2 Kings 12

King Joash & Temple Repairs

1 In the seventh year of Jehu’s rule, Joash 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 his days, because Jehoiada the priest was guiding him.

3 However, the high places were not taken down; the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense on those high places.

4 Joash told the priests, “All the money that comes into the Lord’s temple as holy offerings, the money from personal taxes, and the money that people willingly bring to the Lord’s temple”

5 “The priests should collect it, each from his own contact, and they should use it to fix up anything that is broken in the temple, wherever they find something broken.”

6 But by the twenty-third year of King Joash, the priests still had not fixed up what was broken in the temple.

7 So King Joash called Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, “Why are you not all fixing up what is broken in the temple, Do not take anymore money from your contacts, but hand it over for the repair of the temple!”

8 So the priests agreed they would not take any more money from the people, and they would not be responsible for fixing up the temple themselves.

9 Jehoiada the priest took a chest, drilled a hole in its lid, and put it next to the altar, on the right side as you go into the Lord’s temple. The priests who guarded the entrance put all the money that was brought into the Lord’s temple into it.

10 Whenever they saw that there was a lot of money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest would come up, count the money that was found in the Lord’s temple, and bag it up.

11 Then they would give the weighed-out money to the foremen who were in charge of the work on the Lord’s temple. And they would pay it out to the carpenters and builders who were working on the Lord’s temple,

12 And to the masons and stonecutters. They also used it to buy timber and cut stone to fix up what was broken in the Lord’s temple, and for all the expenses for the temple’s repair.

13 However, no silver cups, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any gold or silver items were made for the Lord’s temple from the money brought into the Lord’s temple.

14 Instead, they gave that money to the workmen, and they used it to fix up the Lord’s temple.

15 They did not ask for accountability from the men to whom they gave the money to pay the workmen, because they were honest in their dealings.

16 The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the Lord’s temple; it belonged to the priests.

17 At that time, Hazael king of Aram rolled up and fought against Gath and took it. Then Hazael set his sights on attacking Jerusalem.

18 But Joash king of Judah took all the holy stuff that his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, along with his own holy stuff, and all the gold found in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the king’s palace, and sent it to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael bounced from Jerusalem.

19 As for the rest of Joash’s story, all he did, is it not written in the book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah,

20 His officials rose up and conspired against him and killed Joash at the house of Millo, on the way down to Silla.

21 Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer, his officials, struck him down, and he passed away. They buried him with his ancestors in the City of David. And his son Amaziah took over as king.