מלכים ב 12

1 בשנת שבע ליהוא מלך יהואש וארבעים שנה מלך בירושלם ושם אמו צביה מבאר שבע׃

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 ויעש יהואש הישר בעיני יהוה כל ימיו אשר הורהו יהוידע הכהן׃

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

3 רק הבמות לא סרו עוד העם מזבחים ומקטרים בבמות׃

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 ויאמר יהואש אל הכהנים כל כסף הקדשים אשר יובא בית יהוה כסף עובר איש כסף נפשות ערכו כל כסף אשר יעלה על לב איש להביא בית יהוה׃

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 יקחו להם הכהנים איש מאת מכרו והם יחזקו את בדק הבית לכל אשר ימצא שם בדק׃

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 ויהי בשנת עשרים ושלש שנה למלך יהואש לא חזקו הכהנים את בדק הבית׃

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

7 ויקרא המלך יהואש ליהוידע הכהן ולכהנים ויאמר אלהם מדוע אינכם מחזקים את בדק הבית ועתה אל תקחו כסף מאת מכריכם כי לבדק הבית תתנהו׃

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 ויאתו הכהנים לבלתי קחת כסף מאת העם ולבלתי חזק את בדק הבית׃

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

9 ויקח יהוידע הכהן ארון אחד ויקב חר בדלתו ויתן אתו אצל המזבח בימין בבוא איש בית יהוה ונתנו שמה הכהנים שמרי הסף את כל הכסף המובא בית יהוה׃

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 ויהי כראותם כי רב הכסף בארון ויעל ספר המלך והכהן הגדול ויצרו וימנו את הכסף הנמצא בית יהוה׃

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 ונתנו את הכסף המתכן על יד עשי המלאכה הפקדים בית יהוה ויוציאהו לחרשי העץ ולבנים העשים בית יהוה׃

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 ולגדרים ולחצבי האבן ולקנות עצים ואבני מחצב לחזק את בדק בית יהוה ולכל אשר יצא על הבית לחזקה׃

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 אך לא יעשה בית יהוה ספות כסף מזמרות מזרקות חצצרות כל כלי זהב וכלי כסף מן הכסף המובא בית יהוה׃

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 כי לעשי המלאכה יתנהו וחזקו בו את בית יהוה׃

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

15 ולא יחשבו את האנשים אשר יתנו את הכסף על ידם לתת לעשי המלאכה כי באמנה הם עשים׃

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 כסף אשם וכסף חטאות לא יובא בית יהוה לכהנים יהיו׃

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 אז יעלה חזאל מלך ארם וילחם על גת וילכדה וישם חזאל פניו לעלות על ירושלם׃

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 ויקח יהואש מלך יהודה את כל הקדשים אשר הקדישו יהושפט ויהורם ואחזיהו אבתיו מלכי יהודה ואת קדשיו ואת כל הזהב הנמצא באצרות בית יהוה ובית המלך וישלח לחזאל מלך ארם ויעל מעל ירושלם׃

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 ויתר דברי יואש וכל אשר עשה הלוא הם כתובים על ספר דברי הימים למלכי יהודה׃

[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 ויקמו עבדיו ויקשרו קשר ויכו את יואש בית מלא היורד סלא׃

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 ויוזבד בן שמעת ויהוזבד בן שמר עבדיו הכהו וימת ויקברו אתו עם אבתיו בעיר דוד וימלך אמציה בנו תחתיו׃