24:15-27 See what a great judgment on any prince or people, the death of godly, zealous, useful men is. See how necessary it is that we act in religion from inward principle. Then the loss of a parent, a minister, or a friend, will not be losing our religion. Often both princes and inferior people have been flattered to their ruin. True grace alone will enable a man to bring forth fruit unto the end. Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, being filled with the Spirit of prophecy, stood up, and told the people of their sin. This is the work of ministers, by the word of God, as a lamp and a light, to discover the sin of men, and expound the providences of God. They stoned Zechariah to death in the court of the house of the Lord. Observe the dying martyr's words: The Lord look upon it, and require it! This came not from a spirit of revenge, but a spirit of prophecy. God smote Joash with great diseases, of body, or mind, or both, before the Syrians departed from him. If vengeance pursue men, the end of one trouble will be but the beginning of another. His own servants slew him. These judgments are called the burdens laid upon him, for the wrath of God is a heavy burden, too heavy for any man to bear. May God help us to take warning, to be upright in heart, and to persevere in his ways to the end.

Verse 23. - At the end of the year; Hebrew, תְּקוּפַת; margin, both of the Authorized Version and the Revised Version, revolution. The word is found three other times, Exodus 34:22; 1 Samuel 1:20; Psalm 19:7. The versions, of course, express correctly what is meant, but probably the season of spring is also conveyed (2 Samuel 11:1; 1 Chronicles 20:1). The host of Syria. Their king was Hazael (2 Kings 12:17), whether actually with them is perhaps not certain, but the last clause in the verse just quoted would seem to convey that impression. He was King of Damascus (Aram, or Syria), and having already temporarily mastered Israel (2 Kings 13:3, 4, 22), the way was paved to Gath (2 Chronicles 11:8; 2 Chronicles 17:11), whence wistful eyes were bent on Jerusalem, nearly thirty miles distant thence. Destroyed all the princes of the people; i.e. as in the next verse. And sent all the spoil. Whether intended so here or not, probably the strict subject of the verb in this clause is Joash and his counsellors (ver. 18 in parallel), in their fright - and just fright - helpless after the slaughter chronicled in our following verse, bribing off Hazael and his host, as in parallel. The suggestion is most plausible that tidings of Zechariah's martyrdom and of the occasion of it were the very incentive to Hazael's incursion, and an illustration of the "means" by which God works, and by which he wrought his purpose in this instance. The spoil of them. If this means only the spoil of the defeated army strictly, then our text gives no trace of the contents of ver. 18 in parallel just alluded to; but the frequent dislocation incident to copied extracts and matter borrowed from original sources, and so often evidenced in the present history, when we have been comparing the two derived accounts to which we are indebted for it, incline us to the above view, as one quite open at any rate to possibility.

And it came to pass at the end of the year,.... After the death of Zechariah; so soon had his prophecy its accomplishment:

that the host of Syria came up against him; against Joash, king of Judah, under Hazael king of Syria, or however sent by him; for some think this is a different expedition from that in 2 Kings 12:17 though others take it to be the same:

and they came to Judah and Jerusalem; not only came into the land of Judah, but as far as Jerusalem, the forces of Joash not being able to stop them:

and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people; the idolatrous princes of Judah, 2 Chronicles 24:17, which is very remarkable that they should be distinguished from the people in their destruction, who had been the chief cause of the wrath of God coming upon them:

and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus; all the riches that were taken from them were sent to the king of Syria at Damascus; this looks as if Hazael was not with this army.

2Ch 24:23-27. He Is Slain by His Servants.

23. at the end of the year the host of Syria came up—This invasion took place under the personal conduct of Hazael, whom Joash, to save the miseries of a siege, prevailed on to withdraw his forces by a large present of gold (2Ki 12:18). 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.

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