1Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, from Beersheba.
2Joash did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
3Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he fathered sons and daughters.
4Afterward it came to be in the heart of Joash to renew the house of Yahweh.
5He gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and gather money from all Israel to strengthen the house of your God, year by year. And you—hurry with the matter.” But the Levites did not hurry.
6So the king called for Jehoiada the chief and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the levy of Moses the servant of Yahweh, and of 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 used all the holy things of the house of Yahweh for the Baals.”
8Then the king spoke, and they made a single chest and set it outside at the gate of the house of Yahweh.
9They issued a proclamation in Judah and in Jerusalem to bring to Yahweh the levy that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.
10All the officials and all the people rejoiced, and they brought and threw it into the chest until it was full.
11And it happened that at the time the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest, then carry it and return it to its place. Thus they did day by day, and they gathered money in abundance.
12The king and Jehoiada gave it to those doing the work of the service of the house of Yahweh, and they hired stonecutters and craftsmen to renew the house of Yahweh, and also workers in iron and bronze to strengthen the house of Yahweh.
13So those doing the work labored, and the repair of the work went forward under their hand, and they set the house of God on its proper measure and reinforced it.
14When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, and he made it into vessels for the house of Yahweh—vessels for ministry and for offering, and dishes, and vessels of gold and silver. And they were offering up burnt offerings in the house of Yahweh continually, all the days of Jehoiada.
15Jehoiada grew old and full of days, and he died. He was a hundred and thirty years old at his death.
16They buried him in the city of David with the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house.
17After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king, and then the king listened to them.
18They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.
19He sent prophets among them to bring them back to Yahweh, and they testified against them, but they would not give ear.
20Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus says God: Why are you transgressing the commandments of Yahweh so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has forsaken you.”
21But they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the command of the king, in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh.
22So King Joash did not remember the loyal love that Jehoiada his father had shown him, but killed his son. As he was dying, he said, “May Yahweh see and require it.”
23And it happened at the turn of the year that the army of Aram came up against him, and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the officials of the people from among the people, and they sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus.
24For the army of Aram came with a small number of men, yet Yahweh gave into their hand a very great army, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgments upon Joash.
25And when they had departed from him—for they left him in great sicknesses—his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed, and 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 those who conspired against him: Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabitess.
27As for his sons, and the many oracles against him, and the rebuilding of the house of God—behold, they are written in the treatise of the Book of the Kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
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