And they conspired against him. — The conspiracy of 2 Chronicles 24:25 was the Divine recompense for this one.
And stoned him. — The legal penalty of idolatry (Leviticus 20:2; Deuteronomy 17:2-5).
At the commandment of the king. — Probably Zechariah’s words had been represented to Joash as treasonable. The Syrian invasion may have been already threatening, when his prophecy was uttered; and in that case it would be easy to allege against the prophet that his “wish was father to his thought.” (Comp. the similar case of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 32:1-5; and 1 Kings 21:8-13.)
In the court of the house of the Lord. — There is little doubt that the allusion of Christ (Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51) to the death of “Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the Temple and the altar,” refers to this murder. The altar stood in the court, before the Temple. Barachias (Berechiah) may have been Zechariah’s father, and Jehoiada his grandfather. Moreover the Lord appears to be thinking of the honourable burial of Jehoiada, in contrast with the murder of his son, in Matthew 23:29-32, verses which immediately precede the mention of Zacharias.