II Kings 12 Joash Repairs the Temple

 II Kings 12

Joash Repairs the Temple

1 In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

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

3 Only the high places were not removed, because the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

4 Then Joash said to the priests, "All the money for the holy things that is brought into the house of the Lord, even the money of the one who is counted, the money of each person according to his valuation, and all the money that he brings voluntarily into the house of the Lord.

5 The priests shall receive it, each of his acquaintances; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, according to every breach that is found in it." 6 Now it came to pass in the twenty-third year of King Joash, that the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.

7 Then King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and said to them, "Why do you not repair the breaches of the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but give it for the breaches of the house."

8 So the priests agreed not to take any more money from the people, nor to repair the breaches of the house.

9 But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right hand of those who entered the house of the Lord. And the priests who kept the door of the gate put there all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord.

10 So it came to pass, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe came up with the high priest, and they counted and bagged the money that was found in the house of the Lord. 

11 And they weighed out the money, and gave it to the workmen, who had charge of the house of the Lord: and they distributed it to the carpenters and builders, who repaired the house of the Lord; 

12 and to the masons and carpenters, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord, and for all that was given for the house to repair it. 

13 But with the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, they made neither silver bowls, nor fleshhooks, nor basins, nor trumpets, nor any vessels of gold, nor vessels of silver for the house of the Lord. 

14 For they gave it to those who did the work, and they repaired the house of the Lord with it. 

15 Nor did they demand an account of the men into whose hands they gave the money, to give to the workmen, because they worked faithfully. 

16 But the money for the trespass offerings and the money for the sin offerings were not brought into the house of the Lord, but were for the priests.

17 Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and captured it. Afterward, Hazael made a show of desecration against Jerusalem.

18 But Joash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat, Joram and Ahaziah, his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and in the king's house, and sent them to Hazael king of Syria; and he departed from Jerusalem.

19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

 20 Then his servants rose up and conspired against him, and they struck Joash in the house of Millo, which goes down to Silla.

21 For Josakar the son of Shimeath and Josabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him down, and he died. They buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.