Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.’”
We have here a sad account of the degeneracy and apostasy of Joash. God had done great things for him; he had done something for God; but now he proved ungrateful to his God and false to the engagements he had laid himself under to him. How has the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed! Here we find, I. The occasions of his apostasy.
Commenting on 2 Chronicles 24:15-27
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, Ch2 23:11, and when...
the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada--probably a younger son, for his name does not occur in the list of Aaron's successors (1Ch. 6:4-47). stood above the people--Being of the priestly order, he spoke from the inner court, which was considerably higher than that of the people.