2 Chronicles 24

1 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah, from Beersheba. [a] 2 And Joash did what was right before the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. 3 And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he fathered sons and daughters. [b]

4 And after this it came into the heart of Joash to repair the house of the Lord. 5 And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect money from all Israel to make the house of the Lord strong, year by year. And make haste to speak of it.” But the Levites did not make haste. 6 And king Joash called Jehoiada the leader and said to him, “Why have you not looked into the matter of the Levites, so that they bring in from Judah and Jerusalem what was appointed by Moses the man of God, when he called Israel to assembly at the tent of witness?” [c] 7 For Athaliah was the lawless one, and her sons had torn down the house of God; and what is more, they made the holy things of the house of the Lord over to the Baals. [d]

8 And the king said, “Let a chest be made, and let it be set at the gate of the house of the Lord, outside. 9 And let them proclaim in Judah and in Jerusalem that the people bring in to the Lord, as Moses the servant of God said over Israel in the wilderness.” 10 And all the rulers and all the people gave, and they brought it in and threw it into the chest until it was full. 11 And whenever they brought the chest in to the king’s overseers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that the money was more than enough, the king’s scribe and the overseer of the great priest would come and empty the chest and set it back in its place. So they did day after day, and they gathered much money. [e]

12 And the king and Jehoiada the priest gave it to those who did the work, for the service of the house of the Lord; and they hired stonecutters and carpenters to repair the house of the Lord, and workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord. 13 And those who did the work worked, and the work went forward in their hands, and they set the house of the Lord up on its own footing and made it strong. [f] 14 And when they had finished, they brought what was left of the money to the king and to Jehoiada, and they made vessels for the house of the Lord — vessels for the service of the whole burnt offerings, and incense pans of gold and of silver. And they brought up whole burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continually, all the days of Jehoiada. [g]

15 And Jehoiada grew old, full of days, and he died. He was a hundred and thirty years old when he died, 16 and they buried him in the city of David with the kings, because he had done good with Israel and with God and with his house.

17 And after the death of Jehoiada the rulers of Judah came in and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them. 18 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Ashtaroth and the idols; and wrath came upon Judah and upon Jerusalem in that day. 19 Yet he sent prophets to them, to turn them back to the Lord; and they did not listen. And they warned them, and they did not listen. [h]

20 And the Spirit of God clothed Azariah son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood up above the people and said, “Thus says the Lord: Why do you pass by the commands of the Lord? You will not prosper, for you have abandoned the Lord, and he will abandon you.” [i] 21 And they set upon him, and they stoned him by command of Joash the king in the court of the house of the Lord. 22 And Joash did not remember the mercy that Jehoiada his father had shown him, and he put his son to death. And as he was dying he said, “May the Lord see it and judge.” [j]

23 And after the end of the year the army of Aram went up against him, and it came against Judah and Jerusalem; and they destroyed all the rulers of the people among the people, and all their spoil they sent to the king of Damascus. [k] 24 For the army of Aram came with few men, and God handed a very great army over into their hands, because they had abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers; and he carried out judgments on Joash.

25 And after they had gone away from him, leaving him in great sicknesses, his own servants set upon him for the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they put him to death on his bed, and he died. And they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tomb of the kings. 26 And those who set upon him were Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite. [l] 27 And all his sons — and the five came to him. And the rest, look, it is written in the record of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place. [m]