Chronological

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.

Jehoahaz becomes the king of Israel

13 Jehu's son Jehoahaz became king of Israel when Ahaziah's son Joash had been king of Judah for 23 years. Jehoahaz ruled as king in Samaria for 17 years. ² But he did things that the Lord said were evil. He did the same bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam had caused many people in Israel to do those sins, and Jehoahaz did not stop doing them himself. ³ So the Lord was very angry with Israel. For many years the Lord put the Israelites under the power of King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-Hadad.

⁴ Then King Jehoahaz asked the Lord for help. The Lord saw that the king of Syria was being very cruel to Israel, so he answered the prayer of Jehoahaz. ⁵ The Lord sent a leader to rescue Israel from Syria's power. So the Israelites lived safely in their own homes, as they had done before this time. ⁶ But the Israelites still did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam and his family had done. Jeroboam had caused the Israelites to do bad things, and they still continued to do them. There were still Asherah poles that people worshipped in Samaria.

⁷ The king of Syria had destroyed most of Jehoahaz's army. All that remained were:

The king of Syria completely destroyed all the rest of the army. Only dust remained!

⁸ The other things that happened while Jehoahaz was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the things that Jehoahaz used his power to do. ⁹ Jehoahaz died and they buried him beside his ancestors in Samaria. His son Jehoash became king after him.

Jehoash becomes the king of Israel

¹⁰ Jehoahaz's son Jehoash became the king of Israel when Joash had been king of Judah for 37 years. He ruled as king in Samaria for 16 years. ¹¹ But he did things that the Lord said were evil. He did not turn away from the bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam had caused many people in Israel to do those sins, and Jehoahaz did not stop doing them himself.

¹² The other things that happened while Jehoash was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the great things that Jehoash did. It tells about the war that he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah ¹³ Jehoash died and they buried him in Samaria beside the other kings of Israel. Jeroboam became king of Israel after him.

Elisha dies

¹⁴ When Jehoash was still king of Israel, Elisha became very ill. It was the illness from which he would soon die. Jehoash went to visit him. Jehoash stood beside Elisha and he wept. Jehoash said, ‘My father! My father! You are riding in Israel's chariot! Israel's men are riding on the horses!’^[e]

¹⁵ Elisha said to King Jehoash, ‘Fetch a bow and some arrows.’ The king did that. ¹⁶ Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, ‘Prepare to shoot an arrow.’ When he had done that, Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. ¹⁷ Elisha said, ‘Open the window towards the east.’ When the king opened it, Elisha said, ‘Shoot the arrow!’ The king shot the arrow and Elisha said, ‘That is the Lord's arrow which shows that you will win the battle against Syria. You will completely destroy Syria's army at Aphek.’

¹⁸ Then Elisha said, ‘Pick up the other arrows.’ When the king of Israel took them, Elisha said to him, ‘Hit the ground with them.’ The king hit the ground three times and then he stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God then became angry with King Jehoash. He said, ‘You should have hit the ground five times or six times. Then you would have completely destroyed Syria's army. But now you will only win three battles against Syria.’

²⁰ After that, Elisha died and they buried him.

Every year in spring, groups of fighters from Moab came to attack places in Israel. ²¹ One day some Israelites were burying a man who had died. While they were doing that, they saw a group of fighters from Moab. So they quickly threw the dead body into Elisha's grave. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the dead man became alive again! He jumped up and he stood there!

²² All the time that Jehoahaz was king of Israel, King Hazael of Syria was cruel to the Israelites. ²³ But the Lord was kind to them and he helped them. He loved them because of his covenant with their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So he has never wanted to destroy them or to send them away from him, even until now.

²⁴ Hazael, the king of Syria, died. His son Ben-Hadad became king after him. ²⁵ Then Jehoahaz's son, King Jehoash, took back some Israelite cities from Ben-Hadad. They were cities that Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz in war. King Jehoash won three battles against Ben-Hadad and he took back those cities for Israel.

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.’^[a]

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.