¹¹ “^(A)I regret that I have made Saul king, because ^(B)he has turned back from ^[a]following Me and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was furious and ^(C)cried out to the Lord all night.

^2 (A)Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁷ But after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them. ¹⁸ And they abandoned ^(A)the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and ^(B)served the ^[a]Asherim and the idols; so ^(C)wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. ¹⁹ Yet ^(D)He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord; and they testified against them, but they would not listen.

Joash Murders Son of Jehoiada

^20 (E)Then the Spirit of God ^[b]covered Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest like clothing; and he stood above the people and said to them, “This is what God has said, ‘^(F)Why do you break the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? ^(G)Because you have abandoned the Lord, He has also abandoned you.’” ²¹ So ^(H)they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they stoned him ^[c]to death in the courtyard of the house of the Lord. ²² So Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son. And as Zechariah died he said, “May ^(I)the Lord see and ^[d]avenge!”

²⁰ Again, ^(A)when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits sin, and I place an ^(B)obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require from your hand.

²⁶ When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness, commits injustice and dies because of it, for his injustice which he has committed he dies.