2 Kings 12

12 ¹ In Jehu's seventh year Jehoash became king; he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother was Zibiah of Beersheba. ² Jehoash did what was right in our Father's eyes all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³ Still, the high places remained; the people kept sacrificing and burning incense there.

⁴ Jehoash said to the priests, "All the money for sacred gifts brought into the house of our Father—the census money, each person's assessed valuation, and all money anyone's heart moves him to bring to the house of our Father ⁵ the priests are to take it, each from his treasurer, and repair whatever damage is found in the temple."

⁶ By King Jehoash's twenty-third year, the priests still had not repaired the temple's damage. ⁷ King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, asking, "Why aren't you repairing the temple's damage? Now take no more money from your treasurers—hand it over for repairs."

⁸ The priests agreed to take no more money from the people and not repair the temple themselves. ⁹ Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right as you enter the house of our Father. The priests guarding the threshold put all the money brought there into the house of our Father. ¹⁰ Seeing much money in the chest, the king's secretary and high priest came up, counted it, and bagged the money found in the house of our Father. ¹¹ They gave the weighed money to the workers overseeing the house of our Father, who paid the carpenters and builders working on the house of our Father, ¹² to masons and stonecutters, to buy timber and cut stone to repair the damage to the house of our Father, and all spent on its repair. ¹³ No money brought into our Father's house made silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any gold or silver item; ¹⁴ it was paid to the workers, who used it to repair the house of our Father. ¹⁵ They demanded no accounting from the men handed the money to pay the workers, for they acted honestly. ¹⁶ Money from guilt and sin offerings did not enter our Father's house; it belonged to the priests.

The Fall of Joash

¹⁷ Then Hazael king of Aram attacked Gath and captured it, then set out to attack Jerusalem. ¹⁸ But Jehoash king of Judah took all the gifts his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had dedicated, plus his own, and all the gold in the storerooms of the house of our Father and the royal palace, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael pulled back from Jerusalem.

¹⁹ The rest of Joash's acts, all he did — are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰ His own officials conspired and struck Joash down at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla. ²¹ His officials Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer struck and killed him. They buried him with his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Amaziah reigned in his place.