Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 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].
22. The Lord look upon it, and require it] Cp. 2Ma 14:45-46 , and contrast Act 7:60.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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. Zechariahs prayer was prophetic (see 2Ch 24:23, 2Ch 24:25; Luk 11:51).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. when he died, he said, The Lordlook upon it and require itThese dying words, if they implieda vindictive imprecation, exhibit a striking contrast to the spiritof the first Christian martyr (Ac7:60). But, instead of being the expression of a personal wish,they might be the utterance of a prophetic doom.
2Ch24:23-27. HE ISSLAIN BY HISSERVANTS.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him,…. In preserving him in his infancy, and nourishing him; in settling him on the throne, and assisting him with his advice and counsel:
but slew his son; who also assisted at his coronation, and with his father and brethren anointed him king, as is probable, 2Ch 23:11,
and when he died, he said, the Lord look upon it, and requite it; meaning his blood; this he said, not from a private spirit of revenge, but with a view to the glory of divine justice, and which he delivered not as a wish, or by way of imprecation, that so it might be, but as a prophecy that so it would be.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(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.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 24:22. The Lord look upon it, and require it The Lord will look upon it, and require it. Houbigant. This prophetic sentence was no sooner pronounced than executed; for, before the year was expired, the Syrians came up against Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people, and Joash himself was murdered by his own servants.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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 : , 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.
a Cicero was beheaded by Papilius Laenas, a soldier whose life he had saved.
b Herodot.
c In Vit. Zacha.
he: i.e. Zechariah.
and require it. The very words twice used by the Lord Jesus in Luk 11:50, Luk 11:51. Compare Mat 23:35.
remembered: Psa 109:4, Luk 17:15-18, Joh 10:32
but slew his son: Pro 17:13
The Lord: These words were prophetic, and not imprecatory; and should be rendered as Houbigant proposes, in the future tense: “The Lord will look upon it, and avenge it.” The event soon verified this prediction; for, before the year was expired, the Syrians came up against Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people, and Joash himself was slain in his bed by his own servants. Many circumstances served to aggravate this barbarous act. Zechariah was a high-priest and a prophet, upright and unblameable in the discharge of his high offices; this murder was perpetrated within the very precincts of the courts of the Lord; and this truly good man was by blood the nearest relative of Joash, and the son of the man who had save him from being murdered, and raised him to the throne! Gen 9:5, Jer 11:20, Jer 26:14, Jer 26:15, Luk 11:51, 2Ti 4:14, 2Ti 4:16, Rev 6:9-11, Rev 18:20, Rev 19:2
and require it: Psa 10:14, Jer 51:56
Reciprocal: Gen 16:5 – the Lord Gen 42:22 – his blood Exo 20:13 – General Jos 22:23 – let the Lord 1Sa 24:15 – be judge 2Ch 24:25 – for the blood Psa 10:13 – Thou Pro 25:26 – General Pro 27:10 – own Pro 30:10 – lest Ecc 7:15 – there is a just Jer 20:12 – let me Mat 21:35 – General Mat 23:37 – thou Luk 13:34 – killest
A HEBREW AND A CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM
And when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it.
2Ch 24:22
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Act 7:60
When we compare the words spoken by the Prophet Zechariah at his martyrdomThe Lord look upon it, and require itwith the words spoken by St. Stephen at his martyrdomLord, lay not this sin to their chargewe are conscious of a very strong contrast, and we are now invited in the Church of England to pay attention to this contrast; for we read part of this twenty-fourth chapter of 2 Chronicles for the first lesson on the afternoon of St. Stephens Day. We have, in fact, set before us on this festival, side by side, a Jewish and a Christian martyrdom. It will be instructive to draw a parallel between the two. The young men of Judah came and made Joash dissatisfied with the worship of that house which he had himself restored, and turned him away to serve groves and idols. The wrath of God was soon threatened upon these apostates. He sent prophets to warn them: They testified against them, but they would not give ear. Then Zechariah, the old priests son, stood up boldly and warned them. But they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones.
I. The Lord did indeed look upon the crime and require it.But our attention at this moment is restricted to the point of martyrdom in the cases of Jehoiadah and Stephen, set side by side.
II. When we turn away from the Books of Chronicles to the Books of the Acts of the Apostles, from the dying prayer of the Jewish to the dying prayer of the Christian martyr, the change is very remarkable.In certain respects, indeed, there is a great similarity in these two scenes of the Old and New Testaments. In both cases there was a direct outpouring of the Holy Spirit; in both a fearless rebuke, received, not with penitence, but with hardness of heart. In both we recognise the horrors of that cruel death by stoning. But in other respects the difference between the two scenes is very great. As we gaze upon the mangled bodies of the two martyrs, and hear their last cries, how strangely dissimilar they are!
III. How are we to account for this difference of thought and feeling in two men, on each of whom the Holy Spirit had descended?A word explains it. They were living under different dispensations, of which the principle of one was justice, of the other mercy. When earth was fading away from Zechariahs eyes, Whom saw he as he looked up to heaven? A God of vengeance, by Whom actions are weighedsurrounded by thunder and lightning and clouds. When Stephen died, Whom saw he? He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Dean Howson.
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.
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 {n} look upon [it], and require [it].
(n) Avenge my death and require my blood at your hands: or he speaks this by prophecy because he knew that God would do it. This Zachariah is also called the son of Barachias, Mat 23:35 because his progenitors were Iddo, Berachiah, Jehoiada.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes