2 Kings 12

²¹Joash was seven years old when he became king.

¹¹Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,

²⁷When King Ahaziah of Judah saw this, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan. And Jehu pursued him, shouting, “Shoot him too!” So they shot Ahaziah in his chariot on the Ascent of Gur, near Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo and died there.

¹When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs.

²But Jehosheba daughter of King Joram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were being murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.

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

²And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁷After the death of Jehoiada, however, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.

¹⁸They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and idols. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.

³And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father David had done. He did everything as his father Joash had done.

²And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.

⁴And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done.

²And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

⁴Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away, and the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

³⁵Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the house of the Lord.

¹⁴The high places were not removed, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted to the Lord all his days.

⁴He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.

⁴³And Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them, but did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places, however, were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

²⁰“For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

⁴“Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people.

¹²“When you take a census of the Israelites to number them, each man must pay the Lord a ransom for his life when he is counted. Then no plague will come upon them when they are numbered.

¹³Everyone who crosses over to those counted must pay a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord.

⁵Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Let everyone whose heart is willing bring an offering to the Lord: gold, silver, and bronze;

²⁹So all the men and women of the Israelites whose hearts prompted them brought a freewill offering to the Lord for all the work that the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do.

³Moreover, because of my delight in the house of my God, I now give for it my personal treasures of gold and silver, over and above all that I have provided for this holy temple:

⁴three thousand talents of gold (the gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the buildings,

²²So all who had willing hearts, both men and women, came and brought brooches and earrings, rings and necklaces, and all kinds of gold jewelry. And they all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord.

¹²Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

²⁷and this is the account of his rebellion against the king. Solomon had built the supporting terraces and repaired the gap in the wall of the city of his father David.

⁵So he gathered the priests and Levites and said, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the house of your God. Do it quickly.” The Levites, however, did not make haste.

⁵And let them deliver it into the hands of the supervisors of those doing the work on the house of the Lord, who in turn are to give it to the workmen repairing the damages to the house of the Lord—

⁶to the carpenters, builders, and masons—to buy timber and dressed stone to repair the temple.

¹²masons, and stonecutters. They also purchased timber and dressed stone to repair the damage to the house of the Lord, and they paid the other expenses of the temple repairs.

⁷For the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the house of God and had even used the sacred objects of the house of the Lord for the Baals.

¹⁰“Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the Lord of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.

²⁹Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and offering that I have prescribed for My dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves with the best of all the offerings of My people Israel.’

³⁰Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.

²¹For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.

¹¹Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied. They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain:

³⁴However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

²Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;

⁴Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the commanders of hundreds, the Carites, and the guards, and had them brought into the house of the Lord. There he made a covenant with them and put them under oath. He showed them the king’s son

⁵So he gathered the priests and Levites and said, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the house of your God. Do it quickly.” The Levites, however, did not make haste.

⁶So the king called Jehoiada the high priest and said, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the Tent of the Testimony?”

²And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days he was instructed by Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁶And Jehoiada was buried with the kings in the City of David, because he had done what was good in Israel for God and His temple.

¹Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada strengthened himself and made a covenant with the commanders of hundreds—with Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri.

³But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply His troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all servants of my lord? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

⁴¹As Jesus was sitting opposite the treasury, He watched the crowd putting money into it. And many rich people put in large amounts.

²⁴Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer—the priests—were to blow the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah were also to be guardians of the ark.

¹⁰For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

⁴and I brought them into the house of the Lord, to a chamber occupied by the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God. This room was near the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper.

¹Then Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,

⁴Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

¹⁷Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was the scribe;

¹²and commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:

²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz

²⁵Sheva was the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

²³But Naaman insisted, “Please, take two talents.” And he urged Gehazi to accept them. Then he tied up two talents of silver in two bags along with two sets of clothing and gave them to two of his servants, who carried them ahead of Gehazi.

³Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the scribe, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the Lord, saying,

⁴“Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people.

⁹So they went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites who guarded the doors had collected from the people of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the remnant of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin, and from the people of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They put it into the hands of those supervising the work in the house of the Lord, who in turn gave it to the workmen restoring and repairing the house of the Lord.

⁵And let them deliver it into the hands of the supervisors of those doing the work on the house of the Lord, who in turn are to give it to the workmen repairing the damages to the house of the Lord—

⁶to the carpenters, builders, and masons—to buy timber and dressed stone to repair the temple.

¹¹Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king’s overseers and they saw that there was a large amount of money, the royal scribe and the officer of the high priest would come and empty the chest and carry it back to its place. They did this daily and gathered the money in abundance.

¹²Then the king and Jehoiada would give the money to those who supervised the labor on the house of the Lord to hire stonecutters and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, as well as workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord.

⁵And let them deliver it into the hands of the supervisors of those doing the work on the house of the Lord, who in turn are to give it to the workmen repairing the damages to the house of the Lord—

⁶to the carpenters, builders, and masons—to buy timber and dressed stone to repair the temple.

¹⁷And the king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.

¹⁸So Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the construction of the temple.

⁵As some of the disciples were remarking how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and consecrated gifts, Jesus said,

⁸Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. The people are rebuilding it with large stones and placing timbers in the walls. This work is being carried out diligently and is prospering in their hands.

⁷They gave money to the masons and carpenters, and food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to Joppa by sea, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.

¹⁴When they were finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the house of the Lord—utensils for the service and for the burnt offerings, dishes, and other objects of gold and silver. Throughout the days of Jehoiada, burnt offerings were presented regularly in the house of the Lord.

⁴⁸Solomon also made all the furnishings for the house of the Lord: the golden altar; the golden table on which was placed the Bread of the Presence;

⁴⁹the lampstands of pure gold in front of the inner sanctuary, five on the right side and five on the left; the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;

¹³His offering was one silver platter weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, both according to the sanctuary shekel and filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering;

¹⁴one gold dish weighing ten shekels, filled with incense;

⁹This was the inventory: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 silver utensils,

¹⁰30 gold bowls, 410 matching silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.

²“Make two trumpets of hammered silver to be used for calling the congregation and for having the camps set out.

⁷But they need not account for the money put into their hands, since they work with integrity.”

²Then I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the fortress, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.

¹Jesus also said to His disciples, “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.

¹²And the men did the work faithfully. The Levites overseeing them were Jahath and Obadiah, descendants of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descendants of Kohath. Other Levites, all skilled with musical instruments,

²Now it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

³I care very little, however, if I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

⁴⁵Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the others their food at the proper time?

⁷The guilt offering is like the sin offering; the same law applies to both. It belongs to the priest who makes atonement with it.

¹⁵“If someone acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against any of the Lord’s holy things, he must bring his guilt offering to the Lord: an unblemished ram from the flock, of proper value in silver shekels according to the sanctuary shekel; it is a guilt offering.

¹⁶Regarding any holy thing he has harmed, he must make restitution by adding a fifth of its value to it and giving it to the priest, who will make atonement on his behalf with the ram as a guilt offering, and he will be forgiven.

²⁴He is to lay his hand on the head of the goat and slaughter it at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the Lord. It is a sin offering.

²⁹He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering.

⁸They feed on the sins of My people and set their hearts on iniquity.

⁸But if the man has no relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the Lord and must be given to the priest along with the ram of atonement, by which the atonement is made for him.

⁹Every sacred contribution the Israelites bring to the priest shall belong to him.

²³In the spring, the army of Aram went to war against Joash. They entered Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people, and they sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus.

²⁴Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army. Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers, judgment was executed on Joash.

³⁹After three years, however, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. And Shimei was told, “Look, your slaves are in Gath.”

⁴⁰So Shimei saddled his donkey and set out to Achish at Gath in search of his slaves, and he brought them back from Gath.

¹⁵then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and reside there,

⁵³But the people there refused to welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem.

¹²“Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”

¹³“But how could your servant, a mere dog, do such a monstrous thing?” said Hazael. And Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”

²So David set out with his six hundred men and went to Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath.

¹⁸So Asa withdrew all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the royal palace. He entrusted it to his servants and sent them with this message to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus:

¹⁵Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

¹⁶At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

⁴Then Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money brought as sacred gifts into the house of the Lord—the census money, the money from vows, and the money brought voluntarily into the house of the Lord.

²So Asa withdrew the silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the royal palace, and he sent it with this message to Ben-hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus:

⁸Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

²⁶He seized the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Solomon had made.

²⁹As for the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, along with all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

¹⁹As for the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he waged war and how he reigned, they are indeed written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

²³As for the rest of the acts of Jehoram, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

⁴¹As for the rest of the acts of Solomon—all that he did, as well as his wisdom—are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon?

²⁴Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army. Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers, judgment was executed on Joash.

²⁵And when the Arameans had withdrawn, they left Joash severely wounded. His own servants conspired against him for shedding the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

⁵As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, Amaziah executed the servants who had murdered his father the king.

⁹So David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built it up all the way around, from the supporting terraces inward.

⁶Then all the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo gathered beside the oak at the pillar in Shechem and proceeded to make Abimelech their king.

²⁷and this is the account of his rebellion against the king. Solomon had built the supporting terraces and repaired the gap in the wall of the city of his father David.

²⁷From the time that Amaziah turned from following the Lord, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But men were sent after him to Lachish, and they killed him there.

²⁶Those who conspired against Joash were Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabitess.

²⁷The accounts of the sons of Joash and the many pronouncements about him, and of the restoration of the house of God, are indeed written in the Treatise of the Book of the Kings. And his son Amaziah reigned in his place.

¹In the second year of the reign of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz over Israel, Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah.