Joash Renews the House of Yahweh
1Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, from Beersheba. 2For as long as Jehoiada the priest lived, Joash did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh. 3Jehoiada found two wives for him, and he fathered sons and daughters. 4Some time later Joash set his heart on renewing the house of Yahweh. 5He assembled the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect money from all Israel, year by year, to strengthen the house of your God. And be quick about it.” But the Levites were not quick. 6So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the levy set by Moses the servant of Yahweh and by the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?” 7For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had even turned all the holy things of the house of Yahweh over to the Baals. 8At the king’s word they made a chest and set it outside, at the gate of the house of Yahweh, 9and a call went out through Judah and Jerusalem to bring to Yahweh the levy that Moses the servant of God had laid on Israel in the wilderness. 10All the officers and all the people rejoiced; they brought their share and threw it into the chest until it was full. 11Whenever the chest was carried by the Levites to the king’s inspectors and they saw that there was a great deal of money in it, the king’s scribe and the officer of the chief priest would come, empty the chest, then lift it and carry it back to its place. This they did day after day, and they collected money in abundance. 12The king and Jehoiada handed it over to those in charge of the work of the service of the house of Yahweh, and they hired stonecutters and craftsmen to renew the house of Yahweh, and workers in iron and bronze to strengthen it. 13The workmen laboured, and the repair moved forward in their hands. They set the house of God back on its proper measure and reinforced it. 14When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, and it was made into vessels for the house of Yahweh — vessels for the service and for the offerings, and dishes, and vessels of gold and silver. And burnt offerings were offered in the house of Yahweh continually, all the days of Jehoiada.
The Blood of Zechariah
15Jehoiada grew old and full of days, and he died; he was a hundred and thirty years old at his death. 16He was buried in the City of David alongside the kings, for the good he had done in Israel, both for God and for his house. 17After Jehoiada’s death the officers of Judah came and bowed low before the king, and the king listened to them. 18They forsook the house of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, and gave their service to the Asherah poles and the idols; so wrath came over Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. 19He sent prophets among them to bring them back to Yahweh; they warned them, but they would not give ear. 20Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood above the people and said to them, “This is what God says: Why are you overstepping the commandments of Yahweh, so that you cannot succeed? Because you have abandoned Yahweh, he has abandoned you.” 21But they conspired against him, and at the king’s command they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh. 22King Joash did not remember the loyalty Jehoiada his father had shown him; he killed his son. And as he died Zechariah said, “May Yahweh see this and call it to account.”
The Death of Joash
23At the turn of the year the army of Aram marched against him. They came into Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the leaders of the people and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus. 24The Aramean army had come with only a handful of men, yet Yahweh handed over to them an army far greater, because Judah had abandoned Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. So they carried out judgments on Joash. 25When they withdrew from him — leaving him with grievous wounds — his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed. He died, and they buried him in the City of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. 26These are the men who conspired against him: Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite woman. 27As for his sons, the many oracles that came against him, and the rebuilding of the house of God, they are recorded in the commentary on the book of the Kings. And Amaziah his son became king in his place.
