1 ¶ Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, His mother was Zibiah of Beersheba, and he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem.

2 And Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD as long as Jehoiada the priest lived.

3 And Jehoiada found two wives for him; and he had sons and daughters.

4 After this, Joash decided to repair the temple of the LORD.

5 So he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah, and collect money from every Israelite to repair the house of your God as needed year by year, and see that you do it quickly. However the Levites did not hurry.

6 So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest, and said to him, Why didn’t you require the Levites to collect from Judah and Jerusalem the tax, required of the congregation of Israel, by the LORD’s servant Moses, for the tabernacle of witness?

7 For the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah, had broken into the house of God; and used all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD to make images of Baal.

8 So at the king’s command they made a chest, and set it outside the gate of the LORD’s temple.

9 And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for the LORD the collection that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness.

10 And all the princes and people rejoiced, and brought it in, and cast it into the chest, until they had finished.

11 Now when the Levites brought the chest to the king’s office, and saw that there was much money in it, the king’s scribe and the high priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and then returned it to its place. Doing that from day to day, they gathered money in abundance.

12 And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of repairing the house of the LORD, and hired stone cutters and carpenters to repair the house of the LORD, and also those who worked with iron and brass to mend the house of the LORD.

13 So the workmen labored, and the work progressed in their hands, and they restored the house of God to its proper condition, and reinforced it.

14 And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, from it were made utensils for the house of the LORD, utensils for ministering, and for offering, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD continually all the days of Jehoiada.

15 ¶ But Jehoiada grew old, and was of a ripe old age when he died; he was a hundred and thirty years old when he died.

16 And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house.

17 Now after the death of Jehoiada the governors of Judah came, and bowed down before the king. Then the king listened to them.

18 And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sin.

19 Yet God sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not listen.

20 Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood over the people, and said to them, God says this, Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you.

21 And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the command of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

22 Thus Joash the king forgot the kindness that Jehoiada his father had shown him, and killed his son. And when Zechariah died, he said, May the LORD see it, and take vengeance.

23 And at the end of the year, the army of Syria came up against Joash: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and killed all the leading men among the people, and sent all the spoils they took from them to the king of Damascus.

24 For the Syrians had come with a small number of men, but the LORD delivered Joash’s large army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So the Syrians executed judgment against Joash.

25 And when they departed from him, (leaving him very ill,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

26 And these were the men who conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess.

27 Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the prophesies against him, and the rebuilding of the house of God, behold, they are recorded in the writing of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.