God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 24:23-27 Assassination of a king
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, April 29, 2025
23 At the end of the year the army of Aram marched out against Joash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and slaughtered all the officials of the people from among the people. They sent all the plunder they took to the king of Damascus. 24 Although the army of Aram had come with just a few men, the LORD delivered into their hand a very great army, because they had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers. So they carried out judgment on Joash. 25 When they had withdrawn they left him severely wounded. His officials conspired against him because of the blood of the son of the priest Jehoiada, and they killed 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. 26 Those who conspired against him were Zabad son of Shimath (an Ammonite woman), and Jehozabad son of Shimrith (a Moabite woman). 27 Accounts of his sons, and of the many oracles against him, and of the rebuilding of the house of God are written in the notes in the Book of the Kings. And his son Amaziah became king after him.
Less than a year after the treacherous murder of Zechariah, a small army from Aram (Damascus) marched against Joash and Judah. This army had really been sent against Philistia (2 Kings 12:17). They had overrun the city of Gath, and rather than leave it in ruins, the Arameans captured it and settled a garrison there, which made it a threat to Judah. The Arameans then sent part of their force against Jerusalem, and on account of the disobedience and sins of the princes of Judah, the Arameans won a great victory over Judah. Many of those same princes of Judah were killed or wounded in the battle.
They sent their plunder north to Damascus. This would seem to indicate that the army did not travel with the plunder, but sent it off in batches whenever they collected a certain amount, with escorts, back to Damascus (the piel stem shows repetitious or multiple actions). Apparently they were confident that the plunder was in no danger on its way north.
King Joash was one of those who were wounded. But bandaged and in bed, he was attacked by certain officials, men who had not approved of the killing of Zechariah. They attacked him in his bed and killed him. Did he, like his grandmother, shout, “Treason!?” Either the assassins were led by the two men who are named, or else those two men worked alone. Our Chronicler wants us to know that one of the men was the son of an Ammonite woman, and the other was the son of a Moabite woman. In the days of Jehoshaphat, the Moabites and Ammonites had attacked Judah, and the Lord provided a miracle; they were all wiped out. Now, a Moabite and an Ammonite had shown their loyalty, not to the wicked king, but to the Lord’s prophet (who had been murdered) and to his priest, the father of the murdered man.
Joash was not buried with the kings, but he was buried in Jerusalem. We can’t say for certain why the account of Joash’s sons was important, but if we notice the order of the “accounts,” we see that the sons are followed by the “many oracles against him,” and only after that are we reminded that he rebuilt the temple. If they proceed from worst to best, then the tale of the sons of Joash must have been very grim indeed.
We can only speculate about “the notes in the Book of Kings.” It’s very doubtful that this is a reference to the book of the Bible we call Kings. It’s probably some other record kept in Jerusalem in those days. The authors of both Kings and Chronicles may have used those notes for some of the details they wrote about.
Joash was dead at 47. He had ruled Judah for forty years. He allowed great wickedness, and did many wicked things personally. But the Lord sometimes accomplishes good things through wicked men and women. He may permit a sin to take place (everyone knows he does this, since he has permitted it in all of our sinful lives), but God never concurs with the immorality or the sinfulness of any act. He is not the author of sin (Psalm 5:4). Sinful man is responsible and accountable for each and every sin (Matthew 12:36). But thanks be to God that we have been rescued from the guilt of our sins by Jesus. What kind of a sinner are you? A doubter? A church-skipper? The kind who says, “I worship my own way, but I don’t need the sacrament”? Are you a hater of authority? A hater of people? An adulterer, a fornicator, a sexual pervert? Are you a thief, a liar, a gossip? Are you one who spreads false doctrine, or covets property? Lay down your sin, grasp the guilt that sits in your gut like a handful of goop from your eaves or gutters and lay that shameful slop at the cross. Christ has forgiven you. He has taken away your shame and your guilt, and he and the Holy Spirit will help you to turn away from your shameful temptations. Put your trust in the risen Savior.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.