Misinterpretations often portray this as biblical justification for assassinating corrupt leaders or rebelling against authority, overlooking the context of Joash's idolatry and bloodshed that invited divine judgment rather than human initiative alone; others erroneously view his burial with his fathers as full honor, ignoring that it minimally acknowledges his royal bloodline amid a shameful end, or confuse the servants' motives as purely personal vengeance without the prophetic backdrop of retribution for covenant unfaithfulness.
II Kings 12:21
King James Version (1769)
21 For Jozachar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.
This passage details the assassination of King Joash by his servants Jozachar and Jehozabad, culminating his reign marred by apostasy and the murder of Zechariah son of Jehoiada, illustrating the severe consequences of forsaking God after initial faithfulness, as Joash's violent death contrasts with the honorable burials of righteous kings, yet his burial with his fathers preserves the Davidic lineage through his son Amaziah's succession.