2 Crônicas 24

¹ Ioash was seuen yere olde, when he began to reigne, & he reigned fourty yeere in Ierusalem: and his mothers name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.

² And Joash did [that which was] right in the sight of the LORD all the days ofWho was a faithful counsellor and governed him by the word of God.Jehoiada the priest.

³ And Iehoiada tooke him two wiues, and he begate sonnes and daughters.

⁴ And afterward it came into Ioash mind, to renew the house of the Lord.

⁵ And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of allHe does not mean the ten tribes but only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin.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.

⁶ And the king called for Jehoiada theFor he was the high priest.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?

⁷ For the sons of Athaliah, thatThe scriptures call her wicked because she was a cruel murderer and a blasphemous idolater.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.

⁸ Therefore the King commaunded, and they made a chest, and set it at the gate of the house of the Lord without.

⁹ And they made proclamation thorow Iudah and Ierusalem, to bring vnto the Lord the taxe of Moses the seruant of God, layde vpon Israel in the wildernesse.

¹⁰ And all the princes and all the people reioyced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, vntill they had finished.

¹¹ Now it came to pass, that at what timeSuch as were faithful men whom the king had appointed for that matter.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.

¹² And the king andSignifying that this was done by advise and counsel and not by any one man's desire.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.

¹³ So the workemen wrought, and the worke amended through their hands: & they restored the house of God to his state, & strengthened it.

¹⁴ And when they had finished [it], they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were madeFor the wicked kings, his predecessors and Athaliah had destroyed the vessels of the temple, or turned them to the use of their idols.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.

¹⁵ But Iehoiada waxed olde, and was ful of dayes and dyed. An hundreth and thirtie yeere olde was he when he dyed.

¹⁶ And they buried him in the city of David among theSignifying that they could not honour him too much, who had so excellently served in the work of the Lord, and in the affairs of the commonwealth.kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house.

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada came theWho were liars and knew now that the king was destitute of him who watched over him as a father, and therefore brought him to most vile idolatry.princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.

¹⁸ And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and serued groues and idoles: & wrath came vpon Iudah and Ierusalem, because of this their trespasse.

¹⁹ Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and theyThey took heaven and earth and all creatures to witness that unless they returned to the Lord, he would most grievously punish their infidelity and rebellion, (Neh_9:26).testified against them: but they would not give ear.

²⁰ And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stoodIn a place above the people, to the intent that he might be heard.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.

²¹ And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at theThere is no rage so cruel and beastly as of them whose hearts God has hardened, and who delight more in superstition and idolatry than in the true service of God and pure simplicity of his word.commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

²² Thus 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 LORDAvenge my death and require my blood at your hands: or he speaks this by prophecy because he knew that God would do it. This Zachariah is also called the son of Barachias, (Mat_23:35) because his progenitors were Iddo, Berachiah, Jehoiada.look upon [it], and require [it].

²³ And when the yeere was out, the host of Aram came vp against him, and they came against Iudah and Ierusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoyle of them vnto the King of Damascus.

²⁴ For 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 theyThat is, reproved and checked him, and handled him rigorously.executed judgment against Joash.

²⁵ And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of theMeaning Zachariah, who was one of Jehoiada's sons and a prophet of the Lord.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.

²⁶ And these are they that conspired against him, Zabad the sonne of Shimrath an Ammonitesse, and Iehozabad the sonne of Shimrith a Moabitesse.

²⁷ Now [concerning] his sons, and the greatness of the burdens [laid] upon him, and theOr, foundation.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.