2 Chronicles 22:11–24:27

¹¹But Josabeth the king’s daughter took Joas the son of Ochozias, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain. And she hid him with his nurse in a bedchamber: now Josabeth that hid him, was daughter of king Joram, wife of Joiada the high priest, and sister of Ochozias, and therefore Athalia did not kill him.

¹²And he was with them hid in the house of God six years, during which Athalia reigned over the land.

Chapter 23

And in the seventh year Joiada being encouraged, took the captains of hundreds, to wit, Azarias the son of Jeroham, and Ismahel the son of Johanan, and Azarias the son of Obed, and Maasias the son of Adaias, and Elisaphat the son of Zechri: and made a covenant with them.

²And they went about Juda, and gathered together the Levites out of all the cities of Juda, and the chiefs of the families of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

³And all the multitude made a covenant with the king in the house of God: and Joiada said to them: Behold the king’s son shall reign, as the Lord hath said of the sons of David.

⁴And this is the thing that you shall do:

⁵A third part of you that come to the sabbath, of the priests, and of the Levites, and of the porters shall be at the gates: and a third part at the king’s house: and a third at the gate that is called the Foundation: but let all the rest of the people be in the courts of the house of the Lord.

⁶And let no one come into the house of the Lord, but the priests, and they that minister of the Levites: let them only come in, because they are sanctified: and let all the rest of the people keep the watches of the Lord.

⁷And let the Levites be round about the king, every man with his arms; and if any other come into the temple, let him be slain; and let them be with the king, both coming in, and going out.

⁸So the Levites, and all Juda did according to all that Joiada the high priest had commanded: and they took every one his men that were under him, and that came in by the course of the sabbath, with those who had fulfilled the sabbath, and were to go out. For Joiada the high priest permitted not the companies to depart, which were accustomed to succeed one another every week.

⁹And Joiada the priest gave to the captains the spears, and the shields, and targets of king David, which he had dedicated in the house of the Lord.

¹⁰And he set all the people with swords in their hands from the right side of the temple, to the left side of the temple, before the altar, and the temple, round about the king.

¹¹And they brought out the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and the testimony, and gave him the law to hold in his hand, and they made him king: and Joiada the high priest and his sons anointed him: and they prayed for him, and said: God save the king.

¹²Now when Athalia heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came in to the people, into the temple of the Lord.

¹³And when she saw the king standing upon the step in the entrance, and the princes, and the companies about him, and all the people of the land rejoicing, and sounding with trumpets, and playing on instruments of divers kinds, and the voice of those that praised, she rent her garments, and said: Treason, treason.

¹⁴And Joiada the high priest going out to the captains, and the chiefs of the army, said to them: Take her forth without the precinct of the temple, and when she is without let her be killed with the sword. For the priest commanded that she should not be killed in the house of the Lord.

¹⁵And they laid hold on her by the neck: and when she was come within the horse gate of the palace, they killed her there.

¹⁶And Joiada made a covenant between himself and all the people, and the king, that they should be the people of the lord.

¹⁷And all the people went into the house of Baal, and destroyed it: and they broke down his altars and his idols: and they slew Mathan the priest of Baal before the altars.

¹⁸And Joiada appointed overseers in the house of the Lord, under the hands of the priests, and the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the Lord: to offer holocausts to the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses, with joy and singing, according to the disposition of David.

¹⁹He appointed also porters in the gates of the house of the Lord, that none who was unclean in any thing should enter in.

²⁰And he took the captains of hundreds, and the most valiant men, and the chiefs of the people, and all the people of the land, and they brought down the king from the house of the Lord, and brought him through the upper gate into the king’s house, and set him on the royal throne.

²¹And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: but Athalia was slain with the sword.

Chapter 24

Joas was seven years old when he began to reign: and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Sebia of Bersabee.

²And he did that which is good before the Lord all the days of Joiada the priest.

³And Joiada took for him two wives, by whom he had sons and daughters.

⁴After this Joas had a mind to repair the house of the Lord.

⁵And he assembled the priests, and the Levites, and said to them: Go out to the cities of Juda, and gather of all Israel money to repair the temple of your God, from year to year: and do this with speed: but the Levites were negligent.

⁶And the king called Joiada the chief, and said to him: Why hast thou not taken care to oblige the Levites to bring in out of Juda and Jerusalem the money that was appointed by Moses the servant of the Lord for all the multitude of Israel to bring into the tabernacle of the testimony?

⁷For that wicked woman Athalia, and her children have destroyed the house of God, and adorned the temple of Baal with all the things that had been dedicated in the temple of the Lord.

⁸And the king commanded, and they made a chest: and set it by the gate of the house of the Lord on the outside.

⁹And they made a proclamation in Juda and Jerusalem, that every man should bring to the Lord the money which Moses the servant of God appointed for all Israel, in the desert.

¹⁰And all the princes, and all the people rejoiced: and going in they contributed and cast so much into the chest of the Lord, that it was filled.

¹¹And when it was time to bring the chest before the king by the hands of the Levites, (for they saw there was much money,) the king’s scribe, and he whom the high priest had appointed went in: and they poured out the money that was in the chest: and they carried back the chest to its place: and thus they did from day to day, and there was gathered an immense sum of money.

¹²And the king and Joiada gave it to those who were over the works of the house of the Lord: but they hired with it stonecutters, and artificers of every kind of work to repair the house of the Lord: and such as wrought in iron and brass, to uphold what began to be falling.

¹³And the workmen were diligent, and the breach of the walls was closed up by their hands, and they set up the house of the Lord in its former state, and made it stand firm.

¹⁴And when they had finished all the works, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Joiada: and with it were made vessels for the temple for the ministry, and for holocausts and bowls, and other vessels of gold and silver: and holocausts were offered in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Joiada.

¹⁵But Joiada grew old and was full of days, and died when he was a hundred and thirty years old.

¹⁶And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good to Israel, and to his house.

¹⁷And after the death of Joiada, the princes of Juda went in, and worshipped the king: and he was soothed by their services and hearkened to them.

¹⁸And they forsook the temple of the Lord the God of their fathers, and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Juda and Jerusalem for this sin.

¹⁹And he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, and they would not give ear when they testified against them.

²⁰The spirit of God then came upon Zacharias the son of Joiada the priest, and he stood in the sight of the people, and said to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Why transgress you the commandment of the Lord which will not be for your good, and have forsaken the Lord, to make him forsake you?

²¹And they gathered themselves together against him, and stoned him at the king’s commandment in the court of the house of the Lord.

²²And king Joas did not remember the kindness that Joiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. And when he died, he said: The Lord see, and require it.

²³And when a year was come about, the army of Syria came up against him: and they came to Juda and Jerusalem, and killed all the princes of the people, and they sent all the spoils to the king of Damascus.

²⁴And whereas there came a very small number of the Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers: and on Joas they executed shameful judgments.

²⁵And departing they left him in great diseases: and his servants rose up against him, for revenge of the blood of the son of Joiada the priest, and they slew him in his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

²⁶Now the men that conspired against him were Zabad the son of Semmaath an Ammonitess, and Jozabad the son of Semarith a Moabitess.

²⁷And concerning his sons, and the sum of money which was gathered under him, and the repairing the house of God, they are written more diligently in the book of kings: and Amasias his son reigned in his stead.