Joas reigneth well all the days of Joiada: afterwards falleth into
idolatry and causeth Zacharias to be slain. He is slain himself by his
servants.
24:1. Joas was seven years old when he began to reign: and he reigned
forty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Sebia of Bersabee.
24:2. And he did that which is good before the Lord all the days of
Joiada the priest.
24:3. And Joiada took for him two wives, by whom he had sons and
daughters.
24:4. After this Joas had a mind to repair the house of the Lord.
24:5. And he assembled the priests, and the Levites, and said to them:
Go out to the cities of Juda, and gather of all Israel money to repair
the temple of your God, from year to year: and do this with speed: but
the Levites were negligent.
24:6. And the king called Joiada the chief, and said to him: Why hast
thou not taken care to oblige the Levites to bring in out of Juda and
Jerusalem the money that was appointed by Moses the servant of the Lord
for all the multitude of Israel to bring into the tabernacle of the
testimony?
24:7. For that wicked woman Athalia, and her children have destroyed
the house of God, and adorned the temple of Baal with all the things
that had been dedicated in the temple of the Lord.
24:8. And the king commanded, and they made a chest: and set it by the
gate of the house of the Lord on the outside.
24:9. And they made a proclamation in Juda and Jerusalem, that every
man should bring to the Lord the money which Moses the servant of God
appointed for all Israel, in the desert.
24:10. And all the princes, and all the people rejoiced: and going in
they contributed and cast so much into the chest of the Lord, that it
was filled.
24:11. And when it was time to bring the chest before the king by the
hands of the Levites, (for they saw there was much money,) the king’s
scribe, and he whom the high priest had appointed went in: and they
poured out the money that was in the chest: and they carried back the
chest to its place: and thus they did from day to day, and there was
gathered an immense sum of money.
24:12. And the king and Joiada gave it to those who were over the works
of the house of the Lord: but they hired with it stonecutters, and
artificers of every kind of work to repair the house of the Lord: and
such as wrought in iron and brass, to uphold what began to be falling.
24:13. And the workmen were diligent, and the breach of the walls was
closed up by their hands, and they set up the house of the Lord in its
former state, and made it stand firm.
24:14. And when they had finished all the works, they brought the rest
of the money before the king and Joiada: and with it were made vessels
for the temple for the ministry, and for holocausts and bowls, and
other vessels of gold and silver: and holocausts were offered in the
house of the Lord continually all the days of Joiada.
24:15. But Joiada grew old and was full of days, and died when he was a
hundred and thirty years old.
24:16. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings,
because he had done good to Israel, and to his house.
24:17. And after the death of Joiada, the princes of Juda went in, and
worshipped the king: and he was soothed by their services and hearkened
to them.
24:18. And they forsook the temple of the Lord the God of their
fathers, and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Juda and
Jerusalem for this sin.
24:19. And he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, and
they would not give ear when they testified against them.
24:20. The spirit of God then came upon Zacharias the son of Joiada the
priest, and he stood in the sight of the people, and said to them: Thus
saith the Lord God: Why transgress you the commandment of the Lord
which will not be for your good, and have forsaken the Lord, to make
him forsake you?
24:21. And they gathered themselves together against him, and stoned
him at the king’s commandment in the court of the house of the Lord.
24:22. And king Joas did not remember the kindness that Joiada his
father had done to him, but killed his son. And when he died, he said:
The Lord see, and require it.
24:23. And when a year was come about, the army of Syria came up
against him: and they came to Juda and Jerusalem, and killed all the
princes of the people, and they sent all the spoils to the king of
Damascus.
24:24. And whereas there came a very small number of the Syrians, the
Lord delivered into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had
forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers: and on Joas they executed
shameful judgments.
24:25. And departing they left him in great diseases: and his servants
rose up against him, for revenge of the blood of the son of Joiada the
priest, and they slew him in his bed, and he died: and they buried him
in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.
24:26. Now the men that conspired against him were Zabad the son of
Semmaath an Ammonitess, and Jozabad the son of Semarith a Moabitess.
24:27. And concerning his sons, and the sum of money which was gathered
under him, and the repairing the house of God, they are written more
diligently in the book of kings: and Amasias his son reigned in his
stead.