2 Kings 12 Catholic Public Domain Version

121 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash reigned. And he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Zebiah from Beersheba. 2 And Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord, during all the days that Jehoiada, the priest, taught him. 3 Yet still he did not take away the high places. For the people were still immolating, and burning incense, in the high places. 4 And Jehoash said to the priests: “All of the money for the holy things, which has been brought into the temple of the Lord from those who pass by, which is offered for the price of a soul, and which they bring into the temple of the Lord willingly, from their own free heart: 5 let the priests, according to their ranks, take and use it in order to repair the surfaces of the house, wherever they see anything in need of repair.” 6 And yet, even until the twenty-third year of king Jehoash, the priests did not repair the surfaces of the temple. 7 And king Jehoash called the high priest, Jehoiada, and the priests, saying to them: “Why have you not repaired the surfaces of the temple? Therefore, you may no longer accept money according to your ranks. Instead, return it in order that the temple may be repaired.” 8 And so the priests were prohibited from accepting any more money from the people to repair the surfaces of the house. 9 And the high priest, Jehoiada, took a certain chest, and he opened a hole in the top, and he placed it beside the altar, to the right of those who were entering the house of the Lord. And the priests who kept the doors put all the money in it which was being brought into the temple of the Lord. 10 And when they saw that there was a great amount of money in the chest, the scribe of the king and the high priest went up and poured it out. And they counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord. 11 And they gave it out, by number and measure, to the hands of those who were over the masons of the house of the Lord. And they weighed it out to the carpenters and masons, to those who were working in the house of the Lord 12 and restoring the surfaces, and to those who were cutting stones, and buying timber and stones to be cut, so that the repairs to the house of the Lord might be finished: for all that was needed toward the expenses in order to strengthen the house. 13 Yet truly, from the same money, they did not make for the temple of the Lord water pitchers, or small hooks, or censers, or trumpets, or any vessel of gold or silver, from the money that was brought into the temple of the Lord. 14 For it was given to those who were doing the work, so that the temple of the Lord might be repaired. 15 And they did not ration the money to the men who received it in order to distribute it to the artisans. Instead, they bestowed it with faith. 16 Yet truly, the money for offenses and the money for sins, they did not bring into the temple of the Lord, since it was for the priests. 17 Then Hazael, the king of Syria, ascended and fought against Gath, and he captured it. And he directed his face, so that he might ascend against Jerusalem. 18 For this reason, Jehoash, the king of Judah, took all the sanctified things, which Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, the kings of Judah, had consecrated and which he himself had offered, and all the silver that could be found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and in the palace of the king, and he sent it to Hazael, the king of Syria. And so he withdrew from Jerusalem. 19 Now the rest of the words of Jehoash, and all that he did, have these not been written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah? 20 Then his servants rose up and conspired among themselves. And they struck down Jehoash, at the house of Millo, on the descent of Silla. 21 For Jozacar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him, and he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Amaziah, his son, reigned in his place.