2 Chronicles 24 · a question people ask
What do Zechariah's last words, "May the LORD look at it, and repay it" (24:22), stand beside in the rest of the Bible?
The chapter tells his words and passes no verdict on them. "When he died, he said" (24:22), "May the LORD look at it, and repay it" (24:22). In Hebrew repay is darash (tap required), the verb of the LORD's word to Noah, "I will surely require accounting for your life’s blood" (Genesis 9:5). The chapter goes on: the Syrians "executed judgment on Joash" (24:24), and his servants conspired against him "for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest" (24:25). Other verses give the words of others who were killed, and they are set here in the Bible's order, each as it stands. Jesus, when they had crucified him (Luke 23:33), said, "Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). Stephen, as they stoned him, "cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!”" (Acts 7:60). Revelation tells of "the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God" (Revelation 6:9), who cry, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10). None of these verses speaks of Zechariah or of 2 Chronicles 24, and none is set against his words here. These notes don't judge any of them.
The verses
“Thus Joash the king didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, “May the LORD look at it, and repay it.””
“I will surely require accounting for your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man.”
“For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and the LORD delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash. When they had departed from him (for they left him seriously wounded), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in David’s city, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings.”
“When they came to the place that is called “The Skull”, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots.”