2 Chronicles 22–24

JUDAH’S KING AHAZIAH

22Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, because the troops that had come with the Arabs^x to the camp had killed all the older sons.^D So Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah. ²Ahaziah^y was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, granddaughter^F of Omri.

³He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother gave him evil advice. ⁴So he did what was evil in the Lord’s sight like the house of Ahab, for they were his advisers after the death of his father, to his destruction. ⁵He also followed their advice and went with Joram^G son of Israel’s King Ahab to fight against King Hazael of Aram, in Ramoth-gilead. The Arameans^H wounded Joram, ⁶so he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds they inflicted on him in Ramoth-gilead^I when he fought against King Hazael of Aram. Then Judah’s King Ahaziah^J son of Jehoram went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab since Joram was ill.

⁷Ahaziah’s downfall came from God when he went to Joram.^a When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi,^b whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.^{c 8}So when Jehu executed judgment on the house of Ahab,^d he found the rulers of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers who were serving Ahaziah, and he killed them. ⁹Then Jehu looked for Ahaziah,^e and Jehu’s soldiers captured him (he was hiding in Samaria). So they brought Ahaziah to Jehu, and they killed him. The soldiers buried him, for they said, “He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat who sought the Lord with all his heart.”^f So no one from the house of Ahaziah had the strength to rule the kingdom.

ATHALIAH USURPS THE THRONE

¹⁰When^g Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs^A of the house of Judah. ¹¹Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, rescued Joash son of Ahaziah from the king’s sons who were being killed and put him and the one who nursed him in a bedroom. Now Jehoshabeath was the daughter of King Jehoram and the wife of the priest Jehoiada. Since she was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid Joash from Athaliah so that she did not kill him. ¹²He was hiding with them in God’s temple for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

ATHALIAH OVERTHROWN

23Then, in the seventh year,^h Jehoiada summoned his courage and took the commanders of hundreds into a covenant with him: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri. ²They made a circuit throughout Judah. They gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah and the family heads of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

³Then the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s temple. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the king’s son! He will reign, just as the Lord promisedⁱ concerning David’s sons. ⁴This is what you are to do: a third of you, priests and Levites who are coming on duty on the Sabbath,^j are to be gatekeepers. ⁵A third are to be at the king’s palace, and a third are to be at the Foundation Gate, and all the troops will be in the courtyards of the Lord’s temple. ⁶No one is to enter the Lord’s temple but the priests and those Levites who serve;^k they may enter because they are holy, but all the people are to obey the requirement of the Lord. ⁷The Levites are to completely surround the king with weapons in hand. Anyone who enters the temple is to be put to death. Accompany the king in all his daily tasks.”^C

⁸So the commanders of hundreds did everything the priest Jehoiada commanded. They each brought their men—those coming on duty on the Sabbath and those going off duty on the Sabbath—for the priest Jehoiada did not release the divisions.^{l 9}The priest Jehoiada gave to the commanders of hundreds King David’s spears, shields, and quivers^D that were in God’s temple. ¹⁰Then he stationed all the troops with their weapons in hand surrounding the king—from the right side of the temple to the left side, by the altar and by the temple.

¹¹They brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the testimony,^m and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him and cried, “Long live the king!”ⁿ

¹²When Athaliah heard the noise from the troops, the guards, and those praising the king, she went to the troops in the Lord’s temple. ¹³As she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar^A at the entrance. The commanders and the trumpeters were by the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets^o while the singers with musical instruments were leading the praise. Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁴Then the priest Jehoiada sent out the commanders of hundreds, those in charge of the army, saying, “Take her out between the ranks, and put anyone who follows her to death by the sword,” for the priest had said, “Don’t put her to death in the Lord’s temple.” ¹⁵So they arrested her, and she went by the entrance of the Horse Gate^a to the king’s palace, where they put her to death.

JEHOIADA’S REFORMS

¹⁶Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, the king, and the people that they would be the Lord’s people. ¹⁷So all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed its altars and images and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, at the altars.^b

¹⁸Then Jehoiada put the oversight of the Lord’s temple into the hands of the Levitical priests,^c whom David had appointed^d over the Lord’s temple, to offer burnt offerings to the Lord as it is written in the law of Moses,^e with rejoicing and song ordained by^B David. ¹⁹He stationed gatekeepers^f at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that nothing unclean could enter for any reason. ²⁰Then he took with him the commanders of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the king’s palace through the Upper Gate and seated the king on the throne of the kingdom. ²¹All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet, for they had put Athaliah to death by the sword.

JUDAH’S KING JOASH

24Joash^g was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba. ²Throughout the time of the priest Jehoiada, Joash did what was right in the Lord’s sight.^{h 3}Jehoiada acquired two wives for him, and he was the father of sons and daughters.

REPAIRING THE TEMPLE

⁴Afterward,ⁱ Joash took it to heart to renovate^j the Lord’s temple. ⁵So he gathered the priests and Levites and said, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect silver from all Israel to repair the temple of your God as needed year by year,^k and do it quickly.”

However, the Levites did not hurry. ⁶So the king called Jehoiada the high priest and said, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by the Lord’s servant Moses and the assembly of Israel for the tent^l of the testimony? ⁷For the sons of that wicked Athaliah broke into the Lord’s temple and even used the sacred things of the Lord’s temple for the Baals.”

⁸At the king’s command a chest was made and placed outside the gate of the Lord’s temple. ⁹Then a proclamation^m was issued in Judah and Jerusalem that the tax God’s servant Moses imposed on Israel in the wilderness be brought to the Lord. ¹⁰All the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought the tax, and put it in the chest until it was full. ¹¹Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king’s overseers, and when they saw that there was a large amount of silver, the king’s secretary and the high priest’s deputy came and emptied the chest, picked it up, and returned it to its place. They did this daily and gathered the silver in abundance. ¹²Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those in charge of the labor on the Lord’s temple, who were hiring stonecutters and carpenters to renovate the Lord’s temple, also blacksmiths and coppersmiths to repair the Lord’s temple.ⁿ

¹³The workmen did their work, and through them the repairs progressed. They restored God’s temple to its specifications and reinforced it. ¹⁴When they finished, they presented the rest of the silver to the king and Jehoiada, who made articles for the Lord’s temple with it—articles for ministry and for making burnt offerings, and ladles^A and articles of gold and silver. They regularly offered burnt offerings in the Lord’s temple throughout Jehoiada’s life.

JOASH’S APOSTASY

¹⁵Jehoiada died when he was old and full of days; he was 130 years old at his death. ¹⁶He was buried in the city of David with the kings^o because he had done what was good in Israel with respect to God and his temple.

¹⁷However, after Jehoiada died, the rulers of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them, ¹⁸and they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the Asherah poles and the idols.^a So there was wrath^b against Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. ¹⁹Nevertheless, he sent them prophets^c to bring them back to the Lord; they admonished them, but the people would not listen.^d

²⁰The Spirit of God enveloped^Be Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood above the people and said to them, “This is what God says, ‘Why are you transgressing the Lord’s commands so that you do not prosper?^f Because you have abandoned the Lord, he has abandoned you.’ ”^{g 21}But they conspired against him and stoned him at the king’s command in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.^{h 22}King Joash didn’t remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son. While he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and demandⁱ an account.”

ARAMEAN INVASION OF JUDAH

²³At the turn of the year, an Aramean army attacked Joash.^j They entered Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people…