2 Kings 12

1 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash has reigned, and he has reigned forty years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Zibiah of Beer-Sheba,

When Jehu had been ruling Israel for almost seven years, Joash became the king of Judah. He ruled in Jerusalem for 40 years. His mother was Zibiah, from Beersheba [city].

2 and Jehoash does that which is right in the eyes of YHWH all his days in which Jehoiada the priest directed him,

All his life, he did what pleased Yahweh, because Jehoiada the priest instructed/taught him.

3 only, the high places have not been removed—the people are still sacrificing and making incense in high places.

But the places where the people worshiped [Yahweh] on the tops of hills were not destroyed, and they continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense at those places, [instead of at the place that God had chosen for them in Jerusalem].

4 And Jehoash says to the priests, “All the money of the sanctified things that is brought into the house of YHWH, the money of him who is passing over, the money of each of the souls—his valuation, all the money that goes up on the heart of a man to bring into the house of YHWH,

Joash said to the priests, “You must take all the money which the people contribute, both the money they are required to give and the money that they themselves decide to give, as sacred offerings to buy things for the temple.

5 the priests take to themselves, each from his acquaintance, and they strengthen the breach of the house in all [places] there where a breach is found.”

Each priest must take the money from people who know him (OR, from one of the treasurers), and he must use that money to repair the temple whenever he sees that there is something that needs to be repaired.”

6 And it comes to pass, in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests have not strengthened the breach of the house,

But after Joash had been ruling for almost twenty-three years, the priests still had not repaired anything in the temple.

7 and King Jehoash calls to Jehoiada the priest, and to the priests, and says to them, “Why are you not strengthening the breach of the house? And now, receive no money from your acquaintances, but give it for the breach of the house.”

So Joash summoned Jehoiada and the other priests and said to them, “(Why are you not repairing things in the temple?/You should have been repairing things in the temple!) [RHQ] From now on, you must not keep the money that you receive from people who know you (OR, the treasurers). You must give it to the people who will be repairing things in the temple!”

8 And the priests do not consent to receive money from the people, nor to strengthen the breach of the house,

The priests agreed to do that, and they also agreed that they themselves would not do the repair work.

9 and Jehoiada the priest takes a chest, and pierces a hole in its lid, and puts it near the altar, on the right side, as one comes into the house of YHWH, and the priests keeping the threshold have put all the money there that is brought into the house of YHWH.

Then Jehoiada took a chest and bored a hole in the lid. He placed it alongside the altar [for burning incense/sacrifices] that was on the right as anyone enters the temple. The priests who guarded the entrance to the temple put in the box the money that was brought to the temple.

10 And it comes to pass, at their seeing that the money [is] abundant in the chest, that there goes up a scribe of the king, and of the high priest, and they bind [it] up, and count the money that is found [in] the house of YHWH,

Whenever they saw that there was a lot of money in the chest, the king’s secretary and the Supreme Priest would come and count the money. Then they would put it in bags and tie the bags shut.

11 and have given the weighed money into the hands of those doing the work, those inspecting the house of YHWH, and they bring it out to those working in the wood, and to builders who are working in the house of YHWH,

Then, after they weighed it, they would give the money to the men who supervised the work in the temple. Then the supervisors would use that money to pay the carpenters and builders who did the repair work in the temple,

12 and to those [repairing] the wall, and to hewers of stone, and to buy wood and hewn stones to strengthen the breach of the house of YHWH, and for all that goes out on the house, to strengthen it.

and the masons and the stone cutters. Also with some of that money they bought timber and stones that had been cut to be used in the repair work, and to pay all the other expenses for the repair work.

13 Only, there is not made for the house of YHWH basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, any vessel of gold, and vessel of silver, out of the money that is brought into the house of YHWH;

But they did not use any of that money [to pay men] to make silver cups or wick trimmers or bowls or trumpets or any other items made of silver or gold to be used in the temple.

14 for they give it to those doing the work, and they have strengthened the house of YHWH with it,

All that money was given to the men who were doing the work of repairing the temple.

15 and they do not reckon with the men into whose hand they give the money to give to those doing the work, for they are dealing in faithfulness.

The men who supervised the work always did things honestly, so the king’s secretary and the Supreme Priest never required that the supervisors report what they had spent the money for.

16 The money of a trespass-offering and the money of sin-offerings is not brought into the house of YHWH—it is for the priests.

But the money that people gave to pay for the wrong things that they had done and the money they gave to purify themselves because of the sins that they had committed was not put in the chest. That money belonged to the priests.

17 Then Hazael king of Aram goes up and fights against Gath, and captures it, and Hazael sets his face to go up against Jerusalem;

At that time, Hazael, the king of Syria, went [with his army] and attacked Gath [city] and conquered it. Then he decided that they would attack Jerusalem.

18 and Jehoash king of Judah takes all the sanctified things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had sanctified, and his own sanctified things, and all the gold that is found in the treasures of the house of YHWH and of the house of the king, and sends [them] to Hazael king of Aram, and he goes up from off Jerusalem.

So Joash, the king of Judah, took all the money that the previous kings, Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, had dedicated to Yahweh. He added some of his own money, and all the gold that was in the rooms in the temple where valuable things were kept/stored, and the gold in his palace, and sent it all to King Hazael, [to (appease him/persuade him to not attack Jerusalem)]. So King Hazael [took his army] away from Jerusalem.

19 And the rest of the matters of Joash and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

[If you want to read more of] what Joash did, [it] is all written [RHQ] in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Judah’.

20 And his servants rise, and make a conspiracy, and strike Joash in the house of Millo, that is going down to Silla.

Joash’s officials plotted against him, and two of them killed Joash on the road that goes down to [the] Silla [district]. The two men who did that were Jozabad, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer. Joash was buried in the place where his ancestors were buried, [in the part of Jerusalem called] ‘The City of David’. Then Joash’s son Amaziah became the king of Judah.

21 Indeed, Jozachar son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad son of Shemer, his servants, have struck him, and he dies, and they bury him with his fathers in the City of David, and his son Amaziah reigns in his stead.