2 Chronicles 24

1 Seven years old was Joash when he became king, and forty years did he reign in Jerusalem: and the name of his mother was Zibyah of Beer-sheba'.

2 And Joash did what is right in the eyes of the Lord, all the days of Yehoyada' the priest.

3 And Yehoyada' took for himself two wives, and he begat sons and daughters.

4 And it came to pass after this, that Yoash had it in his mind to renew the house of the Lord.

5 And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and ye shall make haste in this matter. But the Levites made no haste.

6 Then called the king for Yehoyada' the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required from the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the contribution [fixed by] Moses the servant of the Lord, and of the congregation of Israel, for the tabernacle of the testimony?

7 For the sons of the wicked 'Athalyahu have made breaches [in] the house of God; and also the holy things of the house of the Lord have they applied to the Be'alim.

8 And at the king's order they made a chest, and placed it at the gate of the house of the Lord on the outside.

9 And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the Lord the contribution [fixed by] Moses the servant of God upon Israel in the wilderness.

10 And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and they brought it in, and cast it into the chest, until it was full.

11 Now it came to pass, that at what time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, then came the king's scribe and the high-priest's officer and emptied the chest, and took it up, and brought it back to its place. Thus did they day by day, and gathered money in abundance.

12 And the king and Yehoyada' gave it to those who overlooked the service of the house of the Lord, and these hired masons and carpenters to renew the house of the Lord, and also to the workers in iron and copper to repair the house of the Lord.

13 So the workmen wrought, and the work was restored through their means, and they replaced the house of God in its [former] state, and strengthened it.

14 And when they had completed it, they brought before the king and Yehoyada' the rest of the money, and they made of it vessels for the house of the Lord, the vessels of the service and for the sacrificing, and the spoons, and [other] vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt-offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Yehoyada'.

15 And Yehoyada' became old, and was full of days, and died: he was old one hundred and thirty years when he died.

16 And they buried him in the city of David among the kings; because he had done a good thing in Israel, and toward God, and his house.

17 But after the death of Yehoyada' came the princes of Judah, and bowed themselves down to the king. Then did the king hearken unto them.

18 And they forsook the house of the Lord the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols: and there came wrath over Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness.

19 And he sent prophets among them, to bring them back again unto the Lord; and they gave them warning; but they did not give ear.

20 And the spirit of God endued Zechariah the son of Yehoyada' the priest, and he stood up above the people, and he said unto them, Thus hath said the [true] God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord? ye cannot prosper so; because [as] ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you.

21 And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the command of the king in the court of the house of the Lord.

22 And king Joash did not remember the kindness which Yehoyada' his father had shown to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The Lord will see [this], and require [my blood].

23 And it came to pass at the expiration of the year, that the army of Syria came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and all their spoil they sent off unto the king of Damascus.

24 Indeed with a small company of men did the army of Syria come; but the Lord delivered into their hand an army exceedingly numerous; because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers. And on Joash they executed punishment.

25 And when these were gone away from him—for they left him [suffering] with great diseases—his own servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Yehoyada' the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings.

26 And these are those that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shim'ath the 'Ammonitess, and Yehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess.

27 Now concerning his sons, and the great prophecy concerning him, and the founding of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amazyahu his son became king in his stead.