2 Kings 12

1 In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba.  * 12:1 2Kg 11:2,21; 2Ch 24:12 Throughout the time the priest Jehoiada  * 12:2 2Kg 11:4,17 instructed  * 12:2 Mal 2:6–7 him, Joash did what was right in the Lord’s sight.  * 12:2 Dt 12:25; 2Sm 8:153 Yet the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.  * 12:3 1Kg 3:3; 2Kg 14:4; 15:35

Repairing the Temple

4 Then  * 12:4–12 2Ch 24:5–12 Joash said to the priests, "All the dedicated silver brought to the Lord’s temple,  * 12:4 2Kg 22:4 census silver,  * 12:4 Ex 30:13–16 silver from vows,  * 12:4 Lv 27:2–28 and all silver voluntarily given  * 12:4 Ex 35:5 for the Lord’s temple —  5 each priest is to take it from his assessor  * 12:5 Hb obscure and repair whatever damage is found in the temple."  * 12:5 Lit repair the breach of the temple wherever there is found a breach,* 12:5 2Kg 22:5

6 But by the twenty-third year  * 12:6 2Kg 11:21 of the reign of King Joash, the priests had not repaired the damage  * 12:6 Lit breach in 2Kg 12:5–12 to the temple.  * 12:6 2Ch 24:57 So King Joash called the priest Jehoiada  * 12:7–8 2Kg 11:4–6 and the other priests and asked, "Why haven’t you repaired the temple’s damage? Since you haven’t, don’t take any silver from your assessors; instead, hand it over for the repair of the temple." 8 So the priests agreed that they would receive no silver from the people and would not be the ones to repair the temple’s damage.

9 Then the priest Jehoiada took a chest,  * 12:9 2Ch 23:1; 24:8 bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the Lord’s temple; the priests who guarded the threshold put into the chest all the silver that was brought to the Lord’s temple.  * 12:9 Mk 12:41; Lk 21:110 Whenever they saw there was a large amount of silver in the chest, the king’s secretary  * 12:10 2Sm 8:17; 2Kg 19:2 and the high priest would go bag up and tally the silver found in the Lord’s temple.  * 12:10 2Ch 24:1111 Then they would give the weighed silver to those doing the work — those who oversaw the Lord’s temple. They in turn would pay it out to those working on the Lord’s temple — the carpenters, the builders, 12 the masons, and the stonecutters — and would use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the damage to the Lord’s temple  * 12:11–12 2Kg 22:5–6; 2Ch 24:11–12 and for all expenses for temple repairs.

13 However, no silver bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, trumpets, or any articles of gold or silver  * 12:13 1Kg 7:48,50–51; 2Ch 24:14 were made for the Lord’s temple from the contributions  * 12:13 Lit silver brought to the Lord’s temple. 14 Instead, it was given to those doing the work, and they repaired the Lord’s temple with it. 15 No accounting was required from the men who received the silver to pay those doing the work, since they worked with integrity.  * 12:15 2Kg 22:7; 2Ch 34:1216 The silver from the guilt offering and the sin offering was not brought to the Lord’s temple since it belonged to the priests.  * 12:16 Lv 4:24,29; 5:15–18; 7:7

Aramean Invasion of Judah

17 At that time King Hazael  * 12:17 1Kg 19:17; 2Kg 8:12; 10:32 of Aram marched up and fought against Gath and captured it. Then he planned to attack Jerusalem.  * 12:17–21 2Ch 24:23–2718 So King Joash of Judah took all the items consecrated by himself and by his ancestors — Judah’s kings Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah — as well as all the gold found in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and in the king’s palace, and he sent them to King Hazael of Aram.  * 12:18 2Kg 16:8; 18:15–16 Then Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem.

Joash Assassinated

19 The rest of the events of Joash’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.  * 12:19 1Kg 22:4520 Joash’s servants conspired against him and attacked him  * 12:20 2Kg 14:5 at Beth-millo  * 12:20 Jdg 9:6 on the road that goes down to Silla. 21 It was his servants Jozabad  * 12:21 Some Hb mss, LXX read Jozacar; 2Ch 24:26 reads Zabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer who attacked him. He died  * 12:21 2Ch 24:26 and they buried him with his ancestors in the city of David, and his son Amaziah became king in his place.  * 12:21 2Kg 14:1; 2Ch 24:27