2 Chronicles 24:22

Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) The Lord look upon it, and require it.—Jehovah behold, and avenge! literally, seek, scil., vengeance for the crime (Genesis 9:5; Psalm 10:4). This dying imprecation is in harmony with the spirit of the older dispensation, which exacted blood for blood. Contrast the prayer of St. Stephen, the first of Christian martyrs (Acts 7:50). The prayer of Zechariah was also a prophecy destined to speedy fulfilment. (See 2Chronicles 24:23, seq.)

Benson Commentary

2 Chronicles 24:22. When he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it — That is, make inquisition for my innocent blood. But the words may as well be rendered, The Lord will look upon it, and require it — He will examine this action, and require satisfaction from you for it: a prophetic sentence, which, as appears from what follows, was speedily executed.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Lord look upon it and require it - Compare Genesis 9:5; Genesis 42:22; and contrast the words of Christ Luke 23:34, and of Stephen Acts 7:60. Zechariah's prayer was prophetic (see 2 Chronicles 24:23, 2 Chronicles 24:25; Luke 11:51).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it and require it—These dying words, if they implied a vindictive imprecation, exhibit a striking contrast to the spirit of the first Christian martyr (Ac 7:60). But, instead of being the expression of a personal wish, they might be the utterance of a prophetic doom.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. Make inquisition for my innocent blood; which he did not wish from any desire of private revenge, with which so wise and good a man would never be willing to die; but partly from a zeal to public justice, and the punishment of such gross wickedness; and partly to deter them, if possible, from completing their murderous intentions. But these words may as well be rendered indicatively as optatively,

The Lord will look upon it, and

require it, i. e. he will examine this action, and require satisfaction from you for it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him,.... In preserving him in his infancy, and nourishing him; in settling him on the throne, and assisting him with his advice and counsel:

but slew his son; who also assisted at his coronation, and with his father and brethren anointed him king, as is probable, 2 Chronicles 23:11,

and when he died, he said, the Lord look upon it, and requite it; meaning his blood; this he said, not from a private spirit of revenge, but with a view to the glory of divine justice, and which he delivered not as a wish, or by way of imprecation, that so it might be, but as a prophecy that so it would be.

Geneva Study Bible

Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD {n} look upon it, and require it.

(n) Avenge my death and require my blood at your hands: or he speaks this by prophecy because he knew that God would do it. This Zachariah is also called the son of Barachias, Mt 23:35 because his progenitors were Iddo, Berachiah, Jehoiada.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. The Lord look upon it, and require it] Cp. 2Ma 14:45-46, and contrast Acts 7:60.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - Remembered not the kindness (Genesis 40:23). The Lord look upon it, and require it. So, too, the Revised Version, which also, according to its custom, removes the italic type from the two neuter pronouns "it." But probabaly a better and correcter rendering is, "The Lord will see and will require" (for it is not necessary to regard this as a prayer of Zechariah); and thus bring it into comparison with those divinest prayers of the Saviour and of St. Stephen. The words on dying Zechariah's lips were perhaps rather the vivid reminiscence of his own well-versed knowledge of the Law, or "the Scriptures" (Genesis 9:5; Genesis 42:22). The sentence of the dying priest and prophet in one, is, by the writer of Chronicles at any rate, directed in its fall with fearful straightness to the door of Joash the king himself. Remarkable as is the absence of the matter of this and the five preceding verses from the parallel, it will not escape notice how it is implied in vers. 17,18 there, while the inclusion of it here is again in patent harmony with the great object of the writer. 2 Chronicles 24:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And they (the princes and the people) conspired against him, and stoned him, at the command of the king, in the court of the temple. This זכריה is the Ζαχαρίας whose slaughter is mentioned by Christ in Matthew 23:36 and Luke 11:51 as the last prophet-murder narrated in the Old Testament, whose blood would come upon the people, although Matthew calls him υἱὸς Βαραχίου. According to these passages, he was slain between the temple and the altar of burnt-offering, consequently in the most sacred part of the court of the priests. That the king, Joash, could give the command for this murder, shows how his compliance with the princes' demands (2 Chronicles 24:17) had made him the slave of sin. Probably the idolatrous princes accused the witness for God of being a seditious person and a rebel against the majesty of the crown, and thereby extorted from the weak king the command for his death. For it is not said that Joash himself worshipped the idols; and even in 2 Chronicles 24:22 it is only the base ingratitude of which Joash had been guilty, in the slaughter of the son of his benefactor, which is adduced against him. But Zechariah at his death said, "May the Lord look upon it, and take vengeance" (דּרשׁ, to seek or require a crime, i.e., punish it). This word became a prophecy, which soon began to be fulfilled, 2 Chronicles 24:23.