2 Kings 12

Jehoash Repairs the Temple

12In the seventh year of Jehu, ^aJehoash ¹became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. ²Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which ^bJehoiada the priest instructed him. ³But ^cthe ²high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

⁴And Jehoash said to the priests, ^d“All the money of the dedicated gifts that are brought into the house of the Lord—each man’s ^ecensus ³money, each man’s ^fassessment money—and all the money that ⁴a man ^gpurposes in his heart to bring into the house of the Lord, ⁵let the priests take it themselves, each from his constituency; and let them repair the ⁵damages of the temple, wherever any dilapidation is found.”

⁶Now it was so, by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, ^hthat the priests had not repaired the damages of the temple. ⁷ⁱSo King Jehoash called Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damages of the temple? Now therefore, do not take more money from your constituency, but deliver it for repairing the damages of the temple.” ⁸And the priests agreed that they would neither receive more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the temple.

⁹Then Jehoiada the priest took ^ja chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who ⁶kept the door put ^kthere all the money brought into the house of the Lord. ¹⁰So it was, whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s ^lscribe ⁷and the high priest came up and ⁸put it in bags, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord. ¹¹Then they gave the money, which had been apportioned, into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they ⁹paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the Lord, ¹²and to masons and stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone, to ^mrepair the damage of the house of the Lord, and for all that was paid out to repair the temple. ¹³However ⁿthere were not made for the house of the Lord basins of silver, trimmers, sprinkling-bowls, trumpets, any articles of gold or articles of silver, from the money brought into the house of the Lord. ¹⁴But they gave that to the workmen, and they repaired the house of the Lord with it. ¹⁵Moreover ^othey did not require an account from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to be paid to workmen, for they dealt faithfully. ^16pThe money from the trespass offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord. ^qIt belonged to the priests.

Hazael Threatens Jerusalem

^17rHazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it; then ^sHazael set his face to ¹go up to Jerusalem. ¹⁸And Jehoash king of Judah ^ttook all the sacred things that his fathers, Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred things, and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and in the king’s house, and sent them to Hazael king of Syria. Then he went away from Jerusalem.

Death of Joash

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of ²Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰And ^uhis servants arose and formed a conspiracy, and killed Joash in the house of ³the Millo, which goes down to Silla. ²¹For ⁴Jozachar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of ⁵Shomer, his servants, struck him. So he died, and they buried him with his fathers in the City of David. Then ^vAmaziah his son reigned in his place.