Joash Restores the Father's House
Joash orders repairs to our Father's house and nothing happens for twenty-three years, so a chest with a hole in the lid is set by the altar and the money goes straight to workmen, who prove honest. Later Joash buys off Hazael, and his own officials kill him.
12 1In Jehu's seventh year Jehoash became king; he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2Jehoash did what was right in our Father's eyes all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3Still, the high places remained; the people kept sacrificing and burning incense there.
4Jehoash said to the priests, "All the money for sacred gifts brought into the house of our Father—the census money, each person's assessed valuation, and all money anyone's heart moves him to bring to the house of our Father, 5the priests are to take it, each from his treasurer, and repair whatever damage is found in the temple."
6By King Jehoash's twenty-third year, the priests still had not repaired the temple's damage. 7King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, asking, "Why aren't you repairing the temple's damage? Now take no more money from your treasurers—hand it over for repairs."
8The priests agreed to take no more money from the people and not repair the temple themselves. 9Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right as you enter the house of our Father. There the priests guarding the threshold put all the money brought into the house of our Father. 10Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the king's secretary and high priest came up, counted it, and bagged the money found in the house of our Father. 11They gave the weighed money to the workers overseeing the house of our Father, who paid the carpenters and builders working on the house of our Father, 12to masons and stonecutters, to buy timber and cut stone to repair the damage to the house of our Father, and all spent on its repair. 13No money brought into our Father's house made silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any gold or silver item; 14it was paid to the workers, who used it to repair the house of our Father. 15They demanded no accounting from the men handed the money to pay the workers, for they acted honestly. 16Money from guilt and sin offerings did not enter our Father's house; it belonged to the priests.
The Fall of Joash
17Then Hazael king of Aram attacked Gath and captured it, then set out to attack Jerusalem. 18But Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred gifts his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had dedicated, plus his own, and all the gold in the storerooms of the house of our Father and the royal palace, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael pulled back from Jerusalem.
19The rest of Joash's acts, all he did—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20His own officials conspired and struck Joash down at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla. 21His officials Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer struck and killed him. They buried him with his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Amaziah reigned in his place.
