³ And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.

⁴ And Jehoash said to the priests, ^(A)“All the money of the dedicated gifts that are brought into the house of the Lord—each man’s ^(B)census^[a] money, each man’s ^(C)assessment money—and all the money that ^[b]a man ^(D)purposes in his heart to bring into the house of the Lord, ⁵ let the priests take it themselves, each from his constituency; and let them repair the ^[c]damages of the temple, wherever any dilapidation is found.”

⁴ Now it happened after this that Joash set his heart on repairing the house of the Lord. ⁵ Then he gathered the priests and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and ^(A)gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you do it quickly.”

However the Levites did not do it quickly.

Death of Jehu

³² In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel; and ^(A)Hazael conquered them in all the territory of Israel ³³ from the Jordan eastward: all the land of Gilead—Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh—from ^(B)Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, including ^(C)Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴ Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ³⁵ So Jehu ^[a]rested with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. Then ^(D)Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. ³⁶ And the period that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

Jehoahaz Reigns in Israel

13 In the twenty-third year of ^(A)Joash^[a] the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, ^(B)Jehoahaz the son of Jehu became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. ² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed the ^(C)sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. He did not ^[b]depart from them.

⁶ Now it was so, by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, ^(A)that the priests had not repaired the damages of the temple. ^7 (B)So King Jehoash called Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damages of the temple? Now therefore, do not take more money from your constituency, but deliver it for repairing the damages of the temple.” ⁸ And the priests agreed that they would neither receive more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the temple.

⁹ Then Jehoiada the priest took ^(C)a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who ^[a]kept the door put ^(D)there all the money brought into the house of the Lord. ¹⁰ So it was, whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s ^(E)scribe^[b] and the high priest came up and ^[c]put it in bags, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord. ¹¹ Then they gave the money, which had been apportioned, into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they ^[d]paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the Lord, ¹² and to masons and stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone, to ^(F)repair the damage of the house of the Lord, and for all that was paid out to repair the temple. ¹³ However ^(G)there were not made for the house of the Lord basins of silver, trimmers, sprinkling-bowls, trumpets, any articles of gold or articles of silver, from the money brought into the house of the Lord. ¹⁴ But they gave that to the workmen, and they repaired the house of the Lord with it. ¹⁵ Moreover ^(H)they did not require an account from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to be paid to workmen, for they dealt faithfully. ^16 (I)The money from the trespass offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord. ^(J)It belonged to the priests.

^6 (A)So the king called Jehoiada the chief priest, and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the collection, according to the commandment of ^(B)Moses the servant of the Lord and of the assembly of Israel, for the ^(C)tabernacle of witness?” ⁷ For ^(D)the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had also presented all the ^(E)dedicated things of the house of the Lord to the Baals.

⁸ Then at the king’s command ^(F)they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of the Lord. ⁹ And they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the Lord ^(G)the collection that Moses the servant of God had imposed on Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰ Then all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought their contributions, and put them into the chest until all had given. ¹¹ So it was, at that time, when the chest was brought to the king’s official by the hand of the Levites, and ^(H)when they saw that there was much money, that the king’s scribe and the high priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it and returned it to its place. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.

¹² The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of the Lord; and they hired masons and carpenters to ^(I)repair the house of the Lord, and also those who worked in iron and bronze to restore the house of the Lord. ¹³ So the workmen labored, and the work was completed by them; they restored the house of God to its original condition and reinforced it. ¹⁴ When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada; ^(J)they made from it articles for the house of the Lord, articles for serving and offering, spoons and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada.

Apostasy of Joash

¹⁵ But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; he was one hundred and thirty years old when he died. ¹⁶ And they buried him in the City of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and His house.

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. ¹⁸ Therefore they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served ^(K)wooden images and idols; and ^(L)wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass. ¹⁹ Yet He ^(M)sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the Lord; and they testified against them, but they would not listen.

²⁰ Then the Spirit of God ^[a]came upon ^(N)Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God: ^(O)‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? ^(P)Because you have forsaken the Lord, He also has forsaken you.’ ” ²¹ So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they ^(Q)stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. ²² Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his ^[b]father had done to him, but killed his son; and as he died, he said, “The Lord look on it, and ^(R)repay!”

³ Then ^(A)the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of ^(B)Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of ^(C)Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael, all their days. ⁴ So Jehoahaz ^(D)pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord listened to him; for ^(E)He saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.

⁷ For He left of the army of Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers; for the king of Syria had destroyed them ^(A)and made them ^(B)like the dust at threshing.