2 Kings 11–19

Chapter 11

Now Athalia, the mother of Ochozias, seeing that her son was dead, arose and slew all the royal seed.

²But Josaba the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ochozias, took Joas, the son of Ochozias, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, out of the bedchamber with his nurse: and hid him from the face of Athalia; so that he was not slain.

³And he was with her six years, hid in the house of the Lord. And Athalia reigned over the land.

⁴And in the seventh year Joiada sent, and taking the centurions and soldiers, brought them in to him into the temple of the Lord, and made a covenant with them: and taking an oath of them in the house of the Lord, shewed them the king’s son:

⁵And he commanded them, saying: This is the thing that you must do.

⁶Let a third part of you go in on the sabbath, and keep the watch of the king’s house. And let a third part be at the gate of Sur; and let a third part be at the gate behind the dwelling of the shieldbearers; and you shall keep the watch of the house of Messa.

⁷But let two parts of you all that go forth on the sabbath, keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king.

⁸And you shall compass him round about, having weapons in your hands: and if any man shall enter the precinct of the temple, let him be slain: and you shall be with the king, coming in and going out.

⁹And the centurions did according to all things that Joiada the priest, had commanded them: and taking every one their men, that went in on the sabbath, with them that went out in the sabbath, came to Joiada, the priest.

¹⁰And he gave them the spears, and the arms of king David, which were in the house of the Lord.

¹¹And they stood, having every one their weapons in their hands, from the right side of the temple, unto the left side of the altar, and of the temple, about the king.

¹²And he brought forth the king’s son, and put the diadem upon him, and the testimony: and they made him king, and anointed him: and clapping their hands, they said: God save the king.

¹³And Athalia heard the noise of the people running: and going in to the people into the temple of the Lord,

¹⁴She saw the king standing upon a tribunal, as the manner was, and the singers, and the trumpets near him, and all the people of the land rejoicing, and sounding the trumpets: and she rent her garments, and cried: A conspiracy, a conspiracy.

¹⁵But Joiada commanded the centurions that were over the army, and said to them: Have her forth without the precinct of the temple, and whosoever shall follow her, let him be slain with the sword. For the priest had said: Let her not be slain in the temple of the Lord.

¹⁶And they laid hands on her: and thrust her out by the way by which the horses go in, by the palace, and she was slain there.

¹⁷And Joiada made a covenant between the Lord, and the king, and the people, that they should be the people of the Lord; and between the king and the people.

¹⁸And all the people of the land went into the temple of Baal, and broke down his altars, and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly: they slew also Mathan the priest of Baal before the altar. And the priest set guards in the house of the Lord.

¹⁹And he took the centurions, and the bands of the Cerethi, and the Phelethi, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king from the house of the Lord: and they came by the way of the gate of the shieldbearers into the palace, and he sat on the throne of the kings.

²⁰And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: but Athalia was slain with the sword in the king’s house.

²¹Now Joas was seven years old when he began to reign.

Chapter 12

In the seventh year of Jehu, Joas began to reign: and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Sebia, of Bersabee.

²And Joas did that which was right before the Lord all the days that Joiada, the priest, taught him.

³But yet he took not away the high places: for the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

⁴And Joas said to the priests: all the money of the sanctified things, which is brought into the temple of the Lord by those that pass, which is offered for the price of a soul, and which of their own accord, and of their own free heart, they bring into the temple of the Lord:

⁵Let the priests take it according to their order and repair the house, wheresoever they shall see any thing that wanteth repairing.

⁶Now till the three and twentieth year of king Joas the priests did not make the repairs of the temple.

⁷And king Joas called Joiada, the high priest, and the priests, saying to them: Why do you not repair the temple? Take you, therefore, money no more according to your order, but restore it for the repairing of the temple.

⁸And the priests were forbidden to take any more money of the people, and to make the repairs of the house.

⁹And Joiada, the high priest, took a chest, and bored a hole in the top, and set it by the altar at the right hand of them that came into the house of the Lord; and the priests that kept the doors, put therein all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord.

¹⁰And when they saw that there was very much money in the chest, the king’s scribe, and the high priest, came up, and poured it out, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord.

¹¹And they gave it out by number and measure into the hands of them that were over the builders of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to the carpenters, and the masons, that wrought in the house of the Lord,

¹²And made the repairs: and to them that cut stones, and to buy timber, and stones to be hewed, that the repairs of the house of the Lord might be completely finished, and wheresoever there was need of expenses to uphold the house.

¹³But there were not made of the same money for the temple of the Lord, bowls, or fleshhooks, or censers, or trumpets, or any vessel of gold and silver, of the money that was brought into the temple of the Lord:

¹⁴For it was given to them that did the work, that the temple of the Lord might be repaired.

¹⁵And they reckoned not with the men that received the money to distribute it to the workmen, but they bestowed it faithfully.

¹⁶But the money for trespass, and the money for sins, they brought not into the temple of the Lord, because it was for the priests.

¹⁷Then Hazael, king of Syria, went up, and fought against Geth, and took it, and set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

¹⁸Wherefore Joas, king of Juda, took all the sanctified things, which Josaphat, and Joram, and Ochozias, his fathers, the kings of Juda, had dedicated to holy uses, and which he himself had offered: and all the silver that could be found in the treasures of the temple of the Lord, and in the king’s palace: and sent it to Hazael, king of Syria, and he went off from Jerusalem.

¹⁹And the rest of the acts of Joas, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?

²⁰And his servants arose, and conspired among themselves, and slew Joas, in the house of Mello, in the descent of Sella.

²¹For Josachar the son of Semaath, and Jozabad the son of Somer his servant, struck him, and he died: and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David; and Amasias, his son, reigned in his stead.

Chapter 13

In the three and twentieth year of Joas son of Ochozias, king of Juda, Joachaz, the son of Jehu, reigned over Israel, in Samaria, seventeen years.

²And he did evil before the Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin; and he departed not from them.

³And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael, the king of Syria, and into the hand of Benadad, the son of Hazael, all days.

⁴But Joachaz besought the face of the Lord, and the Lord heard him: for he saw the distress of Israel, because the king of Syria had oppressed them:

⁵And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, and they were delivered out of the hand of the king of Syria: and the children of Israel dwelt in their pavilions as yesterday and the day before.

⁶But yet they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, but walked in them: and there still remained a grove also in Samaria.

⁷And Joachaz had no more left of the people than fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen: for the king of Syria had slain them, and had brought them low as dust by threshing in the barnfloor.

⁸But the rest of the acts of Joachaz, and all that he did, and his valour, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?

⁹And Joachaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria: and Joas, his son, reigned in his stead.

¹⁰In the seven and thirtieth year of Joas, king of Juda, Joas the son of Joachaz reigned over Israel, in Samaria, sixteen years.

¹¹And he did that which is evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin; but he walked in them.

¹²But the rest of the acts of Joas, and all that he did, and his valour wherewith he fought against Amasias, king of Juda, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?

¹³And Joas slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne. But Joas was buried in Samaria, with the kings of Israel.

¹⁴Now Eliseus was sick of the illness whereof he died: and Joas, king of Israel, went down to him, and wept before him, and said: O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the guider thereof.

¹⁵And Eliseus said to him: Bring a bow and arrows. And when he had brought him a bow and arrows,

¹⁶He said to the king of Israel: Put thy hand upon the bow. And when he had put his hand, Eliseus put his hands over the king’s hands,

¹⁷And said: Open the window to the east. And when he had opened it, Eliseus said: Shoot an arrow. And he shot. And Eliseus said: The arrow of the Lord’s…