2 KingsChapter 12

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¹Joash became king in the seventh year of Jehu. He ruled in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother's name was Zibiah. She was from Beersheba. ²Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. He did so all the years that Jehoiada the priest taught him. ³But the high places were not taken away. The people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there. ⁴Then Joash said to the priests, "Collect all the money brought as holy gifts to the house of the LORD. This includes the money from the census, the money from vows, and the money people give freely to the house of the LORD. ⁵Let each priest receive it from the people he serves. Then use it to fix any damage found in the temple." ⁶But by the twenty-third year that Joash was king, the priests still had not fixed the damage to the temple. ⁷So King Joash called for Jehoiada and the other priests. He said, "Why haven't you fixed the damage to the temple? Don't take any more money from the people you serve. Hand it over to fix the temple." ⁸So the priests agreed not to take any more money from the people. They also agreed not to fix the temple themselves. ⁹Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid. He set it beside the altar, on the right side as you go into the house of the LORD. The priests who guarded the doorway put into it all the money brought to the house of the LORD. ¹⁰They would watch until there was a lot of money in the chest. Then the royal scribe and the high priest would come up. They counted the money brought to the house of the LORD. Then they tied it up in bags. ¹¹They gave the counted money to the men in charge of the work on the house of the LORD. These men paid the workers. They paid the carpenters and builders, ¹²the masons, and the stonecutters. They also bought wood and cut stone to fix the damage to the house of the LORD. And they paid for everything else needed to repair the temple. ¹³But the money brought to the house of the LORD was not used to make silver bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, or trumpets. It was not used for any gold or silver objects for the house of the LORD. ¹⁴Instead, it was paid to the workers. They used it to repair the house of the LORD. ¹⁵No one asked the men in charge to report how they spent the money they paid to the workers. That's because they were honest. ¹⁶The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought to the house of the LORD. It belonged to the priests. ¹⁷At that time Hazael king of Aram marched up and attacked Gath. He captured it. Then he decided to attack Jerusalem. ¹⁸So King Joash of Judah took all the holy things his fathers had set apart for God. His fathers were Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah. He took his own holy gifts too. He also took all the gold found in the treasure rooms of the house of the LORD and of the royal palace. He sent all of it to Hazael king of Aram. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem. ¹⁹The rest of what Joash did, and all he achieved, is written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. ²⁰Joash's officials made a secret plan against him. They killed him at Beth-millo, on the road that goes down to Silla. ²¹His officials Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer struck him down, and he died. He was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Amaziah became king in his place.