15. Jehoiada grew old, and when he reached the age of 130, he died.
16. He was buried among the kings in David’s City because of his exemplary service to Israel, God, and God’s temple.
17. After Jehoiada’s death, however, the leaders of Judah came and bowed before the king, and the king listened to them.
18. They abandoned the temple of the Lord, their ancestors’ God, and worshipped sacred poles and idols. Anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem as a consequence of their sin,
19. and though God sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord and to warn them, they refused to listen.
20. Then the spirit of God enwrapped Zechariah the son of the priest Jehoiada. Standing before the people, he told them, "This is what God says: Why do you defy the Lord’s commands and keep yourselves from prospering? Because you have abandoned the Lord, he has abandoned you!"
21. But the people plotted against Zechariah, and at the king’s command stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.
22. King Jehoash failed to remember the loyalty that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him and murdered Jehoida’s son, who cried out as he lay dying, "May the Lord see and seek vengeance!"
23. That spring the Aramean army marched against Jehoash. They attacked Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the people’s leaders, and sent all the loot to the king of Damascus.
24. Although the Aramean forces were relatively small, the Lord handed over to them a very large army, because the people of Judah had abandoned the Lord, their ancestors’ God. Jehoash was justly punished.
25. The Arameans left him badly wounded, but his own officials plotted against him for murdering the son of the priest Jehoiada. So they killed him in his bed. He died and was buried in David’s City but not in the royal cemetery.
26. Those who plotted against him were the Ammonite Zabad, Shimeath’s son, and the Moabite Jehozabad, Shimrith’s son.
27. The list of Jehoash’s sons, the many prophecies against him, and the account of his restoration of God’s temple are written in the comments on the records of the kings. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.