Second Book of Chronicles 24

¹ Joash was seven years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

² Joash did what is pleasing to Yahweh throughout the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest.

³ Jehoiada found him two wives and he had sons and daughters.

⁴ Subsequently, Joash made up his mind to repair the Temple of Yahweh.

⁵ Calling the priests and the Levites together, he said, ‘Go out to the towns of Judah, and collect enough money from all the Israelites to make possible annual repairs to the Temple of Yahweh. Do this quickly.’ But the Levites were in no hurry,

⁶ so the king summoned Jehoiada their leader, and said, ‘Why have you not insisted on the Levites collecting from Judah and Jerusalem what Moses the servant of Yahweh levied from the community of Israel for the Tent of the Testimony?

⁷ Athaliah and her sons, whom she perverted, not only damaged the Temple of God but even assigned the sacred revenues of the Temple of Yahweh to the Baals.’

⁸ The king ordered them to make a chest and to place it outside the gate of the Temple of Yahweh.

⁹ Proclamation was then made in Judah and in Jerusalem that what Moses the servant of God had levied from Israel in the wilderness should be brought to Yahweh.

¹⁰ All the officials and all the people came joyfully with their contribution, dropping it into the chest until all was paid.

¹¹ When the chest was taken to the royal office of control, run by the Levites, these would check the amount of money in it; then the king’s secretary would come with a representative of the chief priest; they would take up the chest, carry it away, and later return it to its place. They did this every day, and collected a large sum of money.

¹² The king and Jehoiada handed it over to the master of works attached to the Temple of Yahweh. The hired men, masons and carpenters, set about restoring the Temple of Yahweh; craftsmen in iron and bronze also worked on the repairing of it.

¹³ The masters of works having once made a start, the repairs went ahead under their supervision; they rebuilt the Temple of God to its former state and strengthened the fabric.

¹⁴ When they had finished, they brought the balance of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with this furnishings were made for the Temple of Yahweh, vessels for the liturgy and for the holocausts, incense boats and objects of gold and silver. So, for as long as Jehoiada lived they offered perpetual holocaust in the Temple of Yahweh.

¹⁵ Then Jehoiada, growing old, had his fill of days and died. He died at the age of a hundred and thirty years,

¹⁶ and they buried him with the kings in the Citadel of David because he had served God and his Temple well in Israel.

¹⁷ After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came to pay court to the king, and the king now turned to them for advice.

¹⁸ The Judaeans abandoned the Temple of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, for the worship of sacred poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁹ He sent them prophets to bring them back to Yahweh, but when these gave their message, they would not listen.

²⁰ The spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, ‘God says this, “Why do you transgress the commandments of Yahweh to no good purpose? You have deserted Yahweh, now he deserts you.”‘

²¹ They then plotted against him and by order of the king stoned him in the court of the Temple of Yahweh.

²² King Joash, forgetful of the kindness that Jehoiada, the father of Zechariah, had shown him, killed Jehoiada’s son who cried out as he died, ‘Yahweh sees and he will avenge!’

²³ When a year had gone by, the Aramaean army made war on Joash. They reached Judah and Jerusalem, and executed all the officials among the people, sending back to the king at Damascus all that they had plundered from them.

²⁴ Though the Aramaean army had by no means come in force, Yahweh delivered into its power an army of great size for having deserted him, the God of their ancestors. The Aramaeans treated Joash as he had deserved,

²⁵ and when they retired they left him a very sick man; and his officers, plotting against him to avenge the death of the son of Jehoiada the priest, murdered him in his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the Citadel of David, though not in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶ These were the conspirators: Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabitess.

²⁷ As regards his sons, the heavy tribute imposed on him, and the restoration of the Temple of God, this is all recorded in the Midrash on the Book of the Kings. His son Amaziah succeeded him.