Joash (Jehoash) Reigns over Judah

1 In the seventh year of Jehu, aJehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

2 Jehoash did right in the sight of the Lord all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

3 Only athe high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

The Temple to Be Repaired

4 Then Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the sacred things awhich is brought into the house of the Lord, in current money, both bthe money of each man’s assessment and all the money 1which any man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the Lord,

5 let the priests take it for themselves, each from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the 1damages of the house wherever any damage may be found.”

6 But it came about that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash athe priests had not repaired the damages of the house.

7 Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests and said to them, “Why do you not repair the damages of the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but pay it for the damages of the house.”

8 So the priests agreed that they would take no more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the house.

9 But aJehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money which was brought into the house of the Lord.

10 When they saw that there was much money in the chest, athe king’s scribe and the high priest came up and tied it in bags and counted the money which was found in the house of the Lord.

11 They gave the money which was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they 1paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the Lord;

12 and ato the masons and the stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the damages to the house of the Lord, and for all that was 1laid out for the house to repair it.

13 But athere were not made for the house of the Lord bsilver cups, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver from the money which was brought into the house of the Lord;

14 for they gave that to those who did the work, and with it they repaired the house of the Lord.

15 Moreover, athey did not require an accounting from the men into whose hand they gave the money to pay to those who did the work, for they dealt faithfully.

16 The amoney from the guilt offerings and bthe money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord; cit was for the priests.

17 Then aHazael king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it, and bHazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.