Joash and the people of Judah turned away from Yahweh

17 After Jehoiada died, the leaders of Judah went to Joash, bowed in front of him, and persuaded him to do what they wanted. 18 So they and the other people stopped worshiping at the temple, and they started worshiping the poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah and other idols. Because of their doing those sinful things, God was very angry with the people of Jerusalem and with the people in other places in Judah. 19 Although Yahweh sent prophets to persuade them to return to him, and although the prophets told them about the evil things that they had done, the people would not pay attention.

20 Then God’s Spirit came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the Supreme Priest. He stood up front of the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why are you disobeying what I, Yahweh, have commanded? You have abandoned me, so I will abandon you.’ ”

21 But the people planned to kill Zechariah. And the king joined them in doing it. The people killed Zechariah by throwing stones at him in the temple courtyard. 22 King Joash had forgotten about how Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had been kind to him. That’s why he gave orders for the people to kill Jehoiada’s son Zechariah, who said as he was dying, “I hope that Yahweh will see what you are doing to me and punish you for doing it.”

23 Near the end of that year (OR, early in the following year), the army of Syria marched to attack the army of Joash. They invaded Judah and attacked Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people. They seized many valuable things and sent them to their king in Damascus, their capital city. 24 The army of Syria that came to Judah was very small, but Yahweh allowed them to defeat the large army of Judah, because he was punishing Joash and the other people of Judah for having abandoned him, the God whom their ancestors worshiped. 25 Before the battle ended, Joash was severely wounded. Then his officials decided to kill him for murdering Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the Supreme Priest. They killed him while he was in his bed. He was buried in the part of Jerusalem called ‘The City of David’, but they did not bury him in the place where the other kings had been buried.

26 Those who conspired to kill him were Zabad the son of Shimeath, who was a woman from the Ammon people-group, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith, who was a woman from the Moab people-group. 27 An account of the things that were done by the sons of Joash and the many prophecies about Joash and what he did to repair the temple are written in the scroll called ‘the History of the Kings of Judah and Israel’. Then after Joash died, Amaziah his son became the king.