Joas reigns well all the days of Joiada: afterwards falls into idolatry and causes Zacharias to be slain. He is slain himself by his servants.

¹ Joash was seven years old when he had begun to reign. And he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Zibiah, from Beersheba.¹

1. 24:1The years of the reigns of kings were counted from Nisan 1 (the start of the year in the Jewish sacred calendar). The years of life of any Jew were counted by the number of Passovers (starting Nisan 14) in that person’s life since birth (see my book Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary).(Conte)

² And he did what is good before the Lord during all the days of Jehoiada, the priest.

³ Now Jehoiada gave to him two wives, from whom he conceived sons and daughters.

⁴ After these things, it pleased Joash to repair the house of the Lord.

⁵ And he gathered together the priests and Levites, and he said to them: “Go out to the cities of Judah, and collect from all of Israel money to repair the surfaces of the temple of your God, throughout each year. And do this promptly.” But the Levites acted negligently.¹

1. 24:5The temple surfaces had been covered with gold. So when Athaliah and other persons looted the temple, and took things from the temple to use in false worship, they especially took the gold from the various surfaces. They used this gold to adorn the shrine of Baal, and probably also as money for whatever they desired. Anyone who would steal from the temple of God at Jerusalem, for pagan worship, would not be able to refrain from using that gold also for themselves.(Conte)

⁶ And the king summoned Jehoiada, the leader, and he said to him: “Why was there no concern with you, so that you would compel the Levites to bring, from Judah and from Jerusalem, the money that was appointed by Moses, the servant of the Lord, so as to bring it, from the entire multitude of Israel, to the tabernacle of the testimony?

⁷ For that very impious woman Athaliah and her sons have destroyed the house of God, and they have adorned the shrine of Baal from all the things that had been sanctified in the temple of the Lord.”

⁸ Therefore, the king instructed, and they made an ark. And they placed it beside the gate of the house of the Lord, on the outside.

⁹ And they proclaimed, in Judah and Jerusalem, that each one should bring to the Lord the money that Moses, the servant of God, appointed in the desert, concerning all of Israel.

¹⁰ And all the leaders and all the people rejoiced. And upon entering, they together took and placed so much into the ark of the Lord that it was filled.

¹¹ And when it was time for them to bring the ark before the king by the hands of the Levites, for they saw that there was much money, the scribe of the king, and the one whom the high priest had appointed, entered. And they poured out the money that was in the ark. Then they carried the ark back to its place. And they did this on each day. And an immense sum of money was gathered.

¹² And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who were in charge of the works of the house of the Lord. Then with it they hired hewers of stone, and artisans of every kind, so that they might repair the house of the Lord, and also so that the works of iron and of brass, which had begun to fall, would be reinforced.

¹³ And those who were hired were working industriously. And the breach in the walls was healed by their hands. And they returned the house of the Lord to a pristine state. And they caused it stand firm.

¹⁴ And when they had completed all the works, they brought the remaining part of the money before the king and Jehoiada. And from it, the vessels of the temple were made, for the ministry and for the holocausts, including bowls and other vessels of gold and silver. And holocausts were being offered in the house of the Lord continually, during all the days of Jehoiada.¹

1. 24:14The vessels were not bought with the money. They were made out of the money, which was in the form of gold and silver coins (and perhaps some brass coins).(Conte)

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

¹⁶ And they buried him in the City of David, with the kings, because he had done good to Israel and to his house.

¹⁷ Then, after Jehoiada passed away, the leaders of Judah entered and reverenced the king. And he was enticed by their obsequiousness, and so he acquiesced to them.

¹⁸ And they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and they served sacred groves and graven images. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of this sin.

¹⁹ And he sent prophets to them, so that they might return to the Lord. And though they were offering testimony, they were not willing to listen to them.

²⁰ And so the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest. And he stood in the sight of the people, and he said to them: “Thus says the Lord God: Why have you transgressed the precept of the Lord, though it was not to your benefit, and why have you abandoned the Lord, so that he would then abandon you?”

²¹ And gathering together against him, they stoned him, beside the place of the king, in the atrium of the house of the Lord.

²² And king Joash did not remember the mercy with which Jehoiada, his father, had treated him; instead he put to death his son. And as he was dying, he said: “May the Lord see and take account.”

²³ And when a year had turned, the army of Syria ascended against him. And they went to Judah and Jerusalem. And they put to death all the leaders of the people. And they sent all the spoils to the king of Damascus.

²⁴ And although certainly there had arrived a very small number of Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an immense multitude. For they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Also, against Joash they executed disgraceful judgments.

²⁵ And upon departing, they left him greatly debilitated. Then his servants rose up against him, in vengeance for the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest. And they killed him on his bed, and he died. And they buried him in the City of David, but not in the sepulchers of the kings.

²⁶ Truly, those who ambushed him were Zabad, the son of an Ammonite woman named Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of a Moabite woman named Shimrith.

²⁷ But concerning his sons, and the sum of money that had been amassed under him, and the repairing of the house of God, these things have been written more diligently in the book of kings. Then his son, Amaziah, reigned in his place.