2 Kings 12
1 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].
In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.
2 All his life, he did what pleased Yahweh, because Jehoiada the priest instructed/taught him.
And Jehoash did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, all the days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
3 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].
Only, the high places were not removed: the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
4 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.
And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, the money of every one that passes [the account], the money at which every man is valued, [and] all the money that comes into any man's heart to bring into the house of Jehovah,
5 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.”
let the priests take it, every man of his acquaintance; and let them repair the breaches of the house, wherever any breach is found.
6 But after Joash had been ruling for almost twenty-three years, the priests still had not repaired anything in the temple.
And it was [so that] in the twenty-third year of king Jehoash, the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.
7 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!”
Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the priests, and said to them, Why have ye not repaired the breaches of the house? And now receive no money of your acquaintances, but give it for the breaches of the house.
8 The priests agreed to do that, and they also agreed that they themselves would not do the repair work.
And the priests consented to receive no money of the people, and that they should only repair the breaches of the house.
9 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.
And Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Jehovah; and the priests that kept the door put into it all the money brought into the house of Jehovah.
10 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.
And it came to pass when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they tied up and counted the money that was found in the house of Jehovah.
11 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,
And they gave the money, weighed out into the hands of them that did the work, who were appointed over the house of Jehovah; and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders that wrought upon the house of Jehovah,
12 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.
and to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of Jehovah, and for all that had to be laid out on the house for repairs.
13 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.
However there were not made for the house of Jehovah basons of silver, knives, bowls, trumpets, nor any utensil of gold or utensil of silver, of the money that was brought [into] the house of Jehovah;
14 All that money was given to the men who were doing the work of repairing the temple.
but they gave that to the workmen, and repaired the house of Jehovah with it.
15 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.
And they did not reckon with the men into whose hand they gave the money to be bestowed on workmen; for they dealt faithfully.
16 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.
The money of trespass-offerings, and the money of sin-offerings, was not brought into the house of Jehovah: it was for the priests.
17 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.
Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it. And Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem.
18 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.
And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold found in the treasures of the house of Jehovah and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria; and he went away from Jerusalem.
19 [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’.
And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
20 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.
And his servants rose up and made a conspiracy, and smote Joash in the house of Millo, at the descent of Silla.
And Jozachar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.
