1Jehoas was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebiah of Bersabe.
2And Jehoas did that pleased the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
3And Jehoiada gave him two wives, and he begat sons and daughters.
4It chanced after that, that Jehoas was minded to mend the house of the LORD.
5And upon that he gathered together the priests and the Levites and said to them: go out thorow the cities of Juda and gather of all Israel silver, to strength the house of your God, year by year, and see that ye haste the thing: howbeit the Levites were slack.
6Then the king called Jehoiada that was the chiefest, and said to him: Why requirest thou not of the Levites to bring in, out of Juda and Jerusalem the sum appointed by Moses the servant of the LORD, and by the congregation of Israel, for the tabernacle of witness.
7For wicked Athaliah and her children had broken the house of God, and had thereto bestowed all the dedicate gifts of the house of the LORD, about Baals.
8Wherefore at the kings commandment, they made a coffer, and set it at the gate of the house of the LORD:
9and made proclamation thorow Juda and Jerusalem to bring in to the LORD the taxation of Moses the servant of God, which he set upon Israel in the wilderness.
10And the lords and all the people rejoiced and brought in and cast into the coffer until it was full.
11And when the time came that the chest should be brought in by the hands of the Levites at the appointment of the king, when they saw that there was much money: then came the king's scribe and one appointed by the high priest, and poured out that was in the coffer, and then took it and carried it to his place again, and thus they did day by day, and gathered much money.
12And the king and Jehoiada gave it to workmen that wrought upon the house of the LORD, and hired Masons and carpenters to redress the house of the LORD, and so did they artificers in iron and brass, to repair the house of the LORD.
13And the workmen wrought and the work mended thorow their hands: and they made the house of God as it ought to be, and strengthened it.
14And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and therewith were made vessels for the house of the LORD: even vessels to minister withal and to serve for burntofferings as ladies and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burntofferings in the house of the LORD continually all the days of Jehoiada.
15And Jehoiada waxed old and full of year and died. And hundredth and thirty year old was he when he died.
16And they buried him in the city of David among the kings because he had done good in Israel, and on God and on his house.
17And after the death of Jehoiada, came the lords of Juda and made obeisance to the king. And then he hearkened unto them.
18And so they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and Images. And then came there wrath upon Juda and Jerusalem, for this their trespasses' sake.
19Notwithstanding yet God sent Prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD. And they testified unto them. But they would not hear.
20And the spirit of God came upon Zachariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stepped up above the people and said to them. Thus sayeth God: why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD? ye shall therefore not prosper, but as ye have forsaken him, so shall he forsake you.
21Whereupon they conspired against him and stoned him with stones, at the commandment of the king: even in the court of the house of the LORD.
22And so Jehoas 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 see and require a reckoning.
23And when the year was out, the host of the Sirians came against him: and they came to Juda and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the lords of the people from among the people and sent all the spoil of them unto the king to Damasco.
24And though the army of Siria came with a small company of men, yet the LORD delivered a very great host into their hands, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. And thereto they served Jehoas according.
25And as soon as they were departed from him, though they left him in great diseases: yet his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the children of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed. And when he was dead, they buried him in the city of David: but not in the sepulchers of the kings.
26And these are they that conspired against him: Zabad the son of Samaath an Ammonite and Jehosabad the son of Simrith a Moabite.
27And his sons and the sum of the tax that came to him, and the foundation of the house of God, are written in the story of the book of kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.