Joash: Rescue, Temple Repairs and Later Choices

2 Kings 11

¹ Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring.

² But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedroom; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.

³ He was with her hidden in Yahweh’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

⁴ In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into Yahweh’s house; and he made a covenant with them, and made a covenant with them in Yahweh’s house, and showed them the king’s son.

⁵ He commanded them, saying, “This is what you must do: a third of you, who come in on the Sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the king’s house;

⁶ a third of you shall be at the gate Sur; and a third of you at the gate behind the guard. So you shall keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier.

⁷ The two companies of you, even all who go out on the Sabbath, shall keep the watch of Yahweh’s house around the king.

⁸ You shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he who comes within the ranks, let him be slain. Be with the king when he goes out, and when he comes in.”

⁹ The captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded; and they each took his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁰ The priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been King David’s, which were in Yahweh’s house.

¹¹ The guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, around the king.

¹² Then he brought out the king’s son, and put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant; and they made him king and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, “Long live the king!”

¹³ When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into Yahweh’s house;

¹⁴ and she looked, and behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the tradition was, with the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁵ Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks. Kill anyone who follows her with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t let her be slain in Yahweh’s house.”

¹⁶ So they seized her; and she went by the way of the horses’ entry to the king’s house, and she was slain there.

¹⁷ Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh’s people; also between the king and the people.

¹⁸ All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down. They broke his altars and his images in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The priest appointed officers over Yahweh’s house.

¹⁹ He took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from Yahweh’s house, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. He sat on the throne of the kings.

²⁰ So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword at the king’s house.

²¹ Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

2 Chronicles 22

¹⁰ Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.

¹¹ But Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stealthily rescued him from among the king’s sons who were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she didn’t kill him.

¹² He was with them hidden in God’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

2 Chronicles 23

¹ In the seventh year, Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds—Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri—into a covenant with him.

² They went around in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers’ households of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

³ All the assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s house. Jehoiada said to them, “Behold, the king’s son must reign, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the sons of David.

⁴ This is the thing that you must do: a third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be gatekeepers of the thresholds.

⁵ A third part shall be at the king’s house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation. All the people will be in the courts of Yahweh’s house.

⁶ But let no one come into Yahweh’s house except the priests and those who minister of the Levites. They shall come in, for they are holy, but all the people shall follow Yahweh’s instructions.

⁷ The Levites shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes into the house, let him be slain. Be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out.”

⁸ So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. They each took his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest didn’t dismiss the shift.

⁹ Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, bucklers, and shields that had been king David’s, which were in God’s house.

¹⁰ He set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, near the altar and the house, around the king.

¹¹ Then they brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the covenant, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, “Long live the king!”

¹² When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into Yahweh’s house.

¹³ Then she looked, and behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, with the captains and the trumpeters by the king. All the people of the land rejoiced and blew trumpets. The singers also played musical instruments, and led the singing of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and said, “Treason! treason!”

¹⁴ Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t kill her in Yahweh’s house.”

¹⁵ So they made way for her. She went to the entrance of the horse gate to the king’s house; and they killed her there.

¹⁶ Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, that they should be Yahweh’s people.

¹⁷ All the people went to the house of Baal, broke it down, broke his altars and his images in pieces, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.

¹⁸ Jehoiada appointed the officers of Yahweh’s house under the hand of the Levitical priests, whom David had distributed in Yahweh’s house, to offer the burnt offerings of Yahweh, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as David had ordered.

¹⁹ He set the gatekeepers at the gates of Yahweh’s house, that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in.

²⁰ He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from Yahweh’s house. They came through the upper gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom.

²¹ So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword.

2 Kings 12

¹ Jehoash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

² Jehoash did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

³ However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.

⁴ Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things that is brought into Yahweh’s house, in current money, the money of the people for whom each man is evaluated, and all the money that it comes into any man’s heart to bring into Yahweh’s house,

⁵ let the priests take it to them, each man from his donor; and they shall repair the damage to the house, wherever any damage is found.”

⁶ But it was so, that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damage to the house.

⁷ Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said to them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage to the house? Now therefore take no more money from your treasurers, but deliver it for repair of the damage to the house.”

⁸ The priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, and not repair the damage to the house.

⁹ But Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into Yahweh’s house; and the priests who kept the threshold put all the money that was brought into Yahweh’s house into it.

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

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

¹² and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to Yahweh’s house, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.

¹³ But there were not made for Yahweh’s house cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into Yahweh’s house;

¹⁴ for they gave that to those who did the work, and repaired Yahweh’s house with it.

¹⁵ Moreover they didn’t demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give to those who did the work; for they dealt faithfully.

¹⁶ The money for the trespass offerings and the money for the sin offerings was not brought into Yahweh’s house. It was the priests’.

2 Chronicles 24

¹ Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, of Beersheba.

² Joash did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

³ Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

⁴ After this, Joash intended to restore Yahweh’s house.

⁵ He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter.” However the Levites didn’t do it right away.

⁶ The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, “Why haven’t you required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of Yahweh, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the Tent of the Testimony?”

⁷ For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God’s house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of Yahweh’s house to the Baals.

⁸ So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of Yahweh’s house.

⁹ They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for Yahweh the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.

¹⁰ All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had filled it.

¹¹ Whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. 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 Yahweh’s house. They hired masons and carpenters to restore Yahweh’s house, and also those who worked iron and bronze to repair Yahweh’s house.

¹³ So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands. They set up God’s house as it was designed, and strengthened it.

¹⁴ When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, from which were made vessels for Yahweh’s house, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, including spoons and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in Yahweh’s house continually all the days of Jehoiada.

2 Kings 12

¹⁷ Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

¹⁸ Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own holy things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and of the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria; and he went away from Jerusalem.

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰ His servants arose and made a conspiracy, and struck Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla.

²¹ For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in David’s city; and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

2 Chronicles 24

¹⁵ But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died. He was one hundred thirty years old when he died.

¹⁶ They buried him in David’s city among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house.

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them.

¹⁸ They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols, so wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness.

¹⁹ Yet he sent prophets to them to bring them again to Yahweh, and they testified against them; but they would not listen.

²⁰ The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “God says, ‘Why do you disobey Yahweh’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’ ”

²¹ They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house.

²² Thus Joash the king didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, “May Yahweh look at it, and repay it.”

²³ At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus.

²⁴ For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and Yahweh delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash.

²⁵ When they had departed from him (for they left him seriously wounded), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in David’s city, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶ These are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess.

²⁷ Now concerning his sons, the greatness of the burdens laid on him, and the rebuilding of God’s house, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.