Old/New Testament

23 In the seventh year of the reign of Queen Athaliah, Jehoiada the priest got up his courage and took some of the army officers into his confidence: Azariah (son of Jeroham), Ishmael (son of Jehohanan), Azariah (son of Obed), Maaseiah (son of Adaiah), and Elishaphat (son of Zichri). ^2-3 These men traveled out across the nation secretly to tell the Levites and clan leaders about his plans and to summon them to Jerusalem. On arrival they swore allegiance to the young king, who was still in hiding at the Temple.

“At last the time has come for the king’s son to reign!” Jehoiada exclaimed. “The Lord’s promise—that a descendant of King David shall be our king—will be true again. ⁴ This is how we’ll proceed: A third of you priests and Levites who come off duty on the Sabbath will stay at the entrance as guards. ^5-6 Another third will go over to the palace, and a third will be at the Lower Gate. Everyone else must stay in the outer courts of the Temple, as required by God’s laws. For only the priests and Levites on duty may enter the Temple itself, for they are sanctified. ⁷ You Levites, form a bodyguard for the king, weapons in hand, and kill any unauthorized person entering the Temple. Stay right beside the king.”

⁸ So all the arrangements were made. Each of the three leaders led a third of the priests arriving for duty that Sabbath, and a third of those whose week’s work was done and were going off duty—for Jehoiada the chief priest didn’t release them to go home. ⁹ Then Jehoiada issued spears and shields to all the army officers. These had once belonged to King David and were stored in the Temple. ¹⁰ These officers, fully armed, formed a line from one side to the other in front of the Temple and around the altar in the outer court. ¹¹ Then they brought out the little prince and placed the crown upon his head, and handed him a copy of the law of God, and proclaimed him king.

A great shout went up, “Long live the king!” as Jehoiada and his sons anointed him.

¹² When Queen Athaliah heard all the noise and commotion and the shouts of praise to the king, she rushed over to the Temple to see what was going on—and there stood the king by his pillar at the entrance, with the army officers and the trumpeters surrounding him, and people from all over the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers singing, accompanied by an orchestra leading the people in a great psalm of praise.

Athaliah ripped her clothes and screamed, “Treason! Treason!”

^13-14 “Take her out and kill her,” Jehoiada the priest shouted to the army officers. “Don’t do it here at the Temple. And kill anyone who tries to help her.”

^15-17 So the crowd opened up for them to take her out, and they killed her at the palace stables.

Then Jehoiada made a solemn contract that he and the king and the people would be the Lord’s. And all the people rushed over to the temple of Baal and knocked it down, and broke up the altars, and knocked down the idols, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before his altar. ¹⁸ Jehoiada now appointed the Levite priests as guards, and to sacrifice the burnt offering to the Lord as prescribed in the law of Moses. He made the identical assignments of the Levite clans that King David had. They sang with joy as they worked. ¹⁹ The guards at the Temple gates kept out everything that was not consecrated and all unauthorized personnel.

²⁰ Then the army officers, nobles, governors, and all the people escorted the king from the Temple, wending their way from the Upper Gate to the palace, and seated the king upon his throne. ²¹ So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet and peaceful because Queen Athaliah was dead.

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.

15 “I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Gardener. ² He lops off every branch that doesn’t produce. And he prunes those branches that bear fruit for even larger crops. ³ He has already tended you by pruning you back for greater strength and usefulness by means of the commands I gave you. ⁴ Take care to live in me, and let me live in you. For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from me.

⁵ “Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing. ⁶ If anyone separates from me, he is thrown away like a useless branch, withers, and is gathered into a pile with all the others and burned. ⁷ But if you stay in me and obey my commands, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! ⁸ My true disciples produce bountiful harvests. This brings great glory to my Father.

⁹ “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Live within my love. ¹⁰ When you obey me you are living in my love, just as I obey my Father and live in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your cup of joy will overflow! ¹² I demand that you love each other as much as I love you. ¹³ And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when a person lays down his life for his friends; ¹⁴ and you are my friends if you obey me. ¹⁵ I no longer call you slaves, for a master doesn’t confide in his slaves; now you are my friends, proved by the fact that I have told you everything the Father told me.

¹⁶ “You didn’t choose me! I chose you! I appointed you to go and produce lovely fruit always, so that no matter what you ask for from the Father, using my name, he will give it to you. ¹⁷ I demand that you love each other, ¹⁸ for you get enough hate from the world! But then, it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ The world would love you if you belonged to it; but you don’t—for I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you. ²⁰ Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave isn’t greater than his master!’ So since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you! ²¹ The people of the world will persecute you because you belong to me, for they don’t know God who sent me.

²² “They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Anyone hating me is also hating my Father. ²⁴ If I hadn’t done such mighty miracles among them they would not be counted guilty. But as it is, they saw these miracles and yet they hated both of us—me and my Father. ²⁵ This has fulfilled what the prophets said concerning the Messiah, ‘They hated me without reason.’

²⁶ “But I will send you the Comforter—the Holy Spirit, the source of all truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me. ²⁷ And you also must tell everyone about me because you have been with me from the beginning.