18 They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols, so wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness.
19 Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to the Lord, and they testified against them; but they would not listen.
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 the Lord’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you.’”
21 They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the Lord’s house.
22 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 the Lord look at it, and repay it.”
23 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 amongst the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus.
24 For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and the Lord delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgement on Joash.