Lives of Scripture

Jozacar son of Shimeath (called Zabad in Chronicles) was one of King Joash of Judah's own servants. Joash had begun his reign well under the guidance of the priest Jehoiada, repairing the temple and restoring proper worship, but after Jehoiada's death he abandoned the LORD for idolatry. When Jehoiada's son, the prophet Zechariah, confronted the king's unfaithfulness by the Spirit of God, Joash had him stoned to death in the very temple courtyard his father had defended (2 Chronicles 24:17-22). In retaliation for "the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest," Jozacar and a fellow servant, Jehozabad, conspired against Joash and struck him down on his sickbed (2 Kings 12:20-21; 2 Chronicles 24:25). Joash was buried in the city of David, but, marking the shame of his end, not among the tombs of the kings (2 Chronicles 24:25). Jozacar's act was murder and treason against God's anointed king, not sanctioned by Scripture as righteous vengeance -- yet the text frames Joash's violent death as the outworking of the king's own guilt in shedding innocent blood, a sober picture of how apostasy and injustice unravel even a promising reign.