2 Kings 11–12

11Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. ²But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons that were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedchamber; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain; ³And he was with her hid in the house of Jehovah six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land.

⁴And in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of Jehovah; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of Jehovah, and showed them the king’s son. ⁵And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do: a third part of you, that come in on the sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the king’s house; ⁶and a third part shall be at the gate Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier. ⁷And the two companies of you, even all that go forth on the sabbath, shall keep the watch of the house of Jehovah about the king. ⁸And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he that cometh within the ranks, let him be slain: and be ye with the king when he goeth out, and when he cometh in.

⁹And the captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded; and they took every man his men, those that were to come in on the sabbath, with those that were to go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. ¹⁰And the priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David’s, which were in the house of Jehovah. ¹¹And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, by the king round about. ¹²Then he brought out the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, Long live the king.

¹³And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the house of Jehovah: ¹⁴and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the manner was, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason! treason! ¹⁵And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth between the ranks; and him that followeth her slay with the sword. For the priest said, Let her not be slain in the house of Jehovah. ¹⁶So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the horses’ entry to the king’s house: and there was she slain.

¹⁷And Jehoiada made a covenant between Jehovah and the king and the people, that they should be Jehovah’s people; between the king also and the people. ¹⁸And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of Jehovah. ¹⁹And he took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of Jehovah, and came by the way of the gate of the guard unto the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. ²⁰So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. And Athaliah they had slain with the sword at the king’s house. ²¹Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

12In the seventh year of Jehu began Jehoash to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. ²And Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³Howbeit the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

⁴And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, ⁵let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. ⁶But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. ⁷Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no more money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. ⁸And the priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house.

⁹But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of Jehovah: and the priests that kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah. ¹⁰And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags and counted the money that was found in the house of Jehovah. ¹¹And they gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of Jehovah: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, that wrought upon the house of Jehovah, ¹²and to the masons and the hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of Jehovah, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. ¹³But there were not made for the house of Jehovah cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah; ¹⁴for they gave that to them that did the work, and repaired therewith the house of Jehovah. ¹⁵Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to give to them that did the work; for they dealt faithfully. ¹⁶The money for the trespass-offerings, and the money for the sin-offerings, was not brought into the house of Jehovah: it was the priests’.

¹⁷Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. ¹⁸And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and of the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²⁰And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and smote Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goeth down to Silla. ²¹For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.