17After the death of Jehoiada the rulers of Judah came and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them.18They abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah and the idols. Wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of this their guilt.19He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the LORD; the prophets testified against them, but they did not listen.20Then the spirit of God clothed Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood above the people and said to them, "Thus says God: 'Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.'"21They conspired against him and stoned him with stone by the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.22King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada his father had done with him, but killed his son. As he was dying he said, "May the LORD see and seek."23At the turn of the year the army of Aram came up against him; they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the rulers of the people from the people, and they sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.24For with few men the army of Aram came, yet the LORD gave into their hand a very great army, because they had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, and because they had executed judgments on Joash.25When they departed from him—for they had forsaken him—in his many illnesses his servants conspired against him in the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest and killed him on his bed. He died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.26The conspirators against him were Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite.27As for his sons and the many oracles against him, and the founding of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.