¹⁷After he died, the officials of Judah bowed in front of the king with their faces touching the ground. Then the king listened to their advice. ¹⁸They abandoned the temple of the Lord God of their ancestors and worshiped idols and the poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah. This offense of theirs brought God’s anger upon Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁹The Lord sent them prophets to bring them back to himself. The prophets warned them, but they wouldn’t listen. ²⁰God’s Spirit gave Zechariah, son of the priest Jehoiada, strength. Zechariah stood in front of the people and said to them, “This is what God says: Why are you breaking the Lord’s commands? You won’t prosper that way! The Lord has abandoned you because you have abandoned him.” ²¹But they plotted against Zechariah, and by the king’s order they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. ²²King Joash did not remember how kind Zechariah’s father, Jehoiada, had been to him. Instead, he killed Jehoiada’s son. As Zechariah died, he said, “May the Lord see ⸤this⸥ and get revenge!”

Read in Logos