Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah from Beersheba.

He did what was right in God's sight throughout his life under the guidance of priest Jehoiada. Joash had two wives who bore him sons and daughters. After this, he determined to restore the house of the Lord.

Joash gathered the priests and Levites, instructing them to go out to Judah's cities and collect money from all Israel each year to repair the house of God. He urged them to hasten the task, yet the Levites did not expedite it. The king called Jehoiada, saying, "Why have you not required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax, as commanded by Moses, servant of the Lord, and the assembly of Israel, for the tent of testimony?"

For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God's house. They also gave all the dedicated things of the Lord's house to the Baals. At the king's command, they made a chest and set it outside at the gate of the Lord's house.

They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in to the Lord the tax that Moses, God's servant, had laid on Israel in the wilderness. All the princes and all the people rejoiced, bringing in offerings to be cast into the chest until it was full.

Whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the Levites, they would empty it and take the money, carrying it back to its place again each day, gathering a large amount of money. The king and Jehoiada entrusted those responsible for the Lord's temple service, along with skilled craftsmen such as masons, carpenters, ironworkers, and brassworkers, to repair the house of the Lord.

The workmen completed their task, restoring the house of God to its former state, strengthening it. When they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada. From this, vessels for the house of the Lord were made to minister and offer sacrifices, along with spoons and vessels of gold and silver.

They continually offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord throughout the days of Jehoiada. Jehoiada grew old and lived out his full life, dying at the age of one hundred thirty. They buried him in the city of David among the kings because he had done good and right in Israel, both towards God and his household.

After Jehoiada's death, the leaders of Judah came to pay their respects to the king. He listened to them, but they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers to serve groves and idols, bringing wrath upon Judah and Jerusalem because of this trespass. Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the Lord. They testified against them, but they refused to listen.

The Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood before the people, saying, "This is what God says: Why do you disobey the commands of the Lord, and yet cannot prosper? You have abandoned him, so he has also rejected you."

They conspired against him and stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord's temple at the king's command. Joash remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, "The Lord look upon it, and require it."

At the end of the year, the Syrian army invaded Judah and Jerusalem, destroying all its leaders among the people and sending their plunder to the king of Damascus. The army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, but the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers.

They executed judgment against Joash. When they had left him since he was in great suffering, his own servants conspired against him because of the blood of Jehoiada's sons, the priests, and killed him on his bed. He died, and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

Concerning his sons and the burdens laid upon him, including the repair of God's house, these matters are recorded in the account of the kings. Amaziah, his son, succeeded him as king.