2 Chronicles 24:1-27
24 Joash was seven years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned forty years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Sibjah, from Beer-Shebaʽ.
2 And Joash did what Jehovah approved all the lifetime of Priest Jehojadaʽ.
3 And Jehojadaʽ married him to two wives, and he begot sons and daughters.
4 And after this it came into Joash’s mind to renovate Jehovah’s house;
5 and he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them “Go out to the cities of Judah and gather money out of all Israel to repair the house of your God, year by year, and expedite the matter yourselves.”
6 But the Levites did not expedite it. And the king summoned Chief Jehojadaʽ and said to him “How comes it you have not required the Levites to bring in out of Israel the impost of Moses the man of God and the assembly of Israel for the tent of the Lessons?”
7 ** for wicked ʽAthaliah’s sons had breached the house of God, and had also used all the sacred things of Jehovah’s house for the Baals.
8 And the king gave directions and they made a chest and put it in the outer gate of Jehovah’s house,
9 and issued a proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for Jehovah the impost that God’s servant Moses laid on Israel in the wilderness;
10 and all the captains and all the people were happy and brought in and threw into the chest till they had finished.
11 And at the time of bringing the chest to the king’s commissioner by the Levites, and as they saw that the amount of money was great, the king’s secretary for documents and the chief priest’s officer came in and emptied the chest and carried it off and put it back in its place; thus they did day by day.
And they collected money in great quantity,
12 and the king and Jehojadaʽ gave it to the contractors for the work on Jehovah’s house, and they hired stonecutters and carpenters for renovating Jehovah’s house, and also blacksmiths and coppersmiths for repairing Jehovah’s house.
13 And the contractors went to work, and the job came into order in their hands, and they got the house of God standing as originally built and braced it.
14 And when they had finished they brought before the king and Jehojadaʽ the remainder of the money, and he made it into vessels for Jehovah’s house, ritual and sacrificial vessels and pans and gold and silver vessels. And they were offering burnt-offerings in Jehovah’s house regularly all Jehojadaʽ’s life.
15 And Jehojadaʽ grew old, had lived as long as he wanted to, and died at the age of a hundred and thirty years;
16 and they buried him in David’s City with the kings, because he had done good in Israel and by God and his house.
17 And after Jehojadaʽ’s death the captains of Judah came in and did reverence to the king. Then the king listened to them;
18 and they abandoned the house of their fathers’ God Jehovah, and worshiped the asherahs and the idols; and there was wrath against Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.
19 And he sent among them prophets to turn them back to Jehovah, and they protested to them, but they did not give ear to them.
20 And God’s spirit took possession of Priest Jehojadaʽ’s son Zecariah, and he stood above the people and said to them “Says God, Why are you violating Jehovah’s commandment? you will not prosper, because you have abandoned Jehovah and he has abandoned you.”
21 But they mobbed him and stoned him, by the king’s orders, in the court of Jehovah’s house;
22 and King Joash did not remember how his father Jehojadaʽ had befriended him, but killed his son. And as he died he said “Let Jehovah see it and see to it.”
23 * And at the turn of the year the Syrian forces came up against him, and came into Judah and Jerusalem and made away with all the captains of the people and sent the booty from them to the king of Damascus.
24 For the Syrian forces came in with insignificant numbers, and Jehovah gave very great forces into their hands because they had abandoned their fathers’ God Jehovah; and they executed judgments on Joash.
25 * And when they went away from him—for they left him badly hurt—his officers conspired against him for the blood of Priest Jehojadaʽ’s sons, and killed him in his bed; so he died, and they buried him in David’s City but did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.
26 And these are the ones who conspired against him: Zabad the son of an ʽAmmonite woman Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of a Moabite woman Shimrith.
27 * And his sons, and the volume of bodings against him, and the laying of foundations for the house of God, are recorded in the story of the book of the kings. And his son Amasiah succeeded him.
Footnotes
^ 24:7 (ʽAthaliah’s sons) Susp. Var. ʽAthaliah and her sons
^ 24:7 Or have breached the house of God, and have and put the closing quotation mark after this verse instead of before it
^ 24:23 Var. all the captains of the people from a people Conj. all the captains from among the people
^ 24:25 Var. son
^ 24:27 (the volume of bodings against him) Susp.
