Justice and Righteousness

Athaliah Queen of Judah

11 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and eliminated all the royal children. ² But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and abducted him from among the king’s sons who were being put to death, and put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So they hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death. ³ So he was kept hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years, while Athaliah was reigning over the land.

⁴ Now in the seventh year Jehoiada sent orders and brought the captains of hundreds of the Carites and of the guards, and brought them to himself at the house of the Lord. Then he made a covenant with them and put them under oath at the house of the Lord, and showed them the king’s son. ⁵ And he commanded them, saying, “This is the thing that you shall do: a third of you, who come in on the Sabbath and keep watch over the king’s house ⁶ (a third also shall be at the gate Sur, and a third at the gate behind the guards), shall keep watch over the house for defense. ⁷ And two parts of you, all who go out on the Sabbath, shall also keep watch over the house of the Lord for the king.⁸ Then you shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes within the ranks shall be put to death. And you are to be with the king when he goes out and when he comes in.”

⁹ So the captains of hundreds acted in accordance with everything that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And each one of them took his men who were to come in on the Sabbath, along with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, and they came to Jehoiada the priest. ¹⁰ Then the priest gave the captains of hundreds the spears and shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of the Lord. ¹¹ The guards stood, each with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, by the altar and by the house, around the king. ¹² Then he brought the king’s son out, and put the crown on him and gave him the testimony; and they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, “Long live the king!”

¹³ When Athaliah heard the noise of the guards and of the people, she came to the people at the house of the Lord. ¹⁴ And she looked, and behold, the king was standing by the pillar according to the custom, with the captains and the trumpeters beside the king; and all the people of the land were joyful and were blowing trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, “Conspiracy! Conspiracy!” ¹⁵ And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were appointed over the army and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks, and whoever follows her, put to death with the sword!” For the priest said, “She is not to be put to death at the house of the Lord.” ¹⁶ So they seized her, and when they brought her to the horses’ entrance of the king’s house, she was put to death there.

¹⁷ Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people, that they would be the Lord’s people, and between the king and the people. ¹⁸ And all the people of the land came to the house of Baal and tore it down; they thoroughly smashed his altars and his images in pieces, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. Then the priest appointed sentries over the house of the Lord. ¹⁹ And he took the captains of hundreds and the Carites, and the guards and all the people of the land; and they brought the king down from the house of the Lord, and came by way of the gate of the guards to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. ²⁰ So all the people of the land rejoiced and the city was peaceful. For they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the king’s house.

²¹ Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.

Jehoash (Joash) Reigns over Judah

12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. ² Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all his days that Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³ Only the high places did not end; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

The Temple to Be Repaired

⁴ Then Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the sacred offerings which is brought into the house of the Lord, in current money, both the money of each man’s assessment and all the money which anyone’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the Lord, ⁵ The priests are to take it for themselves, each from his acquaintance; and they shall repair damage to the house wherever any damage is found.”

⁶ But it came about that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not repaired any damage to the house. ⁷ So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said to them, “Why do you not repair damage to the house? Now then, you are not to take any more money from your acquaintances, but give it up for the damage to the house.” ⁸ The priests then agreed that they would not take any more money from the people, nor would they repair damage to the house.

⁹ Instead, Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord. ¹⁰ When they saw that there was a great amount of money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest went up and tied it up in bags, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord. ¹¹ And they handed the money which was assessed over to those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the Lord;¹² and to the masons and the stonecutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to the house of the Lord, and for everything that was laid out for the house to repair it. ¹³ However there were not made for the house of the Lord silver cups, shears, bowls, trumpets, any receptacles of gold, or receptacles of silver from the money which was brought into the house of the Lord; ¹⁴ for they gave that to those who did the work, and with it they repaired the house of the Lord. ¹⁵ Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hands they gave the money to pay to those who did the work, because they acted faithfully. ¹⁶ The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord; it belonged to the priests.

¹⁷ Then Hazael the king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it, and Hazael was intent on going up against Jerusalem. ¹⁸ So Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred offerings that Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had consecrated, and his own sacred offerings, and all the gold that was found among the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. Then he withdrew from Jerusalem.

Joash (Jehoash) Succeeded by Amaziah in Judah

¹⁹ Now as for the rest of the acts of Joash and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?²⁰ And his servants rose up and formed a conspiracy; and they struck and killed Joash at the house of Millo as he was going down to Silla.²¹ For Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Amaziah became king in his place.