Joash Repairs the Temple

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

4 Now it happened after this that Joash set his heart on repairing the house of the Lord. 5 Then 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. 6 dSo 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?” 7 For 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.

8 Then at the king’s command ithey made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of the Lord. 9 And 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. 10 Then all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought their contributions, and put them into the chest until all had given. 11 So 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.

12 The 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. 13 So the workmen labored, and the work was completed by them; they restored the house of God to its original condition and reinforced it. 14 When 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.