2 Kings 12
1 When Jehu had been ruling Israel for almost seven years, Joash became the king of Judah. He ruled in Jerusalem for 40 years. His mother was Zibiah, from Beersheba [city].
Joash became king in the seventh year of the reign of Jehu, and he reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2 All his life, he did what pleased Yahweh, because Jehoiada the priest instructed/taught him.
Joash did what was right in the Lord's sight during the years that Jehoiada the priest advised him.
3 But the places where the people worshiped [Yahweh] on the tops of hills were not destroyed, and they continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense at those places, [instead of at the place that God had chosen for them in Jerusalem].
Even so, the high places were not removed—the people went on sacrificing and presenting burnt offerings at these places.
4 Joash said to the priests, “You must take all the money which the people contribute, both the money they are required to give and the money that they themselves decide to give, as sacred offerings to buy things for the temple.
Joash told the priests, “Collect together all the money that is brought as holy offerings to the Lord's Temple, whether the census money, the money from individual vows, and the money brought as a voluntary donation to the Lord's Temple.
5 Each priest must take the money from people who know him (OR, from one of the treasurers), and he must use that money to repair the temple whenever he sees that there is something that needs to be repaired.”
Let each priest receive the money from those who give, and use it to repair whatever damage is discovered in the Temple.”
6 But after Joash had been ruling for almost twenty-three years, the priests still had not repaired anything in the temple.
But by the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash, the priests still had not repaired the damage to the Temple.
7 So Joash summoned Jehoiada and the other priests and said to them, “(Why are you not repairing things in the temple?/You should have been repairing things in the temple!) [RHQ] From now on, you must not keep the money that you receive from people who know you (OR, the treasurers). You must give it to the people who will be repairing things in the temple!”
So King Joash called together Jehoiada and the other priests and asked, “Why haven't you repaired the damage in the Temple? Don't use any more money you're given for yourselves, instead hand it over to others to repair the Temple.”
8 The priests agreed to do that, and they also agreed that they themselves would not do the repair work.
The priests agreed not to receive any more money from the people, and that they wouldn't carry out the repairs to the Temple themselves.
9 Then Jehoiada took a chest and bored a hole in the lid. He placed it alongside the altar [for burning incense/sacrifices] that was on the right as anyone enters the temple. The priests who guarded the entrance to the temple put in the box the money that was brought to the temple.
Jehoiada the priest took a large wooden box, cut a hole in its lid, and placed it on the right side of the altar next to the entrance to the Lord's Temple. There the priests who guarded the doorway put all the money brought into the Lord's Temple into the collection box.
10 Whenever they saw that there was a lot of money in the chest, the king’s secretary and the Supreme Priest would come and count the money. Then they would put it in bags and tie the bags shut.
Whenever they saw there was a lot of money in the box, the king's secretary and the high priest would come, count the money brought into the Lord's Temple, and put it into bags.
11 Then, after they weighed it, they would give the money to the men who supervised the work in the temple. Then the supervisors would use that money to pay the carpenters and builders who did the repair work in the temple,
Then they weighed out the money and gave it to the supervisors of the work on the Lord's Temple. They paid the ones doing the work—the carpenters, builders,
12 and the masons and the stone cutters. Also with some of that money they bought timber and stones that had been cut to be used in the repair work, and to pay all the other expenses for the repair work.
masons, and stonecutters. They also bought the timber and blocks of cut stone needed for the repair of the Lord's Temple, and paid all the other costs of restoring the Temple.
13 But they did not use any of that money [to pay men] to make silver cups or wick trimmers or bowls or trumpets or any other items made of silver or gold to be used in the temple.
However, the money collected for the Lord's Temple was not used for making silver basins, lamp trimmers, bowls, trumpets, or any items of gold or silver for the Lord's Temple.
14 All that money was given to the men who were doing the work of repairing the temple.
It was used to pay the workers doing the repairs to the Lord's Temple.
15 The men who supervised the work always did things honestly, so the king’s secretary and the Supreme Priest never required that the supervisors report what they had spent the money for.
No accounts were demanded from the men who received the money to pay the workers because they did everything honestly.
16 But the money that people gave to pay for the wrong things that they had done and the money they gave to purify themselves because of the sins that they had committed was not put in the chest. That money belonged to the priests.
The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not collected for the Lord's Temple because it belonged to the priests.
17 At that time, Hazael, the king of Syria, went [with his army] and attacked Gath [city] and conquered it. Then he decided that they would attack Jerusalem.
Around this time Hazael, king of Aram, went and attacked Gath, and captured it. Then he marched to attack Jerusalem.
18 So Joash, the king of Judah, took all the money that the previous kings, Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, had dedicated to Yahweh. He added some of his own money, and all the gold that was in the rooms in the temple where valuable things were kept/stored, and the gold in his palace, and sent it all to King Hazael, [to (appease him/persuade him to not attack Jerusalem)]. So King Hazael [took his army] away from Jerusalem.
So King Joash of Judah took all the holy objects dedicated by his forefathers Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah, along with all the items he had dedicated himself, and all the gold found in the treasuries of the Lord's Temple and the royal palace, and he sent everything to Hazael, king of Aram. So Hazael retreated from Jerusalem.
19 [If you want to read more of] what Joash did, [it] is all written [RHQ] in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Judah’.
The rest of what happened in Joash's reign and all that he did are recorded in the Book of Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
20 Joash’s officials plotted against him, and two of them killed Joash on the road that goes down to [the] Silla [district]. The two men who did that were Jozabad, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer. Joash was buried in the place where his ancestors were buried, [in the part of Jerusalem called] ‘The City of David’. Then Joash’s son Amaziah became the king of Judah.
His officials plotted against him and murdered him at Beth Millo, on the road that goes down to Silla.
The officials who attacked and killed him were Jozacar, son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, son of Shomer. They buried him with his forefathers in the City of David. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.
