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, the reign of Joash began; he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah, of Beersheba.
2 All his life, he did what pleased Yahweh, because Jehoiada the priest instructed/taught him.
Joash did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh all the time, because Jehoiada the priest was instructing 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 the high places were not taken away. 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.
Joash said to the priests, “All the money that is brought in as sacred offerings into the house of Yahweh, that money for which each person is assessed—whether it is the money collected in the census, or the money received from personal vows, or the money brought in by people motivated by Yahweh in their hearts to give—
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.”
the priests should receive the money from one of their treasurers and repair whatever damage is found in the temple.”
6 But after Joash had been ruling for almost twenty-three years, the priests still had not repaired anything in the temple.
But by the twenty-third year of King Joash, the priests had not repaired anything in 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!”
Then King Joash called for Jehoiada the priest and for the other priests; he said to them, “Why have you not repaired anything in the temple? Now take no more money from your taxpayers, but take what has been collected for repairs of the temple and give it to those who can make the repairs.”
8 The priests agreed to do that, and they also agreed that they themselves would not do the repair work.
So the priests consented to take no more money from the people and not repair the temple themselves.
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.
Instead, Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Yahweh. The priests who were guarding the temple entrance put into it all the money that was brought to the house of Yahweh.
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.
Whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king's scribe and the high priest would come and put the money in bags and then count it, the money found in the temple of Yahweh.
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,
They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of men who took care of the temple of Yahweh. They paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the temple of Yahweh,
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 the masons and the stonecutters, for buying timber and cutting stone to repair the temple of Yahweh, and for all that was needed to be paid to repair it.
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 the money that was brought into the house of Yahweh did not pay to make for it any silver cups, lamp trimmers, basins, trumpets, or any gold or silver furnishing.
14 All that money was given to the men who were doing the work of repairing the temple.
They gave this money to those who did the work of repairing the house of Yahweh.
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.
In addition, they did not require the money paid for repairs to be accounted for by the men who received it and paid it to the workmen, because these men were honest.
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 the guilt offerings and the money for the sin offerings was not brought into the temple of Yahweh, because it belonged to 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 Aram attacked and fought against Gath, and took it. Hazael then turned to attack 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.
Joash king of Judah took all the things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had set apart, and what he had set apart, and all the gold that was found in the storerooms of the houses of Yahweh and of the king and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram. Then Hazael 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’.
As for the other matters concerning Joash, all that he did, are they not written in the book of the events 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.
His servants arose and plotted together; they attacked Joash in Beth Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla.
Jozabad son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad son of Shomer, his servants, attacked him, and he died. They buried Joash with his ancestors in the city of David, and Amaziah, his son, became king in his place.
