¹Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zibiah, from Beer-sheba.

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

³Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he fathered sons and daughters.

⁴And it happened after this that Joash had it in his heart to renew the house of Yahweh.

⁵He gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah and collect silver from all Israel to repair the house of your God, year by year; and you must hasten the word. But the Levites did not hasten.

⁶The king called Jehoiada the head and said to him, Why have you not required of the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the tribute of Moses the slave of Yahweh and of the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?

⁷For Athaliah, that wicked woman, and her sons had broken into the house of God, and had also made all the holy things of the house of Yahweh for the Baals.

⁸The king gave the order, and they made one chest, and set it at the gate of the house of Yahweh, outside.

⁹They gave out a call in Judah and in Jerusalem, to bring to Yahweh the tribute of Moses the slave of God that was laid on Israel in the wilderness.

¹⁰All the officials and all the people rejoiced, and they brought it and threw it into the chest until they had finished.

¹¹It happened that when the chest was brought to the king's overseers by the hand of the Levites, and they saw that the silver was plentiful, the king's scribe and the overseer of the head priest would come and empty the chest, carry it, and return it to its place. So they did day after day, and gathered silver in abundance.

¹²The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of Yahweh, and they hired stonecutters and craftsmen to renew the house of Yahweh, and also craftsmen of iron and bronze to repair the house of Yahweh.

¹³Those who did the work worked, and the healing came up for the work by their hands; and they set the house of God up to its proper measure and strengthened it.

¹⁴When they had finished, they brought the rest of the silver before the king and Jehoiada, and it was made into articles for the house of Yahweh, articles for the service and for offering up, and bowls, and articles of gold and silver. And they were offering up burnt offerings in the house of Yahweh continually all the days of Jehoiada.

¹⁵Jehoiada grew old and was satisfied with days, and he died; at his death he was a hundred and thirty years old.

¹⁶They buried him in the city of David with the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house.

¹⁷And after the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king; then the king listened to them.

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

¹⁹He sent prophets among them to bring them back to Yahweh, and they warned them, but they did not give ear.

²⁰And the breath of God clothed itself with Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood up above the people and said to them, Thus says God: Why are you crossing over the commandments of Yahweh, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has forsaken you.

²¹They conspired against him, and they stoned him with stones at the command of the king in the court of the house of Yahweh.

²²And Joash the king did not remember the loyal love that Jehoiada, his father, had done with him, and he killed his son; and as he died, he said, May Yahweh see and seek it out.

²³It happened at the circuit of the year that the army of Aram came up against him, and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and ruined all the officials of the people from among the people, and all their plunder they sent to the king of Damascus.

²⁴For with a small number of men the army of Aram came, and Yahweh gave into their hand an army of exceeding multitude, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers; and they carried out judgments against Joash.

²⁵And when they went away from him, for they had left him with many sicknesses, his own slaves conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the graves of the kings.

²⁶And these are the ones who conspired against him: Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite woman.

²⁷And as for his sons, the multiplying of the burden upon him, and the founding of the house of God, behold them written in the midrash of the book of the kings; and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.