⁵ He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, “Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money^(A) due annually from all Israel,^(B) to repair the temple of your God. Do it now.” But the Levites^(C) did not act at once.

⁸ In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God.

⁹ They went to Hilkiah^(A) the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the temple of God, which the Levites who were the gatekeepers had collected from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel and from all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

³ In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired^(A) them.

² Jehoram’s brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat, were Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael and Shephatiah. All these were sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel.^[a]

⁴ Joash said to the priests, “Collect^(A) all the money that is brought as sacred offerings^(B) to the temple of the Lord—the money collected in the census,^(C) the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily^(D) to the temple. ⁵ Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, then use it to repair^(E) whatever damage is found in the temple.”

⁶ But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple. ⁷ Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple.”