2 Wafalme 12

¹Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.^a

Jehoash king of Judah

²In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba.^{b 3}Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.^{c 4}The high places, however, were not removed. The people still offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places. ⁵Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money from the holy gifts that is brought into the house of the LORD, the money of those who are counted, the money for persons at the value set for each, and all the money anyone is moved to bring into the house of the LORD,^{d 6}let the priests take it, each from the people he knows, and let them repair the damage to the house wherever any damage is found.”^e

Repairs to the temple

⁷But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests still had not repaired the damage to the house. ⁸So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the damage to the house? From now on take no more money from the people you know. Hand it over for the damage to the house.” ⁹The priests agreed that they would take no more money from the people and would not be the ones to repair the damage to the house. ¹⁰Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid. He placed it next to the altar, on the right side as people enter the house of the LORD. The priests who guarded the doorway put into it all the money brought into the house of the LORD. ¹¹Each time they saw that the chest held a large sum, the king’s secretary and the high priest came up. They tied up in bags the money found in the house of the LORD and counted it. ¹²Then they gave the weighed money to the men doing the work, who had been put in charge of the house of the LORD. These paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who were working on the house of the LORD, ¹³and to the masons and the stonecutters. With it they also bought timber and dressed stone for mending the house of the LORD, and paid every other cost of the repairs. ¹⁴But none of the money brought into the house of the LORD was used to make silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any other articles of gold or silver for the house of the LORD, ¹⁵for it was given to the men doing the work, who used it to repair the house of the LORD. ¹⁶No accounting was asked of the men who were handed the money to pay the workmen, because those men dealt honestly. ¹⁷The money from guilt offerings and from sin offerings did not go into the house of the LORD. It was for the priests.

Hazael threatens Jerusalem

¹⁸At that time Hazael king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it. Then Hazael turned to go up against Jerusalem. ¹⁹So Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy gifts that his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had dedicated, along with his own holy gifts and all the gold there was in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king’s palace, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. Then Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem. ²⁰The rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. ²¹His officials rose up and formed a conspiracy, and they struck down Joash at Beth-millo, on the road that goes down to Silla.^{f 22}It was his officials Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer who struck him down, and he died. He was buried with his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Amaziah became king in his place.