2 Chronicles 24

1Joash was seven years old when he began to reign and reigned forty years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Zibiah from Beersheba.

2Joash did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

3Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he fathered sons and daughters.

4After this Joash set his heart to repair the house of Yahweh.

5He gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go to the cities of Judah and gather silver from all Israel to repair the house of your God year by year; you hurry this matter.” But the Levites did not hurry.

6The king called Jehoiada the chief and said to him, "Why haven't you required the Levites to bring from Judah and from Jerusalem the collection of Moses the servant of Yahweh and of the assembly of Israel for the tent of the testimony?"

7For Athaliah's sons, that wicked woman, had broken into God's house, and they had also given all the dedicated things of Yahweh's house to the Baals.

8The king commanded, and they made one chest and set it outside at the gate of the house of Yahweh.

9They issued a call throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring to Yahweh the levy Moses, God's servant, had imposed on Israel in the wilderness.

10All the leaders and all the people rejoiced and brought it and cast it into the chest until they had finished.

11It came about that whenever the Levites brought the chest to the king's oversight, and when they saw the money was abundant, the king's scribe and the chief priest's officer came, emptied the chest, lifted it, and returned it to its place. Thus they did day by day, gathering money in abundance.

12The king and Jehoiada gave it to those doing the work of the service of Yahweh's house, and they hired cutters and craftsmen to renew Yahweh's house, and also craftsmen of iron and bronze to strengthen Yahweh's house.

13The workmen accomplished the work, and the work progressed perfectly in their hands, and they set up the house of God according to its measure and strengthened it.

14When they finished, they brought the remaining silver before the king and Jehoiada, from which they made vessels for Yahweh's house—service vessels and vessels for offering up, pans, and vessels of gold and silver—and they offered burnt offerings in Yahweh's house continually all the days of Jehoiada.

15Jehoiada grew old and had his fill of days, and he died at the age of one hundred thirty years.

16They buried him in the city of David with the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and his house.

17After Jehoiada's death, the princes of Judah came and bowed to the king. Then the king listened to them.

18They abandoned the house of Yahweh, God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of this guilt of theirs.

19He sent prophets to them to return them to Yahweh, and they admonished them, but they did not listen.

20The Spirit of God clothed Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest; he stood over the people and said to them, "Thus says God: Why are you transgressing Yahweh's commandments, to no success? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has forsaken you."

21They conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the king's command in the courtyard of Yahweh's house.

22King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada his father had shown him, but killed his son. As he died, he said, "May Yahweh see and require."

23At the turn of the year Aram's army came up against him; they arrived in Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the people's chiefs from their very midst, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus.

24For the army of Aram came with a small band of men, and Yahweh delivered a vast force into their hands because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and carried out judgments against Joash.

25When they went away from him—for they had forsaken him in many diseases—his servants conspired against him over the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, killed him on his bed, and he died; they buried him in the city of David, but did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

26These were the conspirators against him: Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite.

27His sons and the abundance that multiplied the burden upon him, and the repairing of God's house—behold, they are written in the exposition of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.