The Levites Did Not Act Quickly

⁴ Now it happened afterwards, that Joash ^[a]had in his heart ^(A)to restore the house of Yahweh. ⁵ And he gathered the priests and Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and gather money from all ^(B)Israel to ^[b]repair the house of your God ^[c]annually, and you shall do the matter quickly.” But the Levites did not act quickly. ⁶ So the king called for Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem ^(C)the levy fixed by Moses the servant of Yahweh on the congregation of Israel ^(D)for the tent of the testimony?” ⁷ For ^(E)the sons of the wicked Athaliah had broken into the house of God and even ^[d]used the holy things of the house of Yahweh for the Baals.

The House of Yahweh Restored

⁸ So the king said the word, and ^(F)they made a chest and put it outside by the gate of the house of Yahweh. ^9 (G)And they ^[e]made a proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to bring to Yahweh ^(H)the levy fixed by Moses the servant of God on Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰ And all the officials and all the people were glad and brought in their levies and ^[f]dropped them into the chest until they had ^[g]finished. ¹¹ Now it happened that whenever the chest was brought in to the king’s officer by the hand of the Levites, and when ^(I)they saw that there was much money, then the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer would come, empty the chest, take it, and return it to its place. Thus they did daily and collected much money. ¹² And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of Yahweh; and they hired masons and ^[h]carpenters to restore the house of Yahweh, and also craftsmen in iron and bronze to ^[i]repair the house of Yahweh. ¹³ So those who did the work labored, and the repair work progressed in their hands, and they ^[j]restored the house of God ^[k]according to its specifications and strengthened it. ¹⁴ When they had completed, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada; and it was made into utensils for the house of Yahweh, utensils for the ministry and the burnt offering, and pans and utensils of gold and silver. And they were offering burnt offerings in the house of Yahweh continually all the days of Jehoiada.