Chronological Plan

¹In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba.

²Throughout the time the priest Jehoiada instructed him, Joash did what was right in the LORD’s sight.

³Yet the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

⁴Then Joash said to the priests, “All the dedicated silver brought to the LORD’s temple, census silver, silver from vows, and all silver voluntarily given for the LORD’s temple —

⁵each priest is to take it from his assessor and repair whatever damage is found in the temple.”

⁶But by the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash, the priests had not repaired the damage to the temple.

⁷So King Joash called the priest Jehoiada and the other priests and asked, “Why haven’t you repaired the temple’s damage? Since you haven’t, don’t take any silver from your assessors; instead, hand it over for the repair of the temple.”

⁸So the priests agreed that they would receive no silver from the people and would not be the ones to repair the temple’s damage.

⁹Then the priest Jehoiada took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the LORD’s temple; the priests who guarded the threshold put into the chest all the silver that was brought to the LORD’s temple.

¹⁰Whenever they saw there was a large amount of silver in the chest, the king’s secretary and the high priest would go bag up and tally the silver found in the LORD’s temple.

¹¹Then they would give the weighed silver to those doing the work — those who oversaw the LORD’s temple. They in turn would pay it out to those working on the LORD’s temple — the carpenters, the builders,

¹²the masons, and the stonecutters — and would use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the damage to the LORD’s temple and for all expenses for temple repairs.

¹³However, no silver bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, trumpets, or any articles of gold or silver were made for the LORD’s temple from the contributions brought to the LORD’s temple.

¹⁴Instead, it was given to those doing the work, and they repaired the LORD’s temple with it.

¹⁵No accounting was required from the men who received the silver to pay those doing the work, since they worked with integrity.

¹⁶The silver from the guilt offering and the sin offering was not brought to the LORD’s temple since it belonged to the priests.

¹⁷At that time King Hazael of Aram marched up and fought against Gath and captured it. Then he planned to attack Jerusalem.

¹⁸So King Joash of Judah took all the items consecrated by himself and by his ancestors — Judah’s kings Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah — as well as all the gold found in the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and in the king’s palace, and he sent them to King Hazael of Aram. Then Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem.

¹⁹The rest of the events of Joash’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

²⁰Joash’s servants conspired against him and attacked him at Beth-millo on the road that goes down to Silla.

²¹It was his servants Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer who attacked him. He died and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Amaziah became king in his place.

¹In the twenty-third year of Judah’s King Joash son of Ahaziah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years.

²He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight and followed the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.

³So the LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to King Hazael of Aram and to his son Ben-hadad during their reigns.

⁴Then Jehoahaz sought the LORD’s favor, and the LORD heard him, for he saw the oppression the king of Aram inflicted on Israel.

⁵Therefore, the LORD gave Israel a deliverer, and they escaped from the power of the Arameans. Then the people of Israel returned to their former way of life,

⁶but they didn’t turn away from the sins that the house of Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit. Jehoahaz continued them, and the Asherah pole also remained standing in Samaria.

⁷Jehoahaz did not have an army left, except for fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them, making them like dust at threshing.

⁸The rest of the events of Jehoahaz’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and his might, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

⁹Jehoahaz rested with his fathers, and he was buried in Samaria. His son Jehoash became king in his place.

¹⁰In the thirty-seventh year of Judah’s King Joash, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned sixteen years.

¹¹He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. He did not turn away from all the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit, but he continued them.

¹²The rest of the events of Jehoash’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and the power he had to wage war against Judah’s King Amaziah, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

¹³Jehoash rested with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat on his throne. Jehoash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

¹⁴When Elisha became sick with the illness from which he died, King Jehoash of Israel went down and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

¹⁵Elisha responded, “Get a bow and arrows.” So he got a bow and arrows.

¹⁶Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Grasp the bow.” So the king grasped it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

¹⁷Elisha said, “Open the east window.” So he opened it. Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. Then Elisha said, “The LORD’s arrow of victory, yes, the arrow of victory over Aram. You are to strike down the Arameans in Aphek until you have put an end to them.”

¹⁸Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows!” So he took them. Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” So he struck the ground three times and stopped.

¹⁹The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have struck down Aram until you had put an end to them, but now you will strike down Aram only three times.”

²⁰Then Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to come into the land in the spring of the year.

²¹Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a raiding party, so they threw the man into Elisha’s tomb. When he touched Elisha’s bones, the man revived and stood up!

²²King Hazael of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz,

²³but the LORD was gracious to them, had compassion on them, and turned toward them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was not willing to destroy them. Even now he has not banished them from his presence.

²⁴King Hazael of Aram died, and his son Ben-hadad became king in his place.

²⁵Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz took back from Ben-hadad son of Hazael the cities that Hazael had taken in war from Jehoash’s father Jehoahaz. Jehoash defeated Ben-hadad three times and recovered the cities of Israel.

¹Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba.

²Throughout the time of the priest Jehoiada, Joash did what was right in the LORD’s sight.

³Jehoiada acquired two wives for him, and he was the father of sons and daughters.

⁴Afterward, Joash took it to heart to renovate the LORD’s temple.

⁵So he gathered the priests and Levites and said, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect silver 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.

⁶So 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?

⁷For 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.”

⁸At the king’s command a chest was made and placed outside the gate of the LORD’s temple.

⁹Then 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.

¹⁰All the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought the tax, and put it in the chest until it was full.

¹¹Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king’s overseers, and when they saw that there was a large amount of silver, 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 silver in abundance.

¹²Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those in charge of the labor on the LORD’s temple, who were hiring stonecutters and carpenters to renovate the LORD’s temple, also blacksmiths and coppersmiths to repair the LORD’s temple.

¹³The workmen did their work, and through them the repairs progressed. They restored God’s temple to its specifications and reinforced it.

¹⁴When they finished, they presented the rest of the silver 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.

¹⁵Jehoiada died when he was old and full of days; he was 130 years old at his death.

¹⁶He was buried in the city of David with the kings because he had done what was good in Israel with respect to God and his temple.

¹⁷However, after Jehoiada died, the rulers of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them,

¹⁸and they abandoned the temple of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and served the Asherah poles and the idols. So there was wrath against Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.

¹⁹Nevertheless, he sent them prophets to bring them back to the LORD; they admonished them, but the people would not listen.

²⁰The Spirit of God enveloped Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood above the people and said to them, “This is what God says, ‘Why are you transgressing the LORD’s commands so that you do not prosper? Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.’”

²¹But they conspired against him and stoned him at the king’s command in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple.

²²King Joash didn’t remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son. While he was dying, he said, “May the LORD see and demand an account.”

²³At the turn of the year, an Aramean army attacked Joash. They entered Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people among them and sent all the plunder to the king of Damascus.

²⁴Although the Aramean army came with only a few men, the LORD handed over a vast army to them because the people of Judah had abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors. So they executed judgment on Joash.

²⁵When the Arameans saw that Joash had many wounds, they left him. His servants conspired against him, and killed him on his bed, because he had shed the blood of the sons of the priest Jehoiada. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶Those who conspired against him were Zabad, son of the Ammonite woman Shimeath, and Jehozabad, son of the Moabite woman Shimrith.

²⁷The accounts concerning his sons, the many divine pronouncements about him, and the restoration of God’s temple are recorded in the Writing of the Book of the Kings. His son Amaziah became king in his place.