1Joash became king of Judah. It was in the seventh year of Jehu’s rule. Joash ruled in Jerusalem for 40 years. His mother’s name was Zibiah. She was from Beersheba.2Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. Joash lived that way as long as Jehoiada the priest was teaching him.3But the high places weren’t removed. The people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.4Joash spoke to the priests. He said, ‘Collect all the money the people bring as sacred offerings to the LORD’s temple. That includes the money collected when the men who are able to serve in the army are counted. It includes the money received from people who make a special promise to the LORD. It also includes the money people bring to the temple just because they want to.5Let each priest receive the money from one of the people in charge of the temple’s treasures. Then use all of that money to repair the temple where it needs it.’6It was now the 23rd year of the rule of King Joash. And the priests still hadn’t repaired the temple.7So the king sent for Jehoiada the priest and the other priests. He asked them, ‘Why aren’t you repairing the temple where it needs it? Don’t take any more money from the people in charge of the treasures. Instead, hand it over so the temple can be repaired.’8The priests agreed that they wouldn’t collect any more money from the people. They also agreed that they wouldn’t repair the temple themselves.9Jehoiada the priest got a chest. He drilled a hole in its lid. He placed the chest beside the altar for burnt offerings. The chest was on the right side as people enter the LORD’s temple. Some priests guarded the entrance. They put into the chest all the money the people brought to the temple.10From time to time there was a large amount of money in the chest. When that happened, the royal secretary and the high priest came. They counted the money the people had brought to the temple. Then they put it into bags.11After they added it all up, they used it to repair the temple. They gave it to the men who had been put in charge of the work. Those men used it to pay the workers. They paid the builders and those who worked with wood.12They paid those who cut stones and those who laid them. They bought lumber and blocks of stone. So they used the money to repair the LORD’s temple. They also paid all the other costs to make the temple like new again.13The money the people brought to the LORD’s temple wasn’t used to make silver bowls. It wasn’t used for wick cutters, sprinkling bowls or trumpets. And it wasn’t used for any other things made out of gold or silver.14Instead, it was paid to the workers. They used it to repair the temple.15The royal secretary and the high priest didn’t require a report from those who were in charge of the work. That’s because they were completely honest. They always paid the workers.16Money was received from people who brought guilt offerings and sin offerings. But it wasn’t taken to the LORD’s temple. It belonged to the priests.17About that time Hazael, the king of Aram, went up and attacked Gath. Then he captured it. After that, he turned back to attack Jerusalem.18But Joash, the king of Judah, didn’t want to go to war. So he took all the sacred objects. They had been set apart to the LORD by the kings who had ruled over Judah before him. Those kings were Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah. Joash took the gifts he himself had set apart. He took all the gold that was among the temple treasures. He also took all the gold from the royal palace. He sent all those things to Hazael, the king of Aram. Then Hazael pulled his army back from Jerusalem.19The other events of the rule of Joash are written down. Everything he did is written in the official records of the kings of Judah.20The officials of Joash made evil plans against him. They killed him at Beth Millo. It happened on the road that goes down to Silla.21The officials who murdered him were Jozabad and Jehozabad. Jozabad was the son of Shimeath. Jehozabad was the son of Shomer. After Joash died, he was buried in the family tomb in the City of David. Joash’s son Amaziah became the next king after him.
2 Kings 12
English Standard Version
1In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash[1] began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.2And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.3Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places. (1Ki 15:14; 1Ki 22:43; 2Ki 14:4; 2Ki 15:35)
Jehoash Repairs the Temple
4Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things that is brought into the house of the Lord, the money for which each man is assessed—the money from the assessment of persons—and the money that a man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the Lord, (Ex 35:5; 2Ki 22:4; 1Ch 29:9)5let the priests take, each from his donor, and let them repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered.”6But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had made no repairs on the house.7Therefore King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the house? Now therefore take no more money from your donors, but hand it over for the repair of the house.”8So the priests agreed that they should take no more money from the people, and that they should not repair the house.9Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the Lord. And the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord. (Mr 12:41; Lu 21:1)10And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s secretary and the high priest came up and they bagged and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord. (2Ki 22:4)11Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the Lord. And they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the Lord,12and to the masons and the stonecutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for making repairs on the house of the Lord, and for any outlay for the repairs of the house. (2Ki 22:5)13But there were not made for the house of the Lord basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold, or of silver, from the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, (1Ki 7:50; 2Ch 24:14)14for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the house of the Lord with it.15And they did not ask for an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly. (2Ki 22:7)16The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord; it belonged to the priests. (Le 4:24; Le 4:29; Le 5:15; Le 5:18; Le 7:7; Nu 18:19)17At that time Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. But when Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem, (1Ki 19:17; 2Ki 8:12; 2Ch 24:23)18Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred gifts that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent these to Hazael king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem. (1Ki 14:26; 1Ki 15:18; 2Ki 12:4; 2Ki 14:14; 2Ki 16:8; 2Ki 18:15)
The Death of Joash
19Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?20His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. (2Sa 5:9; 2Ki 14:5; 2Ch 24:25)21It was Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amaziah his son reigned in his place. (2Ki 14:1; 2Ch 24:26)