CHAPTER 24

¹Seven years old was Joash when he became king, and forty years he was king in Jerusalem and his mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba. ²And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest. ³And Jehoiada took for himself two wives, and he begat sons and daughters. ⁴And it happened afterward that Joash thought to restore the house of the LORD. ⁵And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the towns of Judah and gather from all Israel silver to repair the house of your God from one year to the next. As for you, hurry in this matter.” But the Levites did not hurry. ⁶And the king called to Jehoiada the head and said to him, “Why did you not demand of the Levites to bring from Judah and from Jerusalem the impost fixed by Moses servant of the LORD and the assembly for Israel for the Tent of Meeting? ⁷For wicked Athaliah and her sons had breached the house of God and even rendered all the sacred things of the house of the LORD to the Baalim.” ⁸And the king spoke, and they made a certain chest and set it in the gate of the house of the LORD on the outside. ⁹And they made a proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the LORD the impost fixed by Moses servant of God over Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰And all the commanders and all the people rejoiced and brought it and flung it into the chest till it was full. ¹¹And it happened whenever the chest was brought for the king’s inspection by the Levites and they saw that there was abundant silver, the king’s scribe would come with the official of the high priest and empty the chest and bear it off and return it to its place. Thus did they do day after day, and the silver was collected in abundance. ¹²And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those doing the tasks of the work for the house of the LORD, and they hired masons and carpenters to renovate the house of the LORD and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the LORD. ¹³And those performing the tasks did them, and the task went well in their hands, and they put the house of God in its proper form and made it sound. ¹⁴And when they finished, they brought the remaining silver before the king and Jehoiada, and they made it into vessels for the house of the LORD, vessels for ministering and pails and ladles and vessels of gold and silver, and they offered up burnt offerings in the house of the LORD perpetually, all the days of Jehoiada. ¹⁵And Jehoiada grew old and sated with days, and he died, a hundred thirty years old he was when he died. ¹⁶And they buried him in the City of David with the kings, for he had done good in Israel and with God and with His house. ¹⁷And after the death of Jehoiada the commanders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. Then the king heeded them. ¹⁸And they abandoned the house of the LORD God of their fathers and served the cultic poles and the idols, and there was fury against Judah and Jerusalem because of this guilt of theirs. ¹⁹And He sent among them prophets to turn them back to the LORD and they warned them, but they did not listen. ²⁰And the spirit of God invested Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood over the people and said to them, “Thus said God: Why are you transgressing the LORD’s command when you will not prosper? For you have abandoned the LORD, and He will abandon you.” ²¹And they plotted against him and stoned him by the king’s command in the court of the house of the LORD. ²²And King Joash did not recall the kindness that Jehoiada his father had showed him, but he killed Jehoiada’s son, who as he was dying said, “Let the LORD see and seek it out.” ²³And it happened at the turn of the year that the force of Aram came up against him, and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the commanders of the people and sent all that was plundered from them to the king of Damascus. ²⁴For the force of Aram had come with few men, but the LORD gave a very large force into their hands, for they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. And against Joash they exacted punishment. ²⁵And when they went off, for they left him with grievous wounds, his servants plotted against him because of the bloodshed of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in 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. ²⁶And these were the plotters against him: Zabed son of Shimeath the Ammonite and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite. ²⁷As to his sons and the many declarations against him and the renovation of the house of the LORD, they are written in the elaboration of the book of kings. And Amaziah his son was king in his stead.