2 Chronicles 24:22

2Ch 24:22 Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon [it], and require [it].

Ver. 22. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness.] This was monstrous ingratitude, such as was that also of Hercules, who, for a sharp word, knocked on the head his tutor Linus: Hoc ictu ceu didactro accepto Linus mortuus est. Johannes Scotus and Cassianus Brixiensis, two famous schoolmasters, were stabbed to death by their unruly scholars with their penknives; Seneca was suffocated in a bath by the command of his pupil Nero. {a} παλαια μεν ευδει χαρις: αμναμονες δε ανθρωποι, saith Pindarus: Good turns are as soon forgotten by men, as eaten bread is by children. Do them nineteen kindnesses, and if ye fail them in the twentieth - which yet, perhaps, would prove no kindness to them - all is lost.

“ Sunt homines humeris quos siquis gestat ad urbem

Ausoniam, domiti quae caput orbis erat;

Nec tamen ad portam placide deponat eosdem,

Gratia praeteriti nulla laboris eris. ” - Ausonius.

Pythias royally entertained and feasted Xerxes and all his huge army, proffering him also a great sum of gold toward the charges of the war, after which, Xerxes having pressed his five sons for the war, Pythias went to him entreating him to release his eldest son, to be a comfort and support to his old age; but Xerxes, being angry at his request, most ungratefully caused his son to be cut into two pieces, and laid in the way for his army to march over. {b}

The Lord look upon it.] Or, The Lord will look upon it and require it. He did so, and that forthwith, {2Ch 24:23-26} for "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," his suffering saints especially. Epiphanius {c} saith that from the death of this high priest, God answered the Jews no more by Urim and Thummim.

{a} Cicero was beheaded by Papilius Laenas, a soldier whose life he had saved.

{b} Herodot.

{c} In Vit. Zacha.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ch_24:22

But slew his son.

Joash and Jehoiada

The picture here drawn of the failure of the best of tutors and governors is unfortunately only too typical. Julian the Apostate was educated by a distinguished Christian prelate, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and was trained in a strict routine of religious observances; yet he repudiated Christianity at the earliest safe opportunity. His apostasy, like that of Joash, was probably characterised by base ingratitude. At Constantines death the troops in Constantinople massacred nearly all the princes of the imperial family, and Julian, then only six years old, is said to have been saved and concealed in a church by Mark, Bishop of Arethusa. When Julian became emperor, he repaid this obligation by subjecting his benefactor to cruel tortures because he had destroyed a heathen temple and refused to make any compensation. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ch 24:22. When he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it — That is, make inquisition for my innocent blood. But the words may as well be rendered, The Lord will look upon it, and require it — He will examine this action, and require satisfaction from you for it: a prophetic sentence, which, as appears from what follows, was speedily executed.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Revenge my death and require my blood at your hands: or he speaketh this by prophecy, because he knew that God would do it. This Zechariah is also called the son of Berechiah, Matt. 23:35, because his progenitors were Iddo, Berechiah, Jehoiada, etc.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it and require it--These dying words, if they implied a vindictive imprecation, exhibit a striking contrast to the spirit of the first Christian martyr (Act 7:60). But, instead of being the expression of a personal wish, they might be the utterance of a prophetic doom.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 22. The Lord look upon it, and require it.] And so he did; for, at the end of that year, the Syrians came against Judah, destroyed all the princes of the people, sent their spoils to Damascus; and Joash, the murderer of the prophet, the son of his benefactor, was himself murdered by his own servants. Here was a most signal display of the Divine retribution.

On the subject of the death of this prophet the reader is requested to refer to the note on Mt 23:34-35.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(22) The Lord look upon it, and require it.—Jehovah behold, and avenge! literally, seek, scil., vengeance for the crime (Gen_9:5; Psa_10:4). This dying imprecation is in harmony with the spirit of the older dispensation, which exacted blood for blood. Contrast the prayer of St. Stephen, the first of Christian martyrs (Act_7:50). The prayer of Zechariah was also a prophecy destined to speedy fulfilment. (See 2Ch_24:23, seq.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. The Lord look upon it, and require it] Cp. 2Ma_14:45-46, and contrast Act_7:60.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men,.... It consisted but of few:

and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand; which the king of Judah and his princes had got together to oppose them:

because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers; therefore the Lord forsook them, and gave them up into the hand of their enemies:

so they executed judgment against Joash; were the instruments God made use of to execute his vengeance on him for his idolatry and murder.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Lord look upon it and require it - Compare Gen 9:5; Gen 42:22; and contrast the words of Christ Luk 23:34, and of Stephen Act 7:60. Zechariah’s prayer was prophetic (see 2Ch 24:23, 2Ch 24:25; Luk 11:51).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Require it. I commit my cause into his hands. M. --- The vengeance of the Lord was not slack. H. Raro antecedentem scelestum

Deseruit pede pœna claudo. Horace)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

i.e. Make inquisition for my innocent blood; which he did not wish from any desire of private revenge, with which so wise and good a man would never be willing to die; but partly from a zeal to public justice, and the punishment of such gross wickedness; and partly to deter them, if possible, from completing their murderous intentions. But these words may as well be rendered indicatively as optatively,

The Lord will look upon it, and

require it, i. e. he will examine this action, and require satisfaction from you for it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Remembered not the kindness. (Gen_40:23) The Lord look upon it, and require it. So, too, the Revised Version, which also, according to its custom, removes the italic type from the two neuter pronouns "it." But probabaly a better and correcter rendering is, "The Lord will see and will require" (for it is not necessary to regard this as a prayer of Zechariah); and thus bring it into comparison with those divinest prayers of the Saviour and of St. Stephen. The words on dying Zechariah"s lips were perhaps rather the vivid reminiscence of his own well-versed knowledge of the Law, or "the Scriptures". (Gen_9:5 Gen_42:22) The sentence of the dying priest and prophet in one, is, by the writer of Chronicles at any rate, directed in its fall with fearful straightness to the door of Joash the king himself. Remarkable as is the absence of the matter of this and the five preceding verses from the parallel, it will not escape notice how it is implied in vers. 17, 18 there, while the inclusion of it here is again in patent harmony with the great object of the writer.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Require it - Make inquisition for innocent blood. But the words may be rendered, The Lord will look upon it, and require it, will require satisfaction from you for it.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

and upon his death, he said, “May the Lord see and requite.” For they have slain me only because I spoke as the Omnipresent’s medium, and since I have been slain for His sake, it is proper and fitting that He requite my blood. And so it was: his blood was immediately requited, for “it came to pass at the turn of the year, etc.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.