1Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
3Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he was the father of sons and daughters.
4After this, Joash decided to repair the house of the LORD.
5He gathered the priests and the Levites together and said to them, "Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money from all Israel to repair the house of your God year by year. See that you do it quickly." But the Levites did not hurry.
6So the king called for Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, "Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the collection that Moses the servant of the LORD, and the congregation of Israel, commanded for the tent of witness?"
7For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God. They had also used all the holy things of the house of the LORD for the Baals.
8At the king's command they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of the LORD.
9They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the LORD the collection that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.
10All the leaders and all the people were glad, and they brought their gifts and put them in the chest until it was full.
11Whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the hand of the Levites, and they saw that there was much money in it, the king's scribe and the high priest's officer came and emptied the chest. Then they took it and carried it back to its place. They did this day by day, and gathered a great amount of money.
12The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of the LORD. They hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the LORD, and also workers in iron and bronze to mend the house of the LORD.
13So the workmen worked, and the work was finished by them. They set the house of God in good order again and made it strong.
14When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada. From it were made vessels for the house of the LORD: vessels for the service and for the offerings, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD all the time, all the days of Jehoiada.
15But Jehoiada grew old and had lived a full life when he died. He was a hundred and thirty years old when he died.
16They buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house.
17Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them.
18They left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols. And anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this wrong they had done.
19Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the LORD. The prophets warned them, but they would not listen.
20The Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood above the people and said to them, "This is what God says: Why do you break the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot succeed? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you."
21And they plotted against him, and at the king's command they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the LORD.
22So Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had shown him, but killed his son. And as he died, he said, "May the LORD look on this, and call it to account."
23At the end of the year the army of Syria came up against him. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the leaders of the people from among the people, and sent all the plunder they took to the king of Damascus.
24The army of the Syrians came with only a small company of men, but the LORD gave a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they carried out judgment against Joash.
25When they had left him (for they left him badly wounded), his own servants plotted against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest. They killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.
26These are the men who plotted against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabite woman.
27Now about his sons, and the great burdens laid upon him, and the repairing of the house of God, look, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.