And when they were departed from him. — Omit were. The Syrians retired, instead of besieging Jerusalem, as they had purposed to do.
For they left him in great diseases. — Some refer this to the wounds which Joash had received from the Syrians in battle. But it is not said that Joash himself was wounded, but only that the destruction of his princes and the defeat of his army were judgments upon him. The word rendered “diseases” (mahălûyîm) only occurs here; but it is obviously a near synonym of the term used of the last sickness of Jehoram (tahălû’îm, 2chron xxi, 19), and the probable meaning is “pains,” or “suffering.” Calamity may have brought about the sickness of Joash, or perhaps the invasion had come upon him when already prostrate with disease, and unable to resist in person.
His own servants conspired against him. — 2 Kings 12:20, “And his servants arose and made a conspiracy.” Comp. the similar circumstances in the murder of Ishbosheth (2 Samuel 4:5).
For the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest. — The LXX. and Vulgate correct this, and read “son,” meaning Zechariah the prophet (2 Chronicles 24:22), and the plural may be due to a transcriber’s mistake. More probably it is used rhetorically, as in 2 Chronicles 28:16, and elsewhere.
The writer does not mean to say that revenge for the death of Jehoiada’s posterity was the motive which actuated the conspirators, but that their deed was a judgment upon the king for that crime. In Kings the place of the assassination is specified, “Beth-millo that goeth down to Silla.” But nothing is there said of the sickness of Joash, and his being murdered in his bed.
But they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings. — See Note on 2 Chronicles 21:20, where the same remark is made about the burial of Jehoram.