2 Chronicles 24

King Joash: Good Start, Bad Finish

1 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for forty years. His mama’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba.

2 Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

3 Jehoiada got him two wives, and he had sons and daughters.

4 After all that, Joash made up his mind to repair the Lord’s temple.

5 He gathered the priests and Levites and told them, “Go throughout the cities of Judah and collect money from all Israel to fix up the temple of your God year by year. And you all need to be quick about it!” But the Levites were not quick.

6 So the king called Jehoiada the chief and asked him, “Why are you not making the Levites bring in the tax from Judah and Jerusalem that Moses, the Lord’s servant, and the assembly of Israel demanded for the Tent of Testimony?”

7 (Because the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had messed up God’s temple, and they even used all the holy things of the Lord’s temple for the Baals.)

8 So the king commanded, and they made a chest and put it outside the gate of the Lord’s temple.

9 They made an announcement throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had put on Israel in the desert.

10 And all the leaders and all the people were hyped and brought their money, dropping it into the chest until it was full.

11 And it happened, whenever the Levites would bring the chest to the king’s officers, and they saw there was a lot of money, the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer would come and empty the chest. Then they would carry it back to its spot. They did this regularly and collected a ton of money.

12 The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who were in charge of the work of the Lord’s temple. And they hired masons and carpenters to repair the Lord’s temple, and also iron and bronze craftsmen to fix up the Lord’s temple.

13 So the workmen got to it, and the repair work moved forward in their hands. They restored God’s temple to its original state and made it strong.

14 When they finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and they used it to make items for the Lord’s temple: items for service and burnt offerings, and pans, and gold and silver items. And they offered burnt offerings in the Lord’s temple regularly all the days of Jehoiada.

Joash’s Downfall

15 But Jehoiada got old, full of days, and passed away. He was a hundred thirty years old when he died.

16 They buried him in the City of David with the kings, because he had done good in Israel and for God and His temple.

17 After Jehoiada passed away, the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them.

18 They ditched the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the Asherah poles and idols. So anger from God came on Judah and Jerusalem because of their guilt.

19 Yet He sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord. They warned them, but they would not listen.

20 Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people and told them, “This is what God says: ‘Why are you all ditching the Lord’s commands, so you cannot succeed, Because you ditched the Lord, He ditched you!’”

21 But they conspired against him, and at the king’s command, they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.

22 So King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s pops, had shown him, but killed his son. And as he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and demand payment!”

23 At the turn of the year, the army of Aram rolled up against him. They came to Judah and Jerusalem and wiped out all the leaders of the people from among them, and sent all their loot back to the king of Damascus.

24 Even though the Aramean army came with a small crew, the Lord handed over a huge army to them, because Judah had ditched the Lord, the God of their ancestors. So they brought judgment on Joash.

25 When they left him (for they left him with severe injuries), his own officials conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed. So he passed away. They buried him in the City of David, but they did not bury him in the royal tombs.

26 Those who conspired against him were Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite.

27 As for his sons, and the many prophecies against him, and the rebuilding of God’s temple, look, it is written in the commentary on the Book of the Kings. And his son Amaziah took over as king in his place.