1Jehoash began his reign in the seventh year of Jehu's rule and reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah, from Beersheba.
2Jehoash did what was right in Yahweh's eyes throughout his life, as Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
3However, the places of worship on the hilltops were not removed. The people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there.
4Jehoash told the priests, "All the sacred money brought into Yahweh's temple—the regular money, the money from individual assessments, and any money that anyone feels moved in their heart to bring into the temple—
5the priests should take it from their donors, and they should use it to repair any damage to the temple wherever damage is found."
6But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash's reign, the priests still had not repaired the damage to the temple.
7Then King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, "Why haven't you repaired the damage to the temple? From now on, you are not to take any more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for the repair of the temple."
8The priests agreed that they would no longer take money from the people themselves, but they would not be responsible for repairing the temple.
9However, Jehoiada the priest took a chest, drilled a hole in its lid, and placed it next to the altar, on the right side as one enters Yahweh's temple. The priests who guarded the entrance put all the money that was brought into Yahweh's temple into it.
10When they saw that there was a lot of money in the chest, the king's scribe and the high priest came, put the money into bags, and counted what was found in Yahweh's temple.
11They gave the counted money to the workers who supervised the work on Yahweh's temple. They then paid it to the carpenters and builders who worked on Yahweh's temple,
12and to the masons and stonecutters, and to buy timber and cut stone to repair the damage to Yahweh's temple, covering all the expenses for its repair.
13However, the money brought into Yahweh's temple was not used to make silver cups, wick trimmers, bowls, trumpets, or any gold or silver vessels.
14Instead, they gave the money to the workers to repair Yahweh's temple.
15They did not ask for an accounting from the men who received the money to give to the workers, because they were trustworthy.
16The money from the trespass offerings and sin offerings was not brought into Yahweh's temple; it belonged to the priests.
17Then Hazael, king of Syria, marched up and fought against Gath, capturing it. Hazael then decided to advance on Jerusalem.
18King Jehoash of Judah took all the holy items that his ancestors, Kings Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah of Judah, had dedicated, along with his own holy items, and all the gold found in the treasuries of Yahweh's temple and the royal palace. He sent it to Hazael, king of Syria, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.
19Do not the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, appear in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
20His servants rebelled and conspired against him, striking Joash down at the house of Millo, on the road that goes down to Silla.
21Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer, his servants, attacked him, and he died. They buried him with his ancestors in David's city, and his son Amaziah became king in his place.