2 Chronicles 24:1-13 ▼

1 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah, of Beersheba.

2 Joash did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

3 Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he became the father of sons and daughters.

4 It happened after this, that Joash intended to restore the house of the LORD.

5 He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, |Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter.| However the Levites did not do it right away.

6 The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, |Why haven't you required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the tent of the testimony?|

7 For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God's house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD to the Baals.

8 So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of the LORD.

9 They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.

10 And all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and threw it into the chest, until it was full.

11 It was so, that whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and the chief priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.

12 The king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the LORD; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the LORD, and also such as worked iron and bronze to repair the house of the LORD.

13 So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands, and they set up God's house in its state, and strengthened it.