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As far as ancient Jewish kings go there were, generally speaking, four types: good kings, bad kings, bad kings that become good, and good kings that go bad. Joash (also known as Jehoash), the eighth monarch of Judah was of the latter. We are first introduced to Joash when he was just a year old. His father King Ahaziah had just died, and his wicked grandmother Athaliah who had absolutely no right to the throne murdered the rest of the royal line and made herself queen. As the Jewish historian Josephus points out, this woman (as the daughter of King Ahab of the north) wanted to extinguish King David’s royal line of the south permanently. By doing so she would have wiped out the Messianic line. But God was working behind the scenes because what Athaliah didn’t know was that little Joash had been stolen away by his aunt and hidden away in Yahweh’s temple where he would be protected by her and her husband Jehoida who also happened to be the high priest! For six years little Joash was secretly kept and reared in the ways of God and when he was seven Jehoida and the people crowned him king of Judah and had evil Athaliah executed.
Joash would go on to reign for forty years and in the first part of his rule the Bible says he “did what was right in the sight of the LORD” (2 Chron 24:2) by restoring national worship of the one true God and by repairing the temple which, according to Josephus, had been “brought to decay by [King] Jehoram, and [Queen] Athaliah, and her sons.” The Bible makes it abundantly clear that Joash’s good start was a direct result of the Godly counsel he received from his Uncle Jehoida. As 2 Kings 12:2 says, “Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” And 2 Chronicles 24:2 says, “Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.” But sadly, after Jehoiada died things drastically changed. Godly counsel had now been replaced with evil counsellors. As 2 Chronicles 24:17-19 records: “Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass.
“Godly counsel had now been replaced with evil counsellors.”
King Joash of Judah
Yet He (God) sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the LORD; and they testified against them, but they would not listen.” (2 Chron 24:17-19)
One of these prophets God sent to try and turn things around was none other than Jehoida’s very own son Zechariah. And in an ironic and tragic twist, King Joash ordered that he be stoned. He had killed the son of the very man who had saved him from certain death. As the Bible says, “Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son; and as he (Zechariah) died, he said, ‘The LORD look on it, and repay!’” (2 Chron 24:22) Well, God answered Zechariah’s final prayer because after being severely wounded by invading Syrians, Joash’s own servants conspired against him and killed him in his bed. Furthermore, because of how evil Joash became, the people refused to bury him in a place of honour and thus did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. (2 Chron 24:25)
Joash had a good and Godly beginning but ended in complete moral failure. The lesson God is trying to teach us through this heart-breaking account is hard to miss: Godly counsel produces Godly people, but evil counsel produces evil people. The Apostle Paul said it best in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’” May we then be careful who we spend our time with! Never underestimate the importance of Godly pastors, leaders, and friends.
Ryan Hembree is a daily co-host, speaker, and writer of Bible Discovery. He also hosts a YouTube channel that shows the unity of the Bible and how science and Scripture fit together. Ryan also has an honorary Masters of Ministry in Creation Science from Phoenix University of Theology.
1. She had ties to Judah because her brother Joram and son Ahaziah ruled over the kingdom of Judah.
2. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IX, Chap. VII, P.237.
3. Ibid.
4. Interestingly, 2 Chronicles 24:26 notes that the two servants that struck Joash down were Zabad (an Ammonite) and Jehozabad (a Moabite). The Ammonites and Moabites were the descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot and nationally were considered bad. But ironically the sons of Lot kill a son of Abraham because he went bad!
