Joash makes repairs to God's house

12 Joash became king of Judah in the seventh year that Jehu was king of Israel. Joash ruled in Jerusalem for 40 years. His mother's name was Zibiah. She came from Beersheba. ² Jehoiada the priest taught Joash to do what was right. So Joash pleased the Lord all through his life.^{[a] 3} But Joash did not remove the altars on the hills. The people continued to offer sacrifices and to burn incense on those altars.

⁴ Joash said to all the priests, ‘Bring together all the money that people have offered to the Lord in his temple. This includes:

⁵ Each priest should receive the money that he needs to make repairs to the temple. When he sees that something is broken, he can use some of the people's money to mend it.’

⁶ When Joash had been king for 23 years, the priests had still not made any repairs to the temple. ⁷ So King Joash called Jehoiada and the other priests to come to him. He said to them, ‘You have made no repairs to the temple yet! Why not? Do not take any more of your people's money! It must only be used to make repairs to the temple.’ ⁸ The priests agreed that they would not take any more money from the people. They agreed that they would not make repairs to the temple themselves.^[b]

⁹ Jehoiada the priest took a large box and he made a hole in the top of it. He put it outside the entrance of the temple, on the right side of the altar. The priests who were guards at the temple door took care of the box. When people brought gifts of money to the Lord's temple, the priests put the money in the box. ¹⁰ Whenever there was a lot of money in the box, the king's secretary and the leader of the priests counted the money. Then they put those gifts for the temple into bags. ¹¹ When they knew how much money was there, they gave it to the men who had authority over the work. Then those men paid the carpenters and the builders who were working on the Lord's temple. ¹² They also paid the men that cut the stones and the men who used the stones to build with. They bought wood and they bought stones that people had cut to use for the repairs to the Lord's temple. They used the money to pay for any work on the repairs.

¹³ But they did not use any of this money to buy things that they used in the temple. This included:

¹⁴ Instead, they used all the money to give to the men who had authority over the repairs to the Lord's temple. ¹⁵ Those men did not have to give a report on how they used the money. People knew that they were honest men. ¹⁶ But the money that people gave when they made a guilt offering or a sin offering belonged to the priests. It did not pay for the repairs on the temple.

¹⁷ At that time, Hazael, the king of Syria, attacked Gath.^[c] His army took the city for him. Then King Hazael decided to attack Jerusalem.

¹⁸ Joash, the king of Judah, took all the valuable things that he and his ancestors had given to God. Those ancestors were the kings of Judah: Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah. He also took gold that was in the palace and in the temple. He sent all those valuable things to Hazael, king of Syria.^[d] When Hazael received the gifts from Joash, he took his army away from Jerusalem.

¹⁹ The other things that happened while Joash was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about all the things that Joash did. ²⁰ Joash's officers decided to kill him. Two of them murdered him at Beth Millo, on the road that goes down to Silla. ²¹ The officers that killed him were Shimeath's son Jozabad and Shomer's son Jehozabad. People buried Joash beside his ancestors in the City of David. His son Amaziah became king after him.