The kings of Israel and Judah

King Joash of Judah

The kingdom of Judah (the south) · Reigned forty years (2 Kings 12:1) · Also called Jehoash · A mixed reign · 2 Kings 11 to 12; 2 Chronicles 23 to 24

Joash, also called Jehoash, was the hidden infant who survived Athaliah's slaughter and was crowned at seven years old. Under the guidance of the priest Jehoiada he did right in the sight of the LORD, and famously repaired the neglected temple. But after Jehoiada died, Joash listened to corrupt princes, fell into idolatry, and even ordered the murder of Jehoiada's own son, the prophet Zechariah. He died assassinated by his servants. His reign is a portrait of a faith that depended on another man.

And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.2 Kings 12:2 (KJV)

The boy king and the temple repair

Rescued as a baby and crowned at seven, Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Under Jehoiada's guidance the worship of the LORD was restored. Joash's great project was the repair of the temple, which had fallen into disrepair and been damaged by the sons of Athaliah. He set up a chest at the temple gate for offerings, and the people gave gladly until there was enough to hire the masons and carpenters and restore the house of God.

For a generation, while the old priest lived and counselled him, Joash was a good king, and Judah worshipped the LORD.

The turning after Jehoiada's death

Jehoiada died at a great age and was buried among the kings for the good he had done. And then everything changed. The princes of Judah came and flattered the king, and Joash listened to them, and they left the house of the LORD and served idols and groves. God sent prophets to bring them back, but they would not hear.

Then the Spirit came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the very priest who had saved and raised Joash, and he rebuked the people. At the king's command they stoned him in the court of the temple. Dying, Zechariah said, The LORD look upon it, and require it. Joash remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. It is one of the darkest ingratitudes in Scripture.

The biblical verdict

Joash is a mixed and finally tragic figure. Kings frames his goodness carefully: he did right all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him, a phrase that already hints at what came after. Chronicles tells the full, sad sequel. His righteousness was real but borrowed; it leaned on Jehoiada, and when that support was gone, his heart proved to have no root of its own.

Judgment followed swiftly. A small Syrian army defeated his much larger force because they had forsaken the LORD, and executed judgment against Joash. Left diseased, he was killed in his bed by his own servants, in revenge for the blood of Zechariah, and though buried in the city of David, he was not buried in the sepulchres of the kings.

Where it points

Joash raises a searching question: was his faith ever his own? He shows that a religion propped up by a godly mentor, a parent, a pastor, a friend, can collapse when that person is gone, unless the heart has truly taken hold of God for itself. The good king became a murderer of the prophet who had saved his life, and the story warns every heir of a godly heritage to make that faith their own.

The blood of the murdered Zechariah, crying out for justice from the temple court, is remembered by Jesus himself as a mark of a people who killed the prophets sent to them. It points forward to the greater Prophet and Priest, the Son who came to his own and was not received, whose blood, unlike Zechariah's, speaks not only for judgment but for mercy and forgiveness.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Athaliah · Amaziah · All the kings of Israel and Judah