Beginning

Jehoram becomes king of Judah

21 Jehoshaphat died and they buried him beside his ancestors in the City of David. Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram became king after him. ² Jehoram had brothers who were also sons of Jehoshaphat. They were Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael and Shephatiah. All these men were sons of King Jehoshaphat of Judah.^{[a] 3} Their father had given them many gifts of silver, gold and other valuable things. He gave them authority over the strong cities of Judah. But Jehoshaphat chose Jehoram be the next king because he was his oldest son.

⁴ Jehoram made himself a strong king to rule over his father's kingdom. Then he killed all his brothers, as well as some of the Israelite leaders. ⁵ He was 32 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for eight years.

⁶ He lived in the same bad way that the kings of Israel did. He did what the family of Ahab had done. He married a daughter of King Ahab and he became as wicked as King Ahab's family was. He did things that the Lord said were evil. ⁷ But the Lord did not want to destroy all David's descendants, because of his promise to David. He had promised that King David would always have descendants who would rule the nation.

Edom fights against Judah

⁸ While Jehoram was king, Edom's people turned against Judah. They would no longer accept the king of Judah's authority over them. They decided to have their own king. ⁹ So King Jehoram travelled to Zair with his army officers and all his chariots.^[b] The Edomite army came and they were all around him. But that night, Jehoram and his officers attacked the Edomites and they escaped. ¹⁰ Even today, Edom's people do not obey the rulers of Judah. The people of Libnah city also turned against Judah at the same time. That happened because Jehoram had turned away from the Lord, the God of his ancestors.

¹¹ He also built altars on the hills of Judah. He caused the people of Judah and Jerusalem to turn away from the Lord and worship false gods.^[c]

Elijah gives a message to King Jehoram

¹² The prophet Elijah wrote a letter to Jehoram. This is what it said:

‘The Lord, the God of your ancestor David says, “You have not lived in a good way as your father Jehoshaphat did and as King Asa of Judah did. ¹³ Instead, you have lived in the way that the kings of Israel live. You have caused the people of Judah and Jerusalem to turn away from the Lord and worship false gods. That is the same as King Ahab's family has done in Israel. You have also killed your own brothers, your father's sons. They were better men than you are. ¹⁴ So now the Lord will send terrible trouble on your people, including your children, your wives and everything that belongs to you. ¹⁵ You will have a bad disease. You will have terrible pain in your stomach that becomes worse and worse. Finally, your inside parts will come out of your body.” ’

¹⁶ There were some Philistines and Arabs who lived near people from Ethiopia. The Lord caused them to be angry with Jehoram. ¹⁷ They attacked Judah and they took power over the land. They took away all the valuable things in the king's palace. They took his sons and his wives as their prisoners. The only son of Jehoram that remained was his youngest son, Ahaziah.^[d]

Jehoram dies

¹⁸ After all this happened, the Lord caused Jehoram to have a bad disease in his stomach. He could not become well again. ¹⁹ He was very ill for two years, and then his inside parts came out because of the illness. So he had a lot of pain until he died. His people did not make a big fire to give him honour, as they had done for his ancestors.

²⁰ Jehoram was 32 years old when he started to rule. He ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. When he died, nobody was sad. They buried him in the City of David, but not in the place where they had buried the other kings.

Ahaziah becomes king of Judah

22 The people who lived in Jerusalem chose Jehoram's youngest son, Ahaziah, to become king. The group of men who came into the city with the Arabs had killed all Jehoram's older sons. So Jehoram's son Ahaziah became the king of Judah.

² Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was Athaliah. She was a granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel.^[e]

³ Ahaziah lived in the same bad way that Ahab's family had done. His mother taught him to do wicked things. ⁴ He did things that the Lord said were evil, as Ahab's family had done. Ahab's family became advisors to Ahaziah after his father died, and they caused Ahaziah's death. ⁵ They told him to join with Ahab's son, King Joram of Israel, to fight against King Hazael of Syria. They fought a battle at Ramoth Gilead. The Syrian army won the fight and they hurt King Joram. ⁶ Joram returned to Jezreel, so that his wounds could get better after the battle. While he was there, King Ahaziah of Judah went to visit him, because of his wounds.

Jehu kills Ahaziah and his people

⁷ When Ahaziah visited Joram, God used it to cause Ahaziah's death. When Ahaziah arrived, he went with Joram to meet Nimshi's son Jehu. But the Lord had chosen Jehu to kill all Ahab's family. ⁸ While Jehu was destroying Ahab's family, he met some of the officers of Judah who had come with Ahaziah. Jehu killed them, as well as some of Ahaziah's relatives who had travelled with him. ⁹ Then he went to look for Ahaziah. Jehu's men caught him in the city of Samaria, where he was hiding. They took him to Jehu. Then they punished him with death. They buried him properly, because they said, ‘He was the grandson of King Jehoshaphat who served the Lord faithfully.’

Now there was nobody in Ahaziah's family who had the authority to rule Judah as king.

Athaliah rules Judah

¹⁰ Ahaziah's mother Athaliah heard the news that her son was dead. So she started to kill everyone in Judah's royal family.

¹¹ But King Jehoram's daughter Jehosheba rescued Ahaziah's son Joash. When Athaliah's servants had come to murder the royal sons, Jehosheba took Joash away and she hid him. She put him in a bedroom in the temple with his nurse. Jehosheba was Ahaziah's sister and she was the wife of Jehoiada, the priest. So she hid Joash from Athaliah to stop her from killing him. ¹² Joash stayed safely in a room in God's temple while Queen Athaliah ruled Judah for six years.

Joash becomes king of Judah

23 In the seventh year that Queen Athaliah ruled Judah, the priest Jehoiada decided to be brave. He made an agreement with some officers in the army. Each of these men had authority over 100 soldiers. They were: Jeroham's son Azariah, Jehohanan's son Ishmael, Obed's son Azariah, Adaiah's son Maaseiah and Zikri's son Elishaphat. ² They travelled around all the land of Judah. They brought together the Levites from the different cities and the leaders of Israel's clans. They all came to Jerusalem. ³ They met together in God's temple to make a promise to the new king.

Jehoiada said to them, ‘Here is the king's son.^[f] He must become king, as the Lord promised that David's descendants would be. ⁴ This is what you must do: The priests and Levites who come to work on the Sabbath day must make three groups. One group must be guards who watch at the doors of the temple. ⁵ Another group will watch at the king's palace. The third group will stand at the Foundation Gate. All the other men will stand in the yards around the Lord's temple. ⁶ Only the priests and the Levites who have work there on that day may go into the Lord's temple. They may go in because they have made themselves clean to serve God. All the other people must do the jobs that the Lord has given to them. ⁷ The Levites must stand around the king. Each man must hold his weapon in his hand. If anyone tries to come into the temple, you must kill them. You must stay near to the king everywhere that he goes.’

⁸ The Levites and all the men of Judah did what Jehoiada the priest told them to do. Each officer brought his group of men. That included the men who worked on the Sabbath and those who did not. Jehoiada the priest did not allow any of the groups of men to go home. ⁹ Then Jehoiada gave some weapons that were in God's temple to the officers. He gave them the spears and the shields that had belonged to King David. ¹⁰ Then he put the men in their proper places around the king. They all held their weapons in their hands. They stood in a line from the south side of the temple to the north side. They were around the altar at the front of the temple.

¹¹ Jehoiada and his sons brought the king's son out of the temple room. They put the crown onto Joash's head. They gave him a copy of the royal covenant. They poured olive oil on his head to show that he was now the king. They shouted, ‘May the king have a long life!’

Queen Athaliah dies

¹² Queen Athaliah heard the soldiers and the people as they shouted and praised the new king. So she went to the Lord's temple where all the people were. ¹³ Then she saw the king! He was standing in the king's place beside the pillar at the entrance of the temple.^[g] The army officers and the men with trumpets were standing beside the king. All the people of Judah were shouting with joy. There were musicians making music with trumpets and other musical instruments. They helped the people to sing and to praise God.

When Athaliah saw this, she was very upset. She tore her clothes. She shouted, ‘Treason! Treason!’^[h]

¹⁴ Jehoiada the priest sent a message to the army officers who had authority over groups of 100 soldiers. He told them, ‘Bring her out of the temple to the line of guards outside. Use your swords to kill anyone who follows her.’ That was because Jehoiada had said, ‘You must not kill her inside the Lord's temple.’ ¹⁵ So they took hold of Athaliah. They took her through the gate for the king's horses into the yard of the palace. They killed her there.

Jehoiada helps the people to serve God

¹⁶ Jehoiada prepared a covenant with the Lord. He, all the people and the king agreed to serve the Lord as his people. ¹⁷ All the people went to the temple of Baal. They destroyed it. They completely knocked down its altars and idols. They killed Baal's priest, Mattan, in front of Baal's altars.

¹⁸ Then Jehoiada gave jobs to the priests and the Levites to do in the Lord's temple. That was the work that King David had told them to do in the temple. They had to offer burnt offerings as sacrifices to the Lord, and they had to praise him with happy songs. They did the things that Moses had written in God's law and that David had taught. ¹⁹ Jehoiada put guards at the gates of the Lord's temple. They would stop anyone who was unclean from going in.

²⁰ Jehoiada called together the officers of army groups, the important men, the government officers and all the other people. Jehoiada led them all to bring the king down from the Lord's temple into the palace. They went into the palace through the Higher Gate. They put Joash on the royal throne as king.

²¹ All the people were very happy. There was no longer any trouble in Jerusalem now that they had killed Athaliah as her punishment.

Joash rules Judah as king

24 Joash was seven years old when he became the king of Judah. He ruled in Jerusalem for 40 years. His mother was Zibiah, who came from Beersheba. ² Joash did things that pleased the Lord. He continued to do that all the time that Jehoiada the priest was alive. ³ Jehoiada chose two women for Joash to marry. She gave birth to sons and daughters for him.

⁴ After some time, Joash decided to repair the Lord's temple. ⁵ He brought together the priests and the Levites. He told them, ‘Go around to all the towns in Judah. Bring here all the money that Israel's people offer each year for the temple. We will use it to repair the temple of your God. Go quickly and do it now!’

But the Levites did not do it immediately.

⁶ So the king told Jehoiada, the leader of the priests, to come to him. He said to him, ‘You have not told the Levites to bring the money that the people of Judah and Jerusalem have given. Why have you not done that? The Lord's servant Moses and all Israel's people made the rule that people should give the money each year. It would be a tax to help with the tent of God's covenant.’^[i]

⁷ The sons of wicked Queen Athaliah had broken the door of God's temple. They had gone in there and they had taken the holy things. They had used them to worship the idols of Baal. That is why Joash wanted to repair the Lord's temple.

People bring money to the temple

⁸ The king told the Levites to make a big box. They put it outside the gate of the Lord's temple. ⁹ Then he sent a command to everyone in Jerusalem and in the rest of Judah. He told them to bring the money to pay their tax to the Lord. That was the tax that God's servant Moses had told the Israelites that they should pay when they were in the wilderness. ¹⁰ All the officers and all the people were happy to give this money. They brought it to Jerusalem and they threw it into the box, until the box was full. ¹¹ Every time that the box became full of money, the Levites took it to the king's officers. Then the king's secretary and the officer who served the leader of the priests took the money out of the box. Then they put the box outside the temple gate again. They did that every day, so that they had a lot of money.

¹² The king and Jehoiada gave the money to the men who would take care of the work on the Lord's temple. They paid men who could work with stone and wood to repair the temple. They also paid men who knew how to work with iron and bronze for this work.

¹³ These workers worked well so that they soon finished the work. They built the temple to be very strong, in the way that it should be. ¹⁴ When they had finished, there was some money that remained. So the workers took the money to the king and to Jehoiada. They decided to make tools to use in the temple. There were things that the priests used to serve the Lord in the temple, and to offer burnt offerings. They used gold and silver to make dishes and other things. While Jehoiada was still alive, the priests always made burnt offerings as sacrifices to the Lord in his temple.

¹⁵ But Jehoiada became very old and he died when he was 130 years old. ¹⁶ They buried him beside the kings in the City of David. They gave him that honour, because he had done many good things in Israel for God and for the temple.

Joash and the people turn away from the Lord

¹⁷ After Jehoiada died, the important officers of Judah came to the king. They bent down low in front of him to give him honour. The king listened to their advice. ¹⁸ They stopped worshipping the Lord, the God of their ancestors, in his temple. Instead, they worshipped Asherah poles and idols. So God became very angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem, because they were guilty of these sins. ¹⁹ The Lord sent his prophets to tell the people to turn back to him. They warned the people, but the people would not listen to them.

²⁰ Then God's Spirit came to Jehoiada's son Zechariah with power. Zechariah stood in front of the people and he said, ‘This is what God says: “You are not obeying the Lord's commands. So nothing will go well for you. You have turned away from the Lord, so now he has turned away from you!” ’

²¹ The people decided to punish Zechariah. The king gave a command to punish him with death. So they threw stones at him to kill him in the yard of the Lord's temple. ²² King Joash forgot that Zechariah's father Jehoiada had been a faithful servant. He killed Jehoiada's son. Zechariah said, as he was dying, ‘I pray that the Lord sees what you have done! May he punish you because of it!’

Joash dies

²³ At the end of that year, Syria's army attacked Judah and Jerusalem, where Joash lived. They killed all the leaders of Judah's people. They took many valuable things to send to their king in Damascus. ²⁴ Syria's army was very small but the Lord gave them power over Judah's large army. He did that because Judah's people had turned away from the Lord, the God of their ancestors. Syria's army punished Joash as he deserved.

^25-26 Joash had received bad wounds in the battle. When Syria's army went away, Joash's officers decided to kill him. They were angry because he had killed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest. So they murdered him in his bed. The two officers who did this were Zabad and Jehozabad. Zabad's mother was Shimeath, who came from Ammon. Jehozabad's mother was Shimrith, who came from Moab.

Joash's people buried him in the City of David. But they did not bury him beside the graves of the other kings.

²⁷ The things that happened while Joash was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of the kings’. It includes a list of Joash's sons, and the many messages that prophets spoke about him. It also includes a report of the work which he did on God's temple.

Joash's son Amaziah became king after him.