Joash repairs the temple but his reign ends violently
Divided Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 1c9386fbdec5d445 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Judah · Joash · Repairs in and after his twenty-third year; reign summarized
Joash orders temple repairs, but the work is still delayed in his twenty-third year. A collection chest and revised oversight fund the craftsmen. Later he gives sacred and royal treasures to Hazael to avert an attack on Jerusalem, and his servants assassinate him.
The forty-year reign is summarized on this card and overlaps rulers of Israel. Kings praises Joash’s conduct under Jehoiada’s instruction while noting the remaining high places. The workers’ integrity is a feature of the repair account; it does not remove the need for the changed arrangements that finally get the work done.
Primary Scripture
12:1 In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.
12:2 And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days he was instructed by Jehoiada the priest.
12:3 Nevertheless, the high places were not removed; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there.
12:4 Then Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money brought as sacred gifts into the house of the LORD—the census money, the money from vows, and the money brought voluntarily into the house of the LORD.
12:5 Let every priest receive it from his constituency, and let it be used to repair any damage found in the temple.”
12:6 By the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash, however, the priests had not yet repaired the damage to the temple.
12:7 So King Joash called Jehoiada and the other priests and said, “Why have you not repaired the damage to the temple? Now, therefore, take no more money from your constituency, but hand it over for the repair of the temple.”
12:8 So the priests agreed that they would not receive money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.
12:9 Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the house of the LORD. There the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money brought into the house of the LORD.
12:10 Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal scribe and the high priest would go up, count the money brought into the house of the LORD, and tie it up in bags.
12:11 Then they would put the counted money into the hands of those who supervised the work on the house of the LORD, who in turn would pay those doing the work—the carpenters, builders,
12:12 masons, and stonecutters. They also purchased timber and dressed stone to repair the damage to the house of the LORD, and they paid the other expenses of the temple repairs.
12:13 However, the money brought into the house of the LORD was not used for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any articles of gold or silver for the house of the LORD.
12:14 Instead, it was paid to those doing the work, and with it they repaired the house of the LORD.
12:15 No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay the workmen, because they acted with integrity.
12:16 The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD; it belonged to the priests.
12:17 At that time Hazael king of Aram marched up and fought against Gath and captured it. Then he decided to attack Jerusalem.
12:18 So King Joash of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—along with his own consecrated items and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem.
12:19 As for the rest of the acts of Joash, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
12:20 And the servants of Joash rose up and formed a conspiracy and killed him at Beth-millo, on the road down to Silla.
12:21 His servants Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer struck him down, and he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the City of David, and his son Amaziah reigned in his place.
Related Scripture
2 Chronicles 24:17–25 · parallel
Chronicles adds Joash’s later abandonment of the LORD and the killing of Zechariah; those details are additional to Kings’ shorter account.
Location evidence
Jerusalem identifies the temple, palace and assassination setting at city scale. Hazael’s prior capture of Gath occurs elsewhere.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.234167, 31.776667]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.234167, 31.776667]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)
OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
What changes turn the intention to repair the temple into completed work?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/divided-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm