2 Chronicles 24

Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he ruled forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah, and she was from Beersheba.

1Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Zibiah of Beersheba.

NoteJoash came to the throne as a small child because his grandmother Athaliah had killed off the rest of the royal family and seized power; he had been hidden in the temple for six years before the priest Jehoiada crowned him (chapters 22–23). Beersheba was a town at the far southern edge of Judah.

2Joash did what was right in the LORD's sight for as long as Jehoiada the priest was alive.

2And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

3Jehoiada chose two wives for Joash, and Joash had sons and daughters.

3And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters.

NoteThe Hebrew is ambiguous about who the wives were for. It can mean Jehoiada chose two wives for the young king, the reading followed here, or that Jehoiada took two wives for himself. Kings normally married more than one wife; two is a modest number by royal standards.

4Some time later, Joash decided to repair the LORD's house.

4And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to repair the house of the LORD.

5He gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, "Go out to the towns of Judah and collect from all Israel the money owed each year, so you can repair the house of your God. See that you do it quickly." But the Levites did not hurry.

5And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it not.

NoteThe Levites were the tribe set apart for work at the sanctuary: they assisted the priests, guarded the building, handled money and materials, and led music. Priests were a family within that tribe, descended from Aaron. "All Israel" here means the people of the southern kingdom, Judah; Chronicles keeps using the older name for the whole nation even after the northern tribes broke away.

6So the king called for Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said to him, "Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax set by Moses, the LORD's servant, and by the assembly of Israel for the Tent of the Testimony?"

6And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the collection, according to the commandment of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the congregation of Israel, for the tabernacle of witness?

NoteThe Tent of the Testimony was the portable sanctuary Israel carried through the desert before the temple was built. "Testimony" refers to the stone tablets of the covenant kept inside it. The tax is the half-shekel per adult male required in Exodus 30:11–16 for the upkeep of the sanctuary, a shekel being a weight of silver of about two-fifths of an ounce, roughly two days' wages for a laborer.

7He asked this because the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into God's house. They had even taken the holy objects of the LORD's house and used them for the images of Baal.

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 the LORD did they bestow upon Baalim.

NoteAthaliah was Joash's grandmother, daughter of the northern king Ahab, who ruled Judah for six years after murdering the royal heirs. The King James "Baalim" is simply the plural of Baal, the Canaanite storm and fertility god; the plural refers to the many local images and shrines of him.

8At the king's command they made a chest and set it outside, at the gate of the LORD's house.

8And at the king’s commandment they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of the LORD.

9Then they sent out word through Judah and Jerusalem that the people were to bring to the LORD the tax that Moses, God's servant, had laid on Israel in the desert.

9And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the LORD the collection that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness.

10All the officials and all the people were glad. They brought their money and dropped it into the chest until it was full.

10And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end.

11Whenever the Levites carried the chest to the king's officers and they saw that it held a lot of money, the king's secretary and the chief priest's officer would come, empty the chest, and carry it back to its place. They did this day after day and collected a great deal of money.

11Now it came to pass, that at what time the chest was brought unto the king’s office by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and the high priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to his place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.

NoteThe king's "scribe" or secretary was not a copyist but one of the highest officials of the royal government, roughly a secretary of state, who handled records and revenue.

12The king and Jehoiada gave the money to the men who supervised the work on the LORD's house. They hired stonecutters and carpenters to restore the LORD's house, and also workers in iron and bronze to mend it.

12And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the LORD, and hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the LORD, and also such as wrought iron and brass to mend the house of the LORD.

13So the workmen labored, and the repair work went forward under their hands. They restored God's house to the way it was meant to be, and they made it strong.

13So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in his state, and strengthened it.

14When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada. It was used to make objects for the LORD's house: tools for the service and for the burnt offerings, dishes, and other objects of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were made in the LORD's house all the time.

14And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the LORD, even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD continually all the days of Jehoiada.

NoteA burnt offering was an animal placed on the altar and burned whole, rather than eaten in part by priests or worshipers. The "tools for the service" are the bowls, forks, shovels and sprinkling vessels used to carry out these rites.

15Jehoiada grew old and had lived a long, full life when he died. He was 130 years old.

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

NoteThe figure is exceptionally high: no one else in this period of the history is given so long a life, and it exceeds even Moses' 120 years. The parallel account in 2 Kings gives no age for Jehoiada.

16They buried him in the City of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward God's house.

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

NoteThe City of David was the oldest fortified ridge of Jerusalem, the part David captured and where the royal tombs lay. Burial there was normally reserved for kings; a priest laid among them is an unusual honor. Compare verse 25, where Joash himself is denied it.

17After Jehoiada died, the officials of Judah came and bowed low before the king, and the king listened to them.

17Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.

18They abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and served Asherah poles and idols. Because of this guilt of theirs, anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem.

18And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.

NoteThe King James "groves" renders a Hebrew word for Asherah poles, carved wooden posts or stylized trees set up beside altars to represent the goddess Asherah, a Canaanite mother goddess.

19Still the LORD sent prophets to them to bring them back to him. The prophets warned them, but the people would not listen.

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

20Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up above the people and said to them, "This is what God says: 'Why do you break the LORD's commands, so that you cannot succeed? Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.'"

20And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.

Note"The Spirit of God came upon" someone is a standard phrase for a person being seized and empowered to speak a message from God, whether or not they were a prophet by profession. Zechariah "stood above the people" probably on a raised platform or step in the temple court, the normal place for a public address.

21But they plotted against him, and at the king's order they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD's house.

21And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

NoteStoning was the ordinary form of public execution, carried out by the community rather than an executioner. Doing it inside the temple courtyard (ground reserved for worship, where bloodshed made the area ritually unclean) made the act doubly shocking to the first readers.

22So King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him. Instead he killed Jehoiada's son. As Zechariah lay dying, he said, "May the LORD see this and call you to account."

22Thus Joash the king 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.

Note"Call you to account" translates a legal term: the demand that a killing be investigated and paid for, either by a court or by the dead man's kin.

23When the year came around again, the army of Aram marched against Joash. They came into Judah and Jerusalem, killed all the leaders of the people, and sent everything they took to their king in Damascus.

23And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syria 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 unto the king of Damascus.

Note"When the year came around again" refers to spring, the season when ancient armies normally took the field, after the rains and before harvest. "Aram", the King James "Syria", was the Aramean kingdom centered on Damascus, north-east of Israel; it is not modern Syria, though it covered some of the same ground.

24The Aramean army had come with only a small group of men, but the LORD handed a very large army over to them. This happened because the people had abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors. So judgment was carried out against Joash.

24For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the LORD delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash.

25When the Arameans pulled back, they left Joash badly wounded. His own servants plotted against him on account of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. He died, and they buried him in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

25And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings.

NoteThe tombs of the kings were the royal burial vaults in the City of David. Burying a king in the city but outside those tombs was a deliberate public verdict on his reign. Note also that the Hebrew here says "sons" of Jehoiada in one place and "son" in another; only Zechariah's death has been narrated.

26These are the men who plotted against him: Zabad son of Shimeath, an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith, a Moabite woman.

26And these are they that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess.

NoteNaming the assassins' mothers, and naming them as an Ammonite and a Moabite, marks the killers as of foreign descent. Ammon and Moab were neighboring peoples east of the Jordan and long-standing enemies of Judah.

27The record of Joash's sons, the many prophecies spoken about him, and the repair of God's house are written in the notes on the Book of the Kings. His son Amaziah became king after him.

27Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the repairing of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

Note"The burdens laid upon him" translates a Hebrew word that means both a load to be carried and a prophetic pronouncement, usually a threatening one, hence "prophecies spoken about him." The "book of the kings" named here is a lost source document the writer is citing, not the biblical books of Kings.