Synopsis of the Chapter
King Joash under Jehoiada the Pontiff duly worships God; but after his death turning to idols, and being rebuked for this by Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, he stones and kills him in the court of the temple. Therefore the following year God delivers Judah to be plundered by the Syrians, and kills King Joash by the hands of his own servants.
Verse 22: May the Lord See and Require It ¶
22. AND AS HE (Zechariah) WAS DYING, HE SAID: MAY THE LORD SEE AND REQUIRE IT. — "May He see" — namely my innocence and uprightness, by which in my office (for he was Pontiff) I reprove the king for worshiping idols. "May He see" likewise the king's impiety and ingratitude, by which he ungratefully, unjustly, and impiously kills me, the son of Jehoiada the Pontiff, his own uncle, to whom he owes his life and kingdom. "And may He require it" — that He may punish and avenge my death and such great crimes by His just judgment. Zechariah said this out of zeal for justice, which was the spirit of Elijah and of the Old Testament. But in the New, Christ and the Apostles, killed by the Jews, prayed not for vengeance but for pardon for their killers from God. Hence Christ on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," Matthew chapter 27 (Luke 23:34), and Stephen when he was being stoned, just as Zechariah here: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them," Acts chapter 7. God heard the prayer of Zechariah; hence He punished Joash and the Jews in many ways: for first, as follows, in the very next year Hazael king of Syria with a small force struck down an immense multitude of the Jews, and carried off the treasures of the temple as well as of the royal palace into Syria.
Second, upon King Joash He executed shameful judgments, as is said in verse 24, reproaching him for his ingratitude and perfidy, and heaping upon him various reproaches and indignities, and, as it seems, blows, such as Nebuchadnezzar inflicted upon the treacherous Zedekiah, 4 Kings (2 Kings) chapter 25.
Third, from these indignities and blows, and from this new divine chastisement, Joash fell into a grave illness, which caused him great pains and suffering, verse 25.
Fourth, his servants conspired against him and slaughtered him lying in his bed in the house of Millo, which was near the palace. Josephus adds that these conspirators were friends of Zechariah, whence in verse 25 they are said to have killed him "to avenge the blood of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada." Finally, St. Jerome, St. Thomas, Abulensis, Jansenius, Maldonatus, Barradius, and others think that this is the Zechariah whose murder Christ reproaches the Jews with, and threatens them with destruction saying: "That upon you may come all the blood, etc., from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar," Matthew 23; see what was said there. Furthermore, on account of the temple having been polluted by the murder and blood of this Zechariah, divine oracles and responses ceased thereafter in the temple, according to St. Epiphanius in the Life of Zechariah, and after him Genebrardus in the Chronology.