²² Reuben replied, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy?^(A) But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting^(B) for his blood.”^(C)

²² King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”^(A)

³² The Lord will repay^(A) him for the blood he shed,^(B) because without my father David knowing it he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them—Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa^(C) son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army—were better^(D) men and more upright than he.

²¹ When Reuben^(A) heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said.^{(B) 22} “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern^(C) here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.^(D)

⁵⁰ Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel^(A) to the blood of Zechariah,^(B) who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.^(C)

⁵ And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting.^(A) I will demand an accounting from every animal.^(B) And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.^(C)

⁹ They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God,^(A) who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent^(B) and glorify him.^(C)

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness^(B) on the part of God’s people.^(C)