Joash Repairs the Temple
1 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.
2
2And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
3
Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had sons and daughters.
4
After this Joash
3decided to
4restore the house of the LORD.
5
And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, "Go out to the cities of
5Judah and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you act quickly." But the Levites did not act quickly.
6
So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief and said to him, "Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem
6the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the LORD, and the congregation of Israel for
7the tent of testimony?"
7
For
8the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had also used all
9the dedicated things of the house of the LORD for the Baals.
8
So the king commanded, and they made a chest and set it outside the gate of the house of the LORD.
9
And
10proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the LORD
11the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.
10
And all the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until they had finished.
11
And whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the Levites, when they saw that there was much money in it, the king's secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its place. Thus they did day after day, and collected money in abundance.