Zechariah Stoned, Elisha Buried

Hazael, king of Syria, made war on the Israelites and their king Jehu. He plundered the eastern parts of the country beyond the Jordan, which belonged to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites, and also Gilead and Bashan, burning and plundering and doing violence to everyone he laid hands on. He did this without any hindrance from Jehu, who made no haste to defend the country while it was in this distress. Indeed, Jehu had come to despise religion and holiness and the laws, and he died after reigning over the Israelites twenty-seven years. He was buried in Samaria and left his son Jehoahaz to succeed him in the government. [a]

Joash, king of Jerusalem, had a desire to repair the temple of God. So he called Jehoiada and told him to send the Levites and priests through the whole country to collect about a fifth of an ounce of silver a head toward rebuilding and repairing the temple, which had been brought to decay by Joram and Athaliah and her sons. But the high priest did not do it, concluding that no one would pay that money willingly. In the twenty-third year of Joash’s reign the king sent for him and the Levites, complained that they had not done what he had ordered, and again commanded them to see to the rebuilding of the temple. Then Jehoiada used this device for collecting the money, and the people were pleased with it. He made a wooden chest and closed it up tight on all sides, but opened one hole in it; then he set it in the temple beside the altar and asked everyone to throw into it, through the hole, whatever he pleased for the repair of the temple. The people welcomed this arrangement and competed with one another, and together they brought in large amounts of silver and gold. When the scribe and the priest in charge of the treasuries had emptied the chest and counted the money in the king’s presence, they set it back in its place; and so they did every day. When the people seemed to have put in as much as was needed, the high priest Jehoiada and King Joash sent to hire stonecutters and builders and to buy large timbers of the finest kind. When they had repaired the temple, they used the leftover gold and silver, which was no small amount, for bowls and basins and cups and other vessels, and they went on making the altar rich every day with costly sacrifices. These things were properly cared for as long as Jehoiada lived. [c]

But as soon as Jehoiada was dead (he had lived a hundred and thirty years, had been a righteous man and in every respect a very good one, and was buried in the royal tombs at Jerusalem because he had recovered the kingdom for the family of David), King Joash abandoned his care for God. The leading men of the people were corrupted along with him and sinned against their duty and against what their constitution had laid down as best for them. At this God was displeased with the change in the king and in the rest of the people, and he sent prophets to testify to them what their actions were and to bring them to give up their wickedness. But they had so strong a love for it and so fierce a craving that neither the examples of those who had insulted the laws and had been so severely punished, they and their whole families, nor fear of what the prophets now foretold, could bring them to repentance and turn them back from their course of lawbreaking to their former duty. The king even commanded that Zechariah, the son of the high priest Jehoiada, be stoned to death in the temple, forgetting the kindnesses he had received from his father. For when God had appointed Zechariah to prophesy, he stood in the middle of the crowd and gave this counsel to them and to the king: that they should act righteously; and he foretold to them that if they would not listen to his warnings they would suffer a heavy punishment. As Zechariah was dying, he called on God as witness and judge of what he was suffering for the good counsel he had given them, and of how he was perishing in a most cruel and violent way in return for the good his father had done to Joash. [e]

It was not long, however, before the king was punished for his sin. Hazael, king of Syria, invaded his country, overthrew Gath and plundered it, and then marched against Jerusalem. At this Joash was afraid. He emptied all the treasuries of God and of the palace, took down the dedicated gifts, and sent them to the king of Syria; and with them he bought so much that he was not besieged and his kingdom was not brought into utter danger. Hazael was persuaded by the size of the sum not to bring his army against Jerusalem. Joash, however, fell into a severe illness, and his friends set on him to avenge the death of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. They laid a plot against the king and killed him. He was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal tombs of his forefathers, because of his impiety. He lived forty-seven years, and his son Amaziah succeeded him in the kingdom. [g]

In the twenty-first year of Joash’s reign, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu took the government of the Israelites in Samaria and held it seventeen years. He did not imitate his father, but was guilty of practices as wicked as those of the first kings who had held God in contempt. The king of Syria brought him low, and by a campaign against him reduced his forces so greatly that of so large an army there were left no more than ten thousand armed men and fifty horsemen. He also took from him his great cities, and many of them, and destroyed his army. These were the things the people of Israel suffered according to the prophecy of Elisha, when he foretold that Hazael would kill his master and reign over the Syrians and the people of Damascus. But when Jehoahaz was in such inescapable misery, he turned to prayer and supplication to God and begged him to deliver him from the hands of Hazael, and not to overlook him and give him up into his power. So God accepted his repentance in place of virtue; and wishing rather to warn those who might repent than to decide that they should be utterly destroyed, he granted him deliverance from war and dangers. So the country obtained peace, returned to its former condition, and flourished as before. [h]

After the death of Jehoahaz, his son Joash took the kingdom, in the thirty-seventh year of Joash the king of the tribe of Judah. This Joash, then, took the kingdom of Israel in Samaria (for he had the same name as the king of Jerusalem), and he held it sixteen years. He was a good man, and in his disposition not at all like his father. It was at this time that Elisha the prophet, who was already very old, had fallen ill, and the king of Israel came to visit him. When he found him very near death, he began to weep and lament in his presence, calling him his father and his weapon, because it was through him that he had never had to use weapons against his enemies, but had overcome his adversaries by Elisha’s prophecies without fighting. And now Elisha was leaving this life, and leaving him disarmed before the Syrians and the other enemies under their power. So he said it was not safe for him to live any longer, but that it would be well for him to hasten to his end and depart this life together with Elisha. As the king was lamenting in this way, Elisha comforted him, and told him to bend a bow that was brought to him. When the king had made the bow ready for shooting, Elisha took hold of his hands and told him to shoot. When he had shot three arrows and then stopped, Elisha said, “If you had shot more arrows, you would have torn up the kingdom of Syria by the roots. But since you were satisfied with shooting only three times, you will fight and beat the Syrians no more than three times, so that you may recover the country they cut off from your kingdom in your father’s reign.” When the king had heard this, he left; and a little while afterward the prophet died. He was a man famous for righteousness and highly favored by God. He also did wonderful and astonishing works by prophecy, which the Hebrews have kept in glorious memory. He was given a magnificent funeral, such as was fitting for a man so dear to God. It also happened at that time that some robbers threw a man they had killed into Elisha’s grave, and when his dead body came close to Elisha’s body, he came back to life. So much, then, have we told about the deeds of Elisha the prophet, both those he did while he was alive and how he had divine power even after his death. [j]

When Hazael, king of Syria, died, the kingdom passed to his son Ben-hadad, with whom Joash king of Israel made war. He beat him in three battles and took from him all the country, and all the cities and villages, that his father Hazael had taken from the kingdom of Israel; and this came about, as it happened, according to the prophecy of Elisha. When Joash died, he was buried in Samaria, and the government passed to his son Jeroboam. [n]