2 Chronicles, Chapter 24:

Verses from 2 Chronicles,Chapter 24 of the book of the Bible.

Joash repairs the temple

• 1. Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibia and she was from Beersheba.
• 2. All the time that Jehoiada the priest was alive, Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
• 3. Jehoiada chose two wives for Joash, and he had sons and daughters.
• 4. After some time, Joash decided to restore the temple of the Lord.
• 5. He gathered the priests and the Levites together and said to them: “Go to the cities of Judah and collect from all the Israelites the amount necessary for the annual maintenance of the temple of your God. Do it immediately!” However, the Levites did not act diligently.
• 6. Then the king summoned Jehoiada the priest and asked him: “Why did you not require the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the offering established by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and by the congregation of Israel to the Tent of the Presence?”
• 7. Because of this, Athaliah, the wicked woman, and her sons had desecrated the temple of God and used its sacred objects to worship the Baals.
• 8. So the king ordered them to make an ark and place it outside, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord.
• 9. After this, it was proclaimed in Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the Lord the offering that Moses, the servant of God, had imposed on Israel in the wilderness.
• 10. All the leaders and all the people brought their offering with joy, placing it in the ark until it was full.
• 11. Whenever the Levites brought the ark to the king's officials and they saw that there was a lot of money, the royal secretary and the high priest's official emptied the ark and took it back to its place. They did this regularly, accumulating a large amount of money.
• 12. Then the king and Jehoiada gave this money to those in charge of the work in the temple of the Lord. They hired masons and carpenters, as well as iron and bronze craftsmen, to restore the temple of the Lord.
• 13. The workers were diligent in repairing and restoring the temple. They rebuilt the temple of God according to its original design and strengthened it.
• 14. When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it they made utensils for the temple of the Lord: utensils for the service and for the burnt offerings, as well as bowls and other objects of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were continually offered in the temple of the Lord.
• 15. Jehoiada died at an advanced age, at one hundred and thirty years old.
• 16. He was buried among the kings in the City of David, in recognition of the good he had done for Israel in favor of God and his temple.

Joash's wickedness

• 17. After Jehoiada's death, the leaders of Judah came to the king and paid homage to him, and the king listened to them.
• 18. However, they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped the sacred poles and idols. Because of this, the wrath of God came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
• 19. The Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to Him, but they did not listen to them.
• 20. Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: 'Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord? This will result in disgrace for you, because you have forsaken the Lord, and He will forsake you.'
• 21. However, some conspired against Zechariah, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the temple of the Lord.
• 22. King Joash did not remember the loyalty that Zechariah's father Jehoiada had shown him, and he killed his son. As he lay dying, Zechariah exclaimed, “May the Lord see this and bring justice!”
• 23. At the end of the year, the Syrian army marched against Joash. They invaded Judah and Jerusalem, killed all the leaders of the people and sent all the loot to the king of Damascus.
• 24. Although the Syrian army was small, the Lord gave a much larger army into their hands, because Judah had abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors. So punishment came upon Joash.
• 25. When the Syrians left, they left Joash seriously injured. His officers conspired against him because of the murder of the son of the priest Jehoiada, and killed him in his bed. Thus, Joash died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
• 26. The conspirators against him were Zabad, the son of Shimeath the Ammonite, and Jehozabad, the son of the Moabite Shinrith.
• 27. As for the sons of Joash, the many prophecies concerning them and the restoration of the temple of God, all this is written in the historical records of the kings. His son Amaziah was his successor.

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