Chronological

12 It was seven years after Jehu had become the king of Israel that Joash became king of Judah. He reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. (His mother was Zibiah, from Beersheba.) ² All his life Joash did what was right because Jehoiada the High Priest instructed him. ³ Yet even so he didn’t destroy the shrines on the hills—the people still sacrificed and burned incense there.

^4-5 One day King Joash said to Jehoiada, “The Temple building needs repairing. Whenever anyone brings a contribution to the Lord, whether it is a regular assessment or some special gift, use it to pay for whatever repairs are needed.”

⁶ But in the twenty-third year of his reign the Temple was still in disrepair. ⁷ So Joash called for Jehoiada and the other priests and asked them, “Why haven’t you done anything about the Temple? Now don’t use any more money for your own needs; from now on it must all be spent on getting the Temple into good condition.”

⁸ So the priests agreed to set up a special repair fund that would not go through their hands, lest it be diverted to care for their personal needs. ⁹ Jehoiada the priest bored a hole in the lid of a large chest and set it on the right-hand side of the altar at the Temple entrance. The doorkeepers put all of the people’s contributions into it. ¹⁰ Whenever the chest became full, the king’s financial secretary and the High Priest counted it, put it into bags, ^11-12 and gave it to the construction superintendents to pay the carpenters, stonemasons, quarrymen, timber dealers, and stone merchants, and to buy the other materials needed to repair the Temple of the Lord. ^13-14 It was not used to buy silver cups, gold snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or similar articles, but only for repairs to the building. ¹⁵ No accounting was required from the construction superintendents, for they were honest and faithful men. ¹⁶ However, the money that was contributed for guilt offerings and sin offerings was given to the priests for their own use. It was not put into the chest.

¹⁷ About this time, King Hazael of Syria went to war against Gath and captured it; then he moved on toward Jerusalem to attack it. ¹⁸ King Joash took all the sacred objects that his ancestors—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—had dedicated, along with what he himself had dedicated, and all the gold in the treasuries of the Temple and the palace, and sent it to Hazael. So Hazael called off the attack.

¹⁹ The rest of the history of Joash is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. ²⁰ But his officers plotted against him and assassinated him in his royal residence at Millo on the road to Silla. ²¹ The assassins were Jozachar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer—both trusted aides.^[a] He was buried in the royal cemetery in Jerusalem, and his son Amaziah became the new king.

13 Jehoahaz (the son of Jehu) began a seventeen-year reign over Israel during the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash of Judah. ² But he was an evil king, and he followed the wicked paths of Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin. ³ So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and he continually allowed King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-hadad to conquer them.

⁴ But Jehoahaz prayed for the Lord’s help, and the Lord listened to him; for the Lord saw how terribly the king of Syria was oppressing Israel. ⁵ So the Lord raised up leaders among the Israelis to rescue them from the tyranny of the Syrians; and then Israel lived in safety again as they had in former days. ⁶ But they continued to sin, following the evil ways of Jeroboam; and they continued to worship the goddess Asherah at Samaria. ⁷ Finally the Lord reduced Jehoahaz’s army to fifty mounted troops, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry; for the king of Syria had destroyed the others as though they were dust beneath his feet.

⁸ The rest of the history of Jehoahaz is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

^9-10 Jehoahaz died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Joash reigned in Samaria for sixteen years. He came to the throne in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of King Joash of Judah. ¹¹ But he was an evil man, for, like Jeroboam, he encouraged the people to worship idols and led them into sin. ¹² The rest of the history of the reign of Joash, including his wars against King Amaziah of Judah, are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. ¹³ Joash died and was buried in Samaria with the other kings of Israel; and Jeroboam II became the new king.

¹⁴ When Elisha was in his last illness, King Joash visited him and wept over him.

“My father! My father! You are the strength of Israel!”^[b] he cried.

¹⁵ Elisha told him, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did.

^16-17 “Open that eastern window,” he instructed. Then he told the king to put his hand upon the bow, and Elisha laid his own hands upon the king’s hands.

“Shoot!” Elisha commanded, and he did.

Then Elisha proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s arrow, full of victory over Syria; for you will completely conquer the Syrians at Aphek. ¹⁸ Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the floor.”

So the king picked them up and struck the floor three times. ¹⁹ But the prophet was angry with him. “You should have struck the floor five or six times,” he exclaimed, “for then you would have beaten Syria until they were entirely destroyed; now you will be victorious only three times.”

^20-21 So Elisha died and was buried.

In those days bandit gangs of Moabites used to invade the land each spring. Once some men who were burying a friend spied these marauders so they hastily threw his body into the tomb of Elisha. And as soon as the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet!

²² King Hazael of Syria had oppressed Israel during the entire reign of King Jehoahaz. ²³ But the Lord was gracious to the people of Israel, and they were not totally destroyed. For God pitied them, and also he was honoring his contract with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this is still true. ²⁴ Then King Hazael of Syria died, and his son Ben-hadad reigned in his place.

²⁵ King Joash of Israel^[c] (the son of Jehoahaz) was successful on three occasions in reconquering the cities that his father had lost to Ben-hadad.

24 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, from Beersheba. ² Joash tried hard to please the Lord all during the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest. ³ Jehoiada arranged two marriages for him, and he had sons and daughters.

⁴ Later on Joash decided to repair and recondition the Temple. ⁵ He summoned the priests and Levites and gave them these instructions:

“Go to all the cities of Judah and collect offerings for the building fund so that we can maintain the Temple in good repair. Get at it right away. Don’t delay.” But the Levites took their time.

⁶ So the king called for Jehoiada the High Priest and asked him, “Why haven’t you demanded that the Levites go out and collect the Temple taxes from the cities of Judah and from Jerusalem? The tax law enacted by Moses the servant of the Lord must be enforced so that the Temple can be repaired.”

^7-8 (The followers of wicked Athaliah had ravaged the Temple, and everything dedicated to the worship of God had been removed to the temple of Baalim.) So now the king instructed that a chest be made and set outside the Temple gate. ⁹ Then a proclamation was sent to all the cities of Judah and throughout Jerusalem telling the people to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had assessed upon Israel. ¹⁰ And all the leaders and the people were glad, and brought the money and placed it in the chest until it was full.

¹¹ Then the Levites carried the chest to the king’s accounting office, where the recording secretary and the representative of the High Priest counted the money and took the chest back to the Temple again. This went on day after day, and money continued to pour in. ¹² The king and Jehoiada gave the money to the building superintendents, who hired masons and carpenters to restore the Temple, and to foundrymen, who made articles of iron and brass. ¹³ So the work went forward, and finally the Temple was in much better condition than before. ¹⁴ When all was finished, the remaining money was brought to the king and Jehoiada, and it was agreed to use it for making the gold and silver spoons and bowls used for incense, and for making the instruments used in the sacrifices and offerings.

Burnt offerings were sacrificed continually during the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest. ¹⁵ He lived to a very old age, finally dying at 130. ¹⁶ He was buried in the City of David among the kings because he had done so much good for Israel, for God, and for the Temple.

^17-18 But after his death, the leaders of Judah came to King Joash and induced him to abandon the Temple of the God of their ancestors and to worship shameful idols instead! So the wrath of God came down upon Judah and Jerusalem again. ¹⁹ God sent prophets to bring them back to the Lord, but the people wouldn’t listen.

²⁰ Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son. He called a meeting of all the people. Standing before them upon a platform, he said to them, “God wants to know why you are disobeying his commandments. For when you do, everything you try fails. You have forsaken the Lord, and now he has forsaken you.”

²¹ Then the leaders plotted to kill Zechariah, and finally King Joash himself ordered him executed in the court of the Temple. ²² That was how King Joash repaid Jehoiada for his love and loyalty—by killing his son. Zechariah’s last words as he died were, “Lord, see what they are doing and pay them back.”

²³ A few months later the Syrian army arrived and conquered Judah and Jerusalem, killing all the leaders of the nation and sending back great quantities of booty to the king of Damascus. ²⁴ It was a great triumph for the tiny Syrian army, but the Lord let the great army of Judah be conquered by them because they had forsaken the Lord God of their ancestors. In that way God executed judgment upon Joash. ²⁵ When the Syrians left—leaving Joash severely wounded—his own officials decided to kill him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest. They assassinated him as he lay in bed, and buried him in the City of David, but not in the cemetery of the kings. ²⁶ The conspirators were Zabad, whose mother was Shimeath, a woman from Ammon; and Jehozabad, whose mother was Shimrith, a woman from Moab.

²⁷ If you want to read about the sons of Joash and the curses laid upon Joash, and about the restoration of the Temple, see The Annals of the Kings.

When Joash died, his son Amaziah became the new king.