Chronological

Jehoash/Joash Reigns in Judah

12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king. He reigned in Jerusalem forty years, and the name of his mother was Zibiah from Beersheba. ² Jehoash did right in the eyes of Yahweh all of his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³ Only the high places were not removed; the people were still making sacrifices and offering incense on the high places.

Temple Repairs Planned

⁴ Jehoash said to the priests, “All of the money for the sacred things that is brought to the temple of Yahweh, the money taxed at its proper value for each person^[a] and all of the money which comes upon the heart of a man to bring to the temple of Yahweh, ⁵ let the priests take for themselves, each from his treasurers, and let them repair the breach of the temple for every place where damage is found.”

⁶ It happened in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash that the priests had not repaired the damage in the temple. ⁷ So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the priests, and he said to them, “Why are you not repairing the damage in the temple? Now, you shall not take money from your treasurers for the damage in the temple. You must provide it.” ⁸ So the priests agreed not to take money from the people and not to repair the damage to the temple.

⁹ Then Jehoiada the priest took a certain chest and bored a hole in its lid, and he put it beside the altar to the right as a man enters into the temple of Yahweh; then the priests who were keepers of the threshold would put there all of the money brought into the temple. ¹⁰ It happened that when they saw a great deal of money in the chest, the secretary of the king and the high priest would come up, put the money in bags, then count the money found in the temple of Yahweh. ¹¹ They placed the money, which was weighed out, into the hands of the workers who were appointed over the temple of Yahweh, and they paid it to the skilled craftsmen of wood and to the builders working on the temple of Yahweh ¹² and to the masons and the stonecutters, to buy timber and stones for hewing, in order to repair the damage of the temple of Yahweh, and for all who went to the temple to repair it. ¹³ Only, for the temple of Yahweh, there were not any silver basins, snuffers, bowls for drinking wine, trumpets, or any vessel of gold or silver from the money being brought to the temple of Yahweh. ¹⁴ For they gave that to all the workers, and they repaired the temple^[b] of Yahweh with it. ¹⁵ They did not have to settle accounts with the men into whose hands they placed the money to give to the workers, for they were dealing honestly. ¹⁶ The money of the guilt offering and the money of the sin offering was not brought into the temple^[c] of Yahweh, but were each for the priests.

Hazael Threatens Judah

¹⁷ At that time, Hazael king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it; then Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem. ¹⁸ Jehoash king of Judah took all of the holy objects that Jehoshaphat, Joram, and Ahaziah his ancestors,^[d] the kings of Judah, had devoted, and all his holy objects and all of the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of Yahweh, and in the palace of the king, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, so that he went up from Jerusalem.

¹⁹ Now the remainder of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? ²⁰ Then his servants arose and conspired and killed Joash in the house of the Millo as he was going down toward Silla. ²¹ Jozabad^[e] the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him and killed him, so they buried him with his ancestors^[f] in the city of David. Then Amaziah his son became king in his place.

Jehoahaz and Jehoash in Israel

13 In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu became king over Israel in Samaria, reigning seventeen years. ² But he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and he went after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat with which he had caused Israel to sin, and he did not depart from it. ³ So the anger of Yahweh was kindled^[g] against Israel, and he gave them into the hand of Hazael king of Aram and into the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael repeatedly.^{[h] 4} Then Jehoahaz entreated Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him, for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Aram oppressed them. ⁵ Yahweh gave Israel a savior, and they went out from under the hand of Aram. So the Israelites^[i] lived in their tents as formerly.^{[j] 6} Yet they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam which he caused Israel to sin, but walked in it; and also, the pole of the Asherah worship was still standing in Samaria. ⁷ For there was no army left over for Jehoahaz except for fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry, for the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them as the dust at threshing. ⁸ Now the remainder of the acts of Jehoahaz and all that he did and his powerful deeds, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel? ⁹ Then Jehoahaz slept with his ancestors^[k] and they buried him in Samaria, and Jehoash his son became king in his place.

¹⁰ In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz became king over Israel in Samaria, reigning sixteen years. ¹¹ He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh; he did not depart from all of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which he caused Israel to sin, but walked in it. ¹² The remainder of the acts of Joash^[l] and all that he did, his powerful deeds, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel? ¹³ Then Joash slept with his ancestors,^[m] and Jeroboam sat on his throne. Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

Elisha Passes Away

¹⁴ Elisha became ill with the illness with which he would die, so Jehoash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, and said, “My father, my father; the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” ¹⁵ Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows,” so he took him a bow and arrows. ¹⁶ He said to the king of Israel, “Lay your hand on the bow,”^[n] so he lay hold of it; then Elisha put his hand on the hands of the king. ¹⁷ Then he said, “Open the window to the east,” so he opened it. Elisha said, “Shoot,” and he shot. Then he said, “An arrow of victory for Yahweh, and an arrow of victory against Aram; you shall fight the Arameans in Aphek until finishing them.” ¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” so he took them. He said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground,” so he struck three times and stopped. ¹⁹ Yet the man of God became angry against him and said, “For striking five or six times, then you would have defeated Aram until finishing them, but now you will defeat Aram only three times.”

²⁰ Elisha died and they buried him. Now the raiding parties of Moab came in the spring.^{[o] 21} And it happened that they were burying a man; suddenly they saw the marauding band, so they threw the man in the grave of Elisha. As he went in, the man touched the bones of Elisha, and became alive and got up on his feet!

²² Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. ²³ But Yahweh had mercy on them and showed compassion to them and turned to them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was not willing to destroy them nor cast them from his presence up to now.

²⁴ When Hazael king of Aram died, his son Ben-Hadad became king in his place. ²⁵ Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz returned and took the cities from the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael which he had taken from the hand of Jehoahaz his father in the war. Three times Jehoash defeated him and recovered the towns of Israel.

Joash Repairs the Temple

24 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Zibiah from Beersheba. ² And Joash did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh all the days of Jehoiada the priest. ³ And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he fathered sons and daughters.

⁴ And afterward it was in the heart of Joash to repair the house of Yahweh. ⁵ So he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and gather money from all Israel to strengthen the house of your God sufficiently year by year. Now you yourselves must hasten to the matter.” But the Levites did not act with haste. ⁶ So the king called Jehoiada the chief, and he said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax of Moses, the servant of Yahweh, and of the assembly of Israel for the tent of the testimony?” ⁷ For the sons of the wicked Athaliah had broken into the house of God and had used all the holy vessels of the house of Yahweh for the Baals.

⁸ Then the king commanded, and they made a chest and put it at the gate outside the house of Yahweh. ⁹ And they issued a proclamation^[a] in Judah and in Jerusalem to bring to Yahweh the tax that Moses the servant of God had levied upon Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰ And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and they brought their tax and threw it into the chest until it was finished. ¹¹ And whenever he brought the chest to the appointee of the king by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money in it, then the secretary of the king and the officer of the chief priest came and emptied the chest, then they took it and returned it to its place. Thus they did day by day and gathered money in abundance. 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 stonemasons and skilled craftsmen to restore the house of Yahweh, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of Yahweh. ¹³ So those doing the work labored, and the restoration for the work made progress under their hand. And they restored the house of God to its position and strengthened it. ¹⁴ And when they had finished, they brought the remainder of the money before the king and Jehoiada, and they used it for objects for the house of Yahweh, objects for the service and the burnt offerings, dishes, and objects of gold and silver. And they were offering burnt offerings in the house of Yahweh regularly, all the days of Jehoiada.

¹⁵ And Jehoiada grew old and full of days, and he died; he was one hundred and thirty years old at his death. ¹⁶ And they buried him in the city of David with the kings, for he did good in Israel and with respect to God and his house.

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them. ¹⁸ And they forsook the house of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors^[b] and served the Asherahs and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem on account of this guilt. ¹⁹ But he sent prophets among them, to bring them back to Yahweh. And they testified against them, and they did not obey.

²⁰ Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus says God: ‘Why are you transgressing the commandments of Yahweh so that you will not succeed? For you have forsaken Yahweh, so he will forsake you.’” ²¹ Then they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the command of the king in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh. ²² So King Joash did not remember the loyal love that Jehoiada had shown to him, and he killed his son. And as he was dying he said, “May Yahweh see and avenge!”

The Death of Joash

²³ And it happened at the turn of the year that the army of Aram^[c] went up against him, and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the commanders of the people from among the people, and all the war booty they sent to the king of Damascus. ²⁴ Though the army of Aram^[d] came with few men, Yahweh gave a very large army into their hand, for they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.^[e] And they inflicted punishment on Joash.

²⁵ And when they were going away from him (for they had left him with many wounds), his servants conspired against him on account of the blood of the sons^[f] of Jehoiada the priest. So they killed him on his bed and he died. And they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him at the burial sites of the kings. ²⁶ Now these are the ones who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath, the Ammonite, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith, the Moabite. ²⁷ And as for his sons, the many oracles against him, and his repair of the foundation of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the scroll of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.