Dual Panel1Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for forty years; his mother was Zibiah from Beersheba.
2He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as long as Jehoiada the priest was alive.
3Jehoiada chose him two wives, and he had a family of sons and daughters.
4Some time afterwards, Joash decided to renovate the house of the LORD.
5He assembled the priests and Levites and said to them, “Go through the cities and towns of Judah and collect without delay the annual tax from all the Israelites for the restoration of the house of your God.” But the Levites did not act quickly.
6The king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and asked him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the LORD and by the assembly of Israel for the Tent of the Testimony?”
7For the wicked Athaliah and her adherents had broken into the house of God and had even devoted all its holy things to the service of the baalim.
8The king ordered a chest to be made and placed outside the gate of the house of the LORD;
9and proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem that the people should bring to the LORD the tax imposed on Israel in the wilderness by Moses the servant of God.
10All the leaders and the people gladly brought their taxes and dropped them into the chest until it was full.
11Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king's officers and they saw that it was well filled, the king's secretary and the chief priest's officer would come to empty it, after which it was returned to its place. This they did daily, and a large sum of money was collected.
12The king and Jehoiada handed it over to those responsible for carrying out the work in the house of the LORD, and they hired masons and carpenters to do the renovation, as well as craftsmen in iron and copper to restore the house.
13The workmen got on with their task and the work progressed under their hands; they restored the house of God according to its original design and strengthened it.
14When they had finished, they brought what was left of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and it was made into vessels for the house of the LORD, both for service and for sacrificing, saucers and other articles of gold and silver. During Jehoiada's lifetime whole-offerings were offered regularly in the house of the LORD.
15Jehoiada, now old and weighed down with years, died at the age of a hundred and thirty
16and was buried with the kings in the city of David, because he had done good in Israel in the service of God and of his house.
17After the death of Jehoiada the leading men of Judah came and made obeisance to the king. He listened to them,
18and they forsook the house of the LORD the God of their forefathers and worshipped sacred poles and idols. For this wickedness Judah and Jerusalem suffered.
19The LORD sent prophets to bring them back to himself, prophets who denounced them but were not heeded.
20Then the spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. Taking his stance looking down on the people he declared, “This is the word of God: Why do you disobey the commands of the LORD and court disaster? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.”
21But they made common cause against him, and on orders from the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the LORD.
22King Joash, forgetful of the loyalty of Zechariah's father Jehoiada, killed his son. As he was dying he said, “May the LORD see this and exact the penalty.”
23At the turn of the year a force of Aramaeans advanced against Joash; they invaded Judah and Jerusalem and massacred all the officers of the army, so that it ceased to exist, and they sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.
24Although the Aramaeans had invaded with a small force, the LORD delivered a very great army into their power, because the people had forsaken the LORD the God of their forefathers; and Joash suffered just punishment.
25When the Aramaeans had withdrawn, leaving the king severely wounded, his servants conspired against him to avenge the death of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they murdered him on his bed. Thus he died and was buried in the city of David, but not in the burial-place of the kings.
26The conspirators were Zabad son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman and Jehozabad son of Shimrith a Moabite woman.
27His children, the many oracles about him, and his reconstruction of the house of God are all on record in the discourse given in the annals of the kings. His son Amaziah succeeded him.