24 Yoash was seven years old when he became Yehudah’s king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for forty years. His mother was Tsivyah from Beer-Sheva. 2 Yoash did what pleased Yahweh throughout the lifetime of Yehoyada the priest. 3 Yehoyada procured two wives for him, and they bore him sons and daughters.

4 Sometime later, Yoah decided it would be good to repair Yahweh’s residence, 5 and he gathered the priests and Levites, and told them, “Go out to Yehudah’s cities and collect enough money across the country to renovate God’s house in the next few years. Make this a priority.” But the Levites didn’t get on to it, 6 so the king he summoned Yehoyada and demanded, “Why haven’t you followed up on sending the Levites throughout Yerushalem and across Yehudah to collect the annual tax instituted by Yahweh’s servant Mosheh (Moses) for the people to contribute to the costs of the sacred tent?”[ref]

7 (The wicked Atalyah had previously broken into Yahweh’s residence and taken some of the sacred items from Yahweh’s temple to be used for Baal worship.)

8 The king ordered that a chest be made and placed outside the main temple entrance. 9 They made an announcement in Yerushalem and throughout Yehudah to bring to Yahweh the tax instituted by God’s servant Mosheh when they were still in the wilderness. 10 All the officials and the people agreed with this policy, so they brought their contributions and dropped them into the chest until it filled up. 11 Every day when the Levites who’d been given oversight over the chest by the king, saw that it was full, they’d fetch one of the king’s secretaries along with one of the head priest’s officials, and they’d empty the box and return it to its place, so they amassed a large sum of money.

12 The king and Yehoyada the priest gave the collected funds to those who worked on the temple renovations. They used them to hire stone-workers and carpenters to restore the temple building, as well as for iron and bronze craftsmen. 13 So they started on the work and the temple restoration went ahead. They rebuilt the temple following it’s original specifications, and strengthened it. 14 Whey they’d finished, they brought the remainder of the funds back to the king and Yehoyada, and they made items for the temple, items used in ministry and for burnt offerings, and dishes and gold and silver items. During Yehoyada’s time, they were offering regular burnt sacrifices in Yahweh’s temple.

15 By then, Yehoyada was getting old, and he died at the age of 130, 16 and they buried him with the kings in ‘The City of David’, because he’d done so much good for Yisrael, and for God and his temple.

17 After Yehoyada’s death, Yehudah’s leaders went to young King Yoash and declared their loyalty to him, and he listened to them. 18 Then they abandoned the temple of their ancestors’ god Yahweh, and they worshipped the Asherah poles and idols, and God was angry at Yerushalem and Yehudah because of their disobedience. 19 He sent prophets to tell them to return back to him, and although they warned the people, they didn’t take any notice.

20 Then God’s spirit enveloped Zekaryah, the son of Yehoyada the priest, and he stood up and told the people, “God asks why you’re all violating his commands? Because you abandoned Yahweh, then he’s abandoned all of you.”[ref] 21 However, the people conspired against Zekaryah, and the king ordered him to be executed by stoning him in the temple courtyard. 22 King Yoash disregarded the loyal commitment that Yehoyada had shown to his father, and had killed his son. As he was dying, he said, “Let Yahweh see this and find a way to avenge.”

23 Around the end of the year, the Aramean army attacked Yehudah and Yerushalem, and killed all the people’s leaders. They sent all their plunder back to their king in Damascus. 24 Actually, the Arameans only had a smallish army, but Yahweh allowed them to defeat the much larger army from Yehudah and bring punishment to King Yoash, because they had abandoned Yahweh, the god of their fathers. 25 When they withdrew, they left Yoash with severe wounds, and then his servants conspired against him because he’d killed the son of the priest Yehoyada. So they killed him in his bed, and although they buried him in ‘The City of David’, he wasn’t buried with the other kings. 26 The ones who had conspired to kill him were: Zavad (a son of the Ammonite woman Shimeat) and Yhezavad (a son of the Moabite woman Shimrit).

27 The list of King Yoash’s sons, the many prophecies concerning him, and his renovations of the temple, are all written on ‘The Scroll of the Kings’. His son Amatsyah replaced him as king.