buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he
had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house.

Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made
obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they
forsook the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served
the Asherim and the idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for
this their guiltiness. Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them
again unto the Lord; and they testified against them: but they would
not give ear. And the spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of
Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said unto
them, "Thus saith God, 'Why transgress ye the commandments of the
Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he
hath also forsaken you.'"

And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the
commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. 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."

And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the {280} army of the
Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and
destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and
sent all the spoil of them to the king of Damascus. For the army of
the Syrians came with a small company of men; and the Lord delivered a
very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord,
the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment upon Joash.

And when they were departed from him (for they left him in great
diseases), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the
sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and
they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the
sepulchers of the kings. And these are they that conspired against
him; Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son
of Shimrith the Moabitess. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

{281}

AMAZIAH.

_A King of Judah Who Was Conquered by a King of Israel_.

(The reign of Amaziah began with victory. He defeated the old foes of
Judah, the Edomites, in a great battle. He was so filled with foolish
pride at this success that he challenged the king of Israel to fight.
The king of Israel sent his refusal to this challenge in a very clever
lit