2 Kings 12:17-21

How does Joash’s reign end after the temple repairs?

Berean Standard Bible

17 At that time Hazael king of Aram marched up and fought against Gath and captured it. Then he decided to attack Jerusalem. 18 So King Joash of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—along with his own consecrated items and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem. 19 As for the rest of the acts of Joash, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 And the servants of Joash rose up and formed a conspiracy and killed him at Beth-millo, on the road down to Silla. 21 His servants Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer struck him down, and he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the City of David, and his son Amaziah reigned in his place.

What is the context?

After capturing Gath, Hazael threatens Jerusalem. Joash sends sacred objects and gold from the temple and palace treasuries, and Hazael withdraws.

The account then records a conspiracy by Joash’s servants and his assassination. He is buried in the City of David, and his son Amaziah succeeds him. The earlier repair of the temple does not guarantee an untroubled end to his reign.

This chapter reports the political payment and the king’s violent death briefly. Its reference to other records should not be treated as a surviving source whose full contents have been independently examined.

How is this passage commonly understood?

Wesley refers to 2 Chronicles 24:17–27, which gives a fuller account of Joash’s later abandonment of the Lord, his order to kill Zechariah son of Jehoiada, and the conspiracy linked to that bloodshed. That additional biblical account explains the warning in his end; it is not a detail explicitly narrated in this short Kings notice.

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