The Bible

27 verses

2 Chronicles Chapter 24

¹Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah, of Beersheba.

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

³Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he became the father of sons and daughters.

⁴After this, Joash was minded to restore the house of ForeverOne.

⁵He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, "Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter." However the Levites didn't do it right away.

⁶The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, "Why haven't you required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of ForeverOne, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the tent of the testimony?" ⁷For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of ForeverOne they bestowed on the Baals.

⁸So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of ForeverOne.

⁹They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for ForeverOne the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.

¹⁰All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and threw into the chest, until they had filled it.

¹¹Whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and the chief priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.

¹²The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of ForeverOne; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of ForeverOne, and also those who worked iron and brass to repair the house of ForeverOne.

¹³So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands, and they set up the house of God in its state, and strengthened it.

¹⁴When they had made an end, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, of which were made vessels for the house of ForeverOne, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in the house of ForeverOne continually all the days of Jehoiada.

¹⁵But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; he was one hundred thirty years old when he died.

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

¹⁷Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and showed respect to the king. Then the king listened to them.

¹⁸They forsook the house of ForeverOne, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols: and wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness.

¹⁹Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to ForeverOne; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.

²⁰The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, "Thus says God, 'Why do you disobey the commandments of ForeverOne, so that you can't prosper? Because you have forsaken ForeverOne, he has also forsaken you.'" ²¹They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of ForeverOne.

²²Thus Joash the king didn't remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, "May ForeverOne look at it, and repay it." ²³At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them to the king of Damascus.

²⁴For the army of the Syrians came with a small group of men; and ForeverOne delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken ForeverOne, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash.

²⁵When they were departed for him (for they left him very sick), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they didn't bury him in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶These are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess.

²⁷Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens [laid] on him, and the rebuilding of the house of God, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.