2 Chronicles 24–35

Joash Repairs the Temple

24:1–14pp—2Ki 12:1–16 24:23–27pp—2Ki 12:17–21

24Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. ²Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lordⁿ all the years of Jehoiada the priest. ³Jehoiada chose two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.

⁴Some time later Joash decided to restore the temple of the Lord. ⁵He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, “Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money^o due annually from all Israel,^p to repair the temple of your God. Do it now.” But the Levites^q did not act at once.

⁶Therefore the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the tent of the covenant law?”^r

⁷Now the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the temple of God and had used even its sacred objects for the Baals.

⁸At the king’s command, a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the temple of the Lord. ⁹A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly,^s dropping them into the chest until it was full. ¹¹Whenever the chest was brought in by the Levites to the king’s officials and they saw that there was a large amount of money, the royal secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and carry it back to its place. They did this regularly and collected a great amount of money. ¹²The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who carried out the work required for the temple of the Lord. They hired^t masons and carpenters to restore the Lord’s temple, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the temple.

¹³The men in charge of the work were diligent, and the repairs progressed under them. They rebuilt the temple of God according to its original design and reinforced it. ¹⁴When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the Lord’s temple: articles for the service and for the burnt offerings, and also dishes and other objects of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the Lord.

¹⁵Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. ¹⁶He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.

The Wickedness of Joash

¹⁷After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. ¹⁸They abandoned^u the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols.^v Because of their guilt, God’s anger^w came on Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁹Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.^x

²⁰Then the Spirit^y of God came on Zechariah^z son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper.^a Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken^b you.’ ”

²¹But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned^c him to death^d in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.^{e 22}King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”^f

²³At the turn of the year,^a the army of Aram marched against Joash; it invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people.^g They sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus. ²⁴Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men,^h the Lord delivered into their hands a much larger army.ⁱ Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, judgment was executed on Joash. ²⁵When the Arameans withdrew, they left Joash severely wounded. His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. So he died and was buried^j in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶Those who conspired against him were Zabad,^b son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith^ck a Moabite woman.^{l 27}The account of his sons, the many prophecies about him, and the record of the restoration of the temple of God are written in the annotations on the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.

Amaziah King of Judah

25:1–4pp—2Ki 14:1–6 25:11–12pp—2Ki 14:7 25:17–28pp—2Ki 14:8–20

25Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. ²He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.^{m 3}After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. ⁴Yet he did not put their children to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses,ⁿ where the Lord commanded: “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children be put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.”^ao

⁵Amaziah called the people of Judah together and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He then mustered^p those twenty years old^q or more and found that there were three hundred thousand men fit for military service,^r able to handle the spear and shield. ⁶He also hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel for a hundred talents^b of silver.

⁷But a man of God came to him and said, “Your Majesty, these troops from Israel^s must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with any of the people of Ephraim. ⁸Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.”^t

⁹Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?”

The man of God replied, “The Lord can give you much more than that.”^u

¹⁰So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home. They were furious with Judah and left for home in a great rage.^v

¹¹Amaziah then marshaled his strength and led his army to the Valley of Salt, where he killed ten thousand men of Seir. ¹²The army of Judah also captured ten thousand men alive, took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down so that all were dashed to pieces.^w

¹³Meanwhile the troops that Amaziah had sent back and had not allowed to take part in the war raided towns belonging to Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed three thousand people and carried off great quantities of plunder.

¹⁴When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods,^x bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. ¹⁵The anger of the Lord burned against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why do you consult this people’s gods, which could not save^y their own people from your hand?”

¹⁶While he was still speaking, the king said to him, “Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?”

So the prophet stopped but said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.”

¹⁷After Amaziah king of Judah consulted his advisers, he sent this challenge to Jehoash^c son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel: “Come, let us face each other in battle.”

¹⁸But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle^z in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle underfoot. ¹⁹You say to yourself that you have defeated Edom, and now you are arrogant and proud. But stay at home! Why ask for trouble and cause your own downfall and that of Judah also?”

²⁰Amaziah, however, would not listen, for God so worked that he might deliver them into the hands of Jehoash, because they sought the gods of Edom.^{a 21}So Jehoash king of Israel attacked. He and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other at Beth Shemesh in Judah. ²²Judah was routed by Israel, and every man fled to his home. ²³Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah,^d at Beth Shemesh. Then Jehoash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate^b to the Corner Gate^c—a section about four hundred cubits^e long. ²⁴He took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of God that had been in the care of Obed-Edom,^d together with the palace treasures and the hostages, and returned to Samaria.

²⁵Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. ²⁶As for the other events of Amaziah’s reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? ²⁷From the time that Amaziah turned away from following the Lord, they conspired against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lachish^e, but they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him there. ²⁸He was brought back by horse and was buried with his ancestors in the City of Judah.^f

Uzziah King of Judah

26:1–4pp—2Ki 14:21–22; 15:1–3 26:21–23pp—2Ki 15:5–7

26Then all the people of Judah^f took Uzziah,^a who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ²He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors.

³Uzziah was sixteen years old when he…