Ephrem the Syrian : "His servants arose, devised a conspiracy and killed Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla." When he reached the age of 130 years, the priest Jehoiada died. Joash, being persuaded by the advice of some of his princes, abandoned the true religion which he had piously served when Jehoiada was alive, and restored the idolatry introduced by the women of Sidon, which he had gloriously banished with the help of the high priest himself. And while Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, attempted to prevent [that impiety] with all his might, and being inflamed with the divine spirit and standing between the temple and the altar, reproached the king and his princes, he was stoned to death in the hall itself of the house of God. And that was an act of extreme cruelty on the part of Joash, and every person's mind was disturbed because he, being oblivious of the benefits received from Jehoiada, allowed that the son of that very holy man was treated with such brutality before him and even incited [the crowd to stone him]. And [Zechariah], calling God as the witness of his innocence and his avenger, said, "May the Lord see and avenge." The holy man foresaw the calamities that would shortly befall the king and his kingdom. One year later the Syrians invaded Judah and plundered the land so that Joash, in order to save his life, was forced to deprive himself of the goods of the royal house and of the temple but was, nevertheless, shamefully ill treated by his enemies; and eventually he fell ill and lay in bed. While Joash was ill in his own bed, he was the victim of a plot of his servants, who stabbed him to death. — ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 12:20