‘ And Joash said to all that stood against him, “Will you plead for Baal? Or will you save him? He who will plead for him, let him be put to death, while it is yet morning. If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because one has broken down his altar.” '
Joash replied cleverly and revealed all his experience as a leader of men. He did not argue the point. He charged them with similar sacrilege to that with which they were charging his son.
“Will you plead for Baal? Or will you save him?” Did they really think that Baal needed them to save him, needed them to put forth his pleas? Was that all they thought of Baal? He pointed out that they were accusing Baal of not being able to look after his own affairs. And that that was sacrilege on their part and deserved the immediate death penalty. They were sentenced from their own lips. It brought them up sharp, which in their state of frenzy was what was necessary.
Then he suggested that the truly religious attitude was to leave it to Baal to exact his own revenge. If he was a god he would do so. He would be able to make his own pleas, whether to Joash or other gods and goddesses. And if he did not, then they could come to their own conclusions.