2 Chronicles 22:11–24:27

¹¹Ahaziah had a half-sister, Jehosheba, who was married to a priest named Jehoiada. She secretly rescued one of Ahaziah’s sons, Joash, took him away from the other princes who were about to be murdered and hid him and a nurse in a bedroom at the Temple. By keeping him hidden, she saved him from death at the hands of Athaliah. ¹²For six years he remained there in hiding, while Athaliah ruled as queen.

The Revolt against Athaliah

23After waiting six years Jehoiada the priest decided that it was time to take action. He made a pact with five army officers: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri. ²They travelled to all the cities of Judah and brought back with them to Jerusalem the Levites and all the heads of the clans.

^3*They all gathered in the Temple, and there they made a covenant with Joash, the king’s son. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the son of the late king! He is now to be king, as the Lord promised that King David’s descendants would be. ⁴This is what we will do. When the priests and Levites come on duty on the Sabbath, one third of them will guard the temple gates, ⁵another third will guard the royal palace, and the rest will be stationed at the Foundation Gate. All the people will assemble in the temple courtyard. ⁶No one is to enter the temple buildings except the priests and the Levites who are on duty. They may enter, because they are consecrated, but the rest of the people must obey the Lord’s instructions and stay outside. ⁷The Levites are to stand guard round the king, with their swords drawn, and are to stay with the king wherever he goes. Anyone who tries to enter the Temple is to be killed.”

⁸The Levites and the people of Judah carried out Jehoiada’s instructions. The men were not dismissed when they went off duty on the Sabbath, so the commanders had available both those coming on duty and those going off. ⁹Jehoiada gave the officers the spears and shields that had belonged to King David and had been kept in the Temple. ¹⁰He stationed the men with drawn swords all round the front of the Temple, to protect the king. ¹¹Then Jehoiada led Joash out, placed the crown on his head, and gave him a copy of the laws governing kingship. And so he was made king. Jehoiada the priest and his sons anointed Joash, and everyone shouted, “Long live the king!”

¹²Athaliah heard the people cheering for the king, so she hurried to the Temple, where the crowd had gathered. ¹³There she saw the new king at the temple entrance, standing by the column reserved for kings and surrounded by the army officers and the trumpeters. All the people were shouting joyfully and blowing trumpets, and the temple musicians with their instruments were leading the celebration. She tore her clothes in distress and shouted, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁴Jehoiada did not want Athaliah killed in the temple area, so he called out the army officers and said, “Take her out between the rows of guards, and kill anyone who tries to rescue her.”

¹⁵They seized her, took her to the palace, and there at the Horse Gate they killed her.

Jehoiada’s Reforms

¹⁶The priest Jehoiada got King Joash and the people to join him in making a covenant that they would be the Lord’s people. ¹⁷Then they all went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols there and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. ¹⁸Jehoiada put the priests and Levites in charge of the work of the Temple. They were to carry out the duties assigned to them by King David and to burn the sacrifices offered to the Lord in accordance with the Law of Moses. They were also in charge of the music and the celebrations. ¹⁹Jehoiada also put guards on duty at the temple gates to keep out anyone who was ritually unclean.

²⁰The army officers, the leading citizens, the officials, and all the rest of the people joined Jehoiada in a procession that brought the king from the Temple to the palace. They entered by the main gate, and the king took his place on the throne. ²¹All the people were filled with happiness, and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been killed.

King Joash of Judah

24Joash became king of Judah at the age of seven, and he ruled in Jerusalem for 40 years. His mother was Zibiah from the city of Beersheba. ²He did what was pleasing to the Lord as long as Jehoiada the priest was alive. ³Jehoiada chose two wives for King Joash, and they bore him sons and daughters.

⁴After he had been king for a while, Joash decided to have the Temple repaired. ⁵He ordered the priests and the Levites to go to the cities of Judah and collect from all the people enough money to make the annual repairs on the Temple. He told them to act promptly, but the Levites delayed, ^6*so he called in Jehoiada, their leader, and demanded, “Why haven’t you seen to it that the Levites collect from Judah and Jerusalem the tax which Moses, the servant of the Lord, required the people^k to pay for support of the Tent of the Lord’s presence?”

⁷(The followers of Athaliah, that corrupt woman,^l had damaged the Temple and had used many of the sacred objects in the worship of Baal.)

⁸The king ordered the Levites to make a box for contributions and to place it at the temple gate. ⁹They sent word throughout Jerusalem and Judah for everyone to bring to the Lord the tax which Moses, God’s servant, had first collected in the wilderness. ¹⁰This pleased the people and their leaders, and they brought their tax money and filled the box with it. ¹¹Every day the Levites would take the box to the royal official who was in charge of it. Whenever it was full, the royal secretary and the High Priest’s representative would take the money out and return the box to its place. And so they collected a large sum of money.

¹²The king and Jehoiada would give the money to those who were in charge of repairing the Temple, and they hired stonemasons, carpenters, and metalworkers to make the repairs. ¹³All of them worked hard, and they restored the Temple to its original condition, as solid as ever. ¹⁴When the repairs were finished, the remaining gold and silver was given to the king and Jehoiada, who used it to have bowls and other utensils made for the Temple.

Jehoiada’s Policies Are Reversed

As long as Jehoiada was alive, sacrifices were offered regularly at the Temple. ¹⁵After reaching the very old age of 130, he died. ¹⁶They buried him in the royal tombs in David’s City in recognition of the service he had done for the people of Israel, for God, and for the Temple.

¹⁷But once Jehoiada was dead, the leaders of Judah persuaded King Joash to listen to them instead. ¹⁸So the people stopped worshipping in the Temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and began to worship idols and the images of the goddess Asherah. Their guilt for these sins brought the Lord’s anger on Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁹The Lord sent prophets to warn them to return to him, but the people refused to listen. ^20*Then the spirit of God took control of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood where the people could see him and called out, “The Lord God asks why you have disobeyed his commands and are bringing disaster on yourselves! You abandoned him, so he has abandoned you!” ^21*King Joash joined in a conspiracy against Zechariah, and on the king’s orders the people stoned Zechariah in the temple courtyard. ²²The king forgot about the loyal service that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had given him, and he had Zechariah killed. As Zechariah was dying, he called out, “May the Lord see what you are doing and punish you!”

The End of Joash’s Reign

²³When autumn came that year, the Syrian army attacked Judah and Jerusalem, killed all the leaders, and took large amounts of loot back to Damascus. ²⁴The Syrian army was small, but the Lord let them defeat a much larger Judean army because the people had abandoned him, the Lord God of their ancestors. In this way King Joash was punished. ²⁵He was severely wounded, and when the enemy withdrew, two of his officials plotted against him and killed him in his bed to avenge the murder of the son^m of Jehoiada the priest. He was buried in David’s City, but not in the royal tombs. ²⁶(Those who plotted against him were Zabad, the son of an Ammonite woman named Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of a Moabite woman named Shimrith). ²⁷The Commentary on the Book of Kings contains the stories of the sons of Joash, the prophecies spoken against him, and the record of how he rebuilt the Temple. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.