Repairing the Temple
4 Afterwards, Joash took it to heart to renovate the Lord's temple.
5
So he gathered the priests and Levites and said, "Go out to the cities of Judah and collect money from all Israel to repair the temple of your God as needed year by year, and do it quickly." However, the Levites did not hurry.
6
So the king called Jehoiada the high [priest] and said, "Why haven't you required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax [imposed by] the Lord's servant Moses and the assembly of Israel for the tent of the testimony?
7
For the sons of that wicked Athaliah broke into the Lord's temple and even used the sacred things of the Lord's temple for the Baals."
8
At the king's command a chest was made and placed outside the gate of the Lord's temple.
9
Then a proclamation was issued in Judah and Jerusalem that the tax God's servant Moses [imposed] on Israel in the wilderness be brought to the Lord.
10
All the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought [the tax], and put it in the chest until it was full.
11
Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king's overseers, and when they saw that there was a large amount of money, the king's secretary and the high priest's deputy came and emptied the chest, picked it up, and returned it to its place. They did this daily and gathered the money in abundance.
12
Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those in charge of the labor on the Lord's temple, who were hiring masons and carpenters to renovate the Lord's temple, also blacksmiths and coppersmiths to repair the Lord's temple.
13
The workmen did their work, and through them the repairs progressed. They restored God's temple to its specifications and reinforced it.
14
When they finished, they presented the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, who made articles for the Lord's temple with it-articles for ministry and for making burnt offerings, and ladles and articles of gold and silver. They regularly offered burnt offerings in the Lord's temple throughout Jehoiada's life.