2 Chronicles chapter .xxiiij.
¶ Iehoas was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Ierusalem. His mother's name was Zebiah of Bersabe.
And Iehoas did that pleased the LORD all the days of Iehoiada the priest.
And Iehoiada gave him two wives, and he begat sons and daughters.
It chanced after that, that Iehoas was minded to mend the house of the LORD.
And upon that he gathered together the priests and the Levites and said to them: go out thorow the cities of Iuda 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.
Then the king called Iehoiada that was the chiefest, and said to him: Why requirest thou not of the Levites to bring in, out of Iuda and Ierusalem the sum appointed by Moses the servant of the LORD, and by the congregation of Israel, for the tabernacle of witness.
For 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.
Wherefore at the kings commandment, they made a coffer, and set it at the gate of the house of the LORD:
and made proclamation thorow Iuda and Ierusalem to bring in to the LORD the taxation of Moses the servant of God, which he set upon Israel in the wilderness.
And the lords and all the people rejoiced and brought in and cast into the coffer until it was full.
And 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.
And the king and Iehoiada 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.
And 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.
And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Iehoiada, 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 Iehoiada.
¶ And Iehoiada waxed old and full of years and died. And hundredth and thirty years old was he when he died.
And 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.
And after the death of Iehoiada, came the lords of Iuda and made obeisance to the king. And then he hearkened unto them.
And so they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and Images. And then came there wrath upon Iuda and Ierusalem, for this their trespasses' sake.
Notwithstanding yet God sent Prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD. And they testified unto them. But they would not hear.
And the spirit of God came upon Zachariah the son of Iehoiada 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.
Whereupon 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.
And so Iehoas the king remembered not the kindness which Iehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said: the LORD see and require a reckoning.
And when the year was out, the host of the Sirians came against him: and they came to Iuda and Ierusalem, and destroyed all the lords of the people from among the people and sent all the spoil of them unto the king to Damasco.
And 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 Iehoas according.
And 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 Iehoiada 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.
And these are they that conspired against him: Zabad the son of Samaath an Ammonite and Iehosabad the son of Simrith a Moabite.
And 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.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.