careless performance of the worship, and especially their unwillingness to collect the money, as well as apply a portion of their revenues for the repairs of the temple, had alienated and disgusted him [LE CLERC].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Chronicles 24:19
“In the most degenerate times God left not himself without witness; though they had dealt very disingenuously with God, yet he sent prophets to them to convince and instruct them, and to assure them that they should find favour with him if yet they would return; for he would rather sinners should turn and live than go on and die, and those that perish shall be left inexcusable.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
came the princes of Judah: After Jehoiada dies the princes of Judah come and make obeisance to the king, and Joash hearkens unto them, a scene 2 Kings 12 does not carry at all: Chronicles alone records the fall. Judah leaves the house of the Lord for groves and idols, and wrath comes on Judah and Jerusalem for the trespass. The Lord sends prophets to bring them again, and they testify against the people, but the people will not give ear, the same refusal the book names across every reign it measures by seeking and forsaking.
C. Zechariah stoned in the court: the LORD look upon it
1. (v. 20)
2 Chronicles 24:20
“And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah - “When he saw the transgression of the king and of the people, burning incense to an idol in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord, on the day of expiation; and preventing the priests of the Lord from offering the burnt-offerings, sacrifices, daily oblations, and services, as written in the book of the law of Moses; he stood above the people, and said.” - Targum.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Spirit of God came upon: The Spirit of God comes upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, and he stands above the people to charge them in the Lord's own words: why transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper, because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you. He is Jehoiada's own son, so the man about to die for speaking is the child of the priest who once hid the infant Joash and crowned him. The book's own test of every reign, seek or forsake, is here spoken to the king's face rather than left to the narrator.
2. (vv. 21-22)
2 Chronicles 24:21
“And they conspired against him,.... Consulted together to take away his life, and got the order of the king to do it: and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord; where he had stood and reproved them; this they did before he went out, while in the temple; and if he is the same Zechariah, as some think, our Lord speaks of, he was slain between the temple porch and the altar, Mat 23:35; see Gill on Mat 23:35.”
3 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:21
“In the court of the house of the Lord - “Between the altar and the Temple,” or directly in front of the temple porch, if it be this Zechariah of whom our Lord speaks Mat 23:35. A horror of the impious deed long possessed the Jews, who believed that the b ood could not be effaced, but continued to bubble on the stones of the court, like blood newly shed, until the temple was entered, just prior to its destruction, by Nebuzaradan.”
2 Chronicles 24:21
“This deed of violence involved complicated criminality on the part of the king. It was a horrid outrage on a prophet of the Lord--base ingratitude to a family who had preserved his life--atrocious treatment of a true Hebrew patriot--an illegal and unrighteous exercise of his power and authority as a king.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Chronicles 24:21
“The Jews say, there were seven transgressions in one: They killed a priest, a prophet, a judge; they shed innocent blood; polluted the court of the temple, the Sabbath, and the day of expiation: for on that day, their tradition says, this happened.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:22
“The Lord look upon it, and require it - And so he did; for, at the end of that year, the Syrians came against Judah, destroyed all the princes of the people, sent their spoils to Damascus; and Joash, the murderer of the prophet, the son of his benefactor, was himself murdered by his own servants. Here was a most signal display of the Divine retribution. On the subject of the death of this prophet the reader is requested to refer to the note on Mat 23:34, Mat 23:35.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:22
“Require it - Make inquisition for innocent blood. But the words may be rendered, The Lord will look upon it, and require it, will require satisfaction from you for it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
conspired against him, and stoned: The princes stone Zechariah at the king's own commandment, in the court of the house of the Lord, the same king Jehoiada had hidden as an infant and crowned at seven. Joash forgets the kindness and kills the son; the prophet's own dying word becomes his epitaph, The Lord look upon it, and require it. Matthew 23:35 names a Zacharias son of Barachias slain between the temple and the altar, and readers of both texts differ on the fit: some hold Matthew names this same Zechariah under a second name carried by Jehoiada, others hold he means the writing prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah of Zechariah 1:1, and others read the reference as marking this murder as the last martyrdom in the Hebrew canon's own order, since Chronicles closes the Tanakh where Genesis opens it. The three positions stand named, and none of them settles the question the text itself leaves open.
D. A small Syrian company, and servants who kill a king in his bed
1. (vv. 23-24)
2 Chronicles 24:23
“And it came to pass at the end of the year,....”
3 more voices on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:23
“Most probably, also, he promised the payment of an annual tribute, on the neglect or refusal of which the Syrians returned the following year, and with a mere handful of men inflicted a total and humiliating defeat on the collected force of the Hebrews.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Chronicles 24:23
“The year - So soon did God hear the cry of his holy prophet's blood, and revenge it. The princes - That it might appear they were sent and directed by God to single out to destruction the first beginners of this general apostacy.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:23
“On the unusual character of this expedition, see the marginal reference note.”
2 Chronicles 24:24
“For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men,.... It consisted but of few: and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand; which the king of Judah and his princes had got together to oppose them: because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers; therefore the Lord forsook them, and gave them up into the hand of their enemies: so they executed judgment against Joash; were the instruments God made use of to execute his vengeance on him for his idolatry and murder.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 24:24
“They executed judgment against Joash - By defeating his army, slaying his nobles, and pressing on against Jerusalem, etc. (2Ki 12:18 note).”
the host of Syria came: At the end of the year the host of Syria comes up, destroys the princes of the people, and sends the spoil to Damascus, judgment following the year Zechariah's blood was shed. Chronicles gives the arithmetic the moment turns on: 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. 2 Kings 12 records only that Hazael turned toward Jerusalem and that Jehoash paid him off with the temple's treasure; Chronicles supplies the theological account Kings leaves untold, a small force succeeding because the Lord executed judgment against Joash through it.
2. (vv. 25-26)
2 Chronicles 24:25
“Son - By which it seems, he slew not only Zechariah, but his brothers also. Perhaps they that slew him intended to take vengeance for that innocent blood. However that was it, which God intended, in permitting them to do it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Chronicles 24:26
“And these are they that conspired against him, Zabad the son of Shimeah an Ammonitess,.... Called Jozachar, the son of Shimeah, 2Ki 12:21, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess; called in the same place the son of Shomer.”
conspired against him for the: Joash's own servants conspire against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada, Chronicles naming the motive Kings leaves bare, and kill him on his own bed. He is buried in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings, the honor Jehoiada received at verse 16 pointedly withheld from the king who killed Jehoiada's son. The two named conspirators carry foreign mothers, an Ammonitess and a Moabitess, the same nations whose gods Judah had just been serving, the circle closing on where the trespass began.
3. (v. 27)
2 Chronicles 24:27
“The greatness of the burdens laid upon him - Or, “And the multitude of burdens uttered against him.” “Burdens” (2Ki 9:25 note) are prophetical denunciations of coming evil. The repairing - See the marginal rendering. Joash’s repairs extended to the very base of the temple building. The story of the book of the kings - See the introduction to Chronicles, the second note.”
the greatness of the burdens: The closing formula names a source, the story of the book of the kings, one of several documents Chronicles cites without preserving, and hands the throne to Amaziah his son without incident. The dynasty promised for David's sake survives a king's murder for the second time in the book, and the succession itself is the only comment the text offers on it. Where the chapter opened with a boy king shaped by a faithful priest, it closes with that priest's own son murdered by the king he crowned, and the temple repaired in the opening verses stands finished under a reign that did not outlast the year.
This page carries no textual note on 2 Chronicles 24. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. H. Bennett, The Books of Chronicles (Expositor's Bible).
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