2 Chronicles 24–35

Joash Repairs the Temple

24Joash ^awas seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. ²Joash ^bdid what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. ³And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.

⁴Now it happened after this that Joash set his heart on repairing the house of the Lord. ⁵Then he gathered the priests and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and ^cgather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you do it quickly.”

However the Levites did not do it quickly. ^6dSo the king called Jehoiada the chief priest, and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the collection, according to the commandment of ^eMoses the servant of the Lord and of the assembly of Israel, for the ^ftabernacle of witness?” ⁷For ^gthe sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had also presented all the ^hdedicated things of the house of the Lord to the Baals.

⁸Then at the king’s command ⁱthey made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of the Lord. ⁹And they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the Lord ^jthe collection that Moses the servant of God had imposed on Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰Then all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought their contributions, and put them into the chest until all had given. ¹¹So it was, at that time, when the chest was brought to the king’s official by the hand of the Levites, and ^kwhen they saw that there was much money, that the king’s scribe and the high priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it and returned it to its place. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.

¹²The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of the Lord; and they hired masons and carpenters to ^lrepair the house of the Lord, and also those who worked in iron and bronze to restore the house of the Lord. ¹³So the workmen labored, and the work was completed by them; they restored the house of God to its original condition and reinforced it. ¹⁴When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada; ^mthey made from it articles for the house of the Lord, articles for serving and offering, spoons and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada.

Apostasy of Joash

¹⁵But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; he was one hundred and thirty years old when he died. ¹⁶And they buried him in the City of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and His house.

¹⁷Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. ¹⁸Therefore they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served ⁿwooden images and idols; and ^owrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass. ¹⁹Yet He ^psent prophets to them, to bring them back to the Lord; and they testified against them, but they would not listen.

²⁰Then the Spirit of God ¹came upon ^qZechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God: ^r‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? ^sBecause you have forsaken the Lord, He also has forsaken you.’ ” ²¹So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they ^tstoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. ²²Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his ²father had done to him, but killed his son; and as he died, he said, “The Lord look on it, and ^urepay!”

Death of Joash

²³So it happened in the spring of the year that ^vthe army of Syria came up against him; and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the leaders of the people from among the people, and sent all their ³spoil to the king of Damascus. ²⁴For the army of the Syrians ^wcame with a small company of men; but the Lord ^xdelivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. So they ^yexecuted judgment against Joash. ²⁵And when they had withdrawn from him (for they left him severely wounded), ^zhis own servants conspired against him because of the blood of the ⁴sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed. So he died. And they buried him in the City of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶These are the ones who conspired against him: ⁵Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of ⁶Shimrith the Moabitess. ²⁷Now concerning his sons, and ^athe many oracles about him, and the repairing of the house of God, indeed they are written in the ⁷annals of the book of the kings. ^bThen Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

Amaziah Reigns in Judah

25Amaziah ^awas twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. ²And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, ^bbut not with a loyal heart.

^3cNow it happened, as soon as the kingdom was established for him, that he executed his servants who had murdered his father the king. ⁴However he did not execute their children, but did as it is written in the Law in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, ^d“The fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers; but a person shall die for his own sin.”

The War Against Edom

⁵Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together and set over them captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, according to their fathers’ houses, throughout all Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them ^efrom twenty years old and above, and found them to be three hundred thousand choice men, able to go to war, who could handle spear and shield. ⁶He also hired one hundred thousand mighty men of valor from Israel for one hundred talents of silver. ⁷But a ^fman of God came to him, saying, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with any of the children of Ephraim. ⁸But if you go, be gone! Be strong in battle! Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy; for God has ^gpower to help and to overthrow.”

⁹Then Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel?”

And the man of God answered, ^h“The Lord is able to give you much more than this.” ¹⁰So Amaziah discharged the troops that had come to him from Ephraim, to go back home. Therefore their anger was greatly aroused against Judah, and they returned home in great anger.

¹¹Then Amaziah strengthened himself, and leading his people, he went to ⁱthe Valley of Salt and killed ten thousand of the people of Seir. ¹²Also the children of Judah took captive ten thousand alive, brought them to the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, so that they all were dashed in pieces.

¹³But as for the soldiers of the army which Amaziah had discharged, so that they would not go with him to battle, they raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon, killed three thousand in them, and took much ¹spoil.

¹⁴Now it was so, after Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites, that ^jhe brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up to be ^khis gods, and bowed down before them and burned incense to them. ¹⁵Therefore the anger of the Lord was aroused against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet who said to him, “Why have you sought ^lthe gods of the people, which ^mcould not rescue their own people from your hand?”

¹⁶So it was, as he talked with him, that the king said to him, “Have we made you the king’s counselor? Cease! Why should you be killed?”

Then the prophet ceased, and said, “I know that God has ⁿdetermined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not heeded my advice.”

Israel Defeats Judah

¹⁷Now ^oAmaziah king of Judah asked advice and sent to ²Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let us face one another in battle.”

¹⁸And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as wife’; and a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle. ¹⁹Indeed you say that you have defeated the Edomites, and your heart is lifted up to ^pboast. Stay at home now; why should you meddle with trouble, that you should fall—you and Judah with you?”

²⁰But Amaziah would not heed, for ^qit came from God, that He might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they ^rsought the gods of Edom. ²¹So Joash king of Israel went out; and he and Amaziah king of Judah faced one another at ^sBeth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. ²²And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his tent. ²³Then Joash the king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of ^tJehoahaz, at Beth Shemesh; and he brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate—four hundred cubits. ²⁴And he took all the gold and silver, all the articles that were found in the house of God with ^uObed-Edom, the treasures of the king’s house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria.

Death of Amaziah

^25vAmaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. ²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, from first to last, indeed are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? ²⁷After the time that Amaziah turned away from following the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there. ²⁸…