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 Joas began to reign: and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Sebia of Bersabee.
2 All his life, he did what pleased Yahweh, because Jehoiada the priest instructed/taught him.
And Joas did that which was right before the Lord all the days that Joiada the priest taught 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].
But yet he took not away the high places: for the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in 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 Joas said to the priests: O All the money of the sanctified things, which is brought into the temple of the Lord by those that pass, which is offered for the price of a soul, and which of their own accord, and of their own free heart they bring into the temple of the Lord:
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 according to their order, and repair the house, wheresoever they shall see any thing that wanteth repairing.
6 But after Joash had been ruling for almost twenty-three years, the priests still had not repaired anything in the temple.
Now till the three and twentieth year of king Joas, the priests did not make the repairs of the temple.
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!”
And king Joas called Joiada the high priest and the priests, saying to them: Why do you not repair the temple? Take you therefore money no more according to your order, but restore it for the repairing of the temple.
8 The priests agreed to do that, and they also agreed that they themselves would not do the repair work.
And the priests were forbidden to take any more money of the people, and to make the repairs 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 Joiada the high priest took a chest and bored a hole in the top, and set it by the altar at the right hand of them that came into the house of the Lord, and the priests that kept the doors put therein all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord.
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 when they saw that there was very much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and poured it out, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord:
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 it out by number and measure into the hands of them that were over the builders of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to the carpenters, and the masons that wrought in the house of the Lord,
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 made the repairs: and to them that cut stones, and to buy timber, and stones, to be hewed, that the repairs of the house of the Lord might be completely finished, and wheresoever there was need of expenses to uphold the house.
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.
But there were not made of the same money for the temple of the Lord, bowls, or fleshhooks, or censers, or trumpets, or any vessel of gold and silver, of the money that was brought into the temple of the Lord.
14 All that money was given to the men who were doing the work of repairing the temple.
For it was given to them that did the work, that the temple of the Lord might be repaired.
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 reckoned not with the men that received the money to distribute it to the workmen, but they bestowed it 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.
But the money for trespass, and the money for sins, they brought not into the temple of the Lord, because 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 Geth, and took it and set his face to go up to 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.
Wherefore Joas king of Juda took all the sanctified things, which Josaphat, and Joram, and Ochozias his fathers the kings of Juda had dedicated to holy uses, and which he himself had offered: and all the silver that could be found in the treasures of the temple of the Lord, and in the king’s palace: and sent it to Hazael king of Syria, and he went off 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 Joas, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?
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 arose, and conspired among themselves, and slew Joas in the house of Mello in the descent of Sella.
For Josachar the son of Semaath, and Jozabad the son of Somer his servant struck him, and he died: and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amasias his son reigned in his stead.
