1. Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, from Beer-sheba.
2. Joash did what was right in the Lord’s sight as long as Jehoiada the priest lived.
3. Jehoiada provided him with two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
4. After some time, Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord.
5. He gathered together the priests and Levites and said to them: “Go out to all the cities of Judah and gather money from all Israel that you may repair the house of your God over the years. You must hurry this project.” But the Levites did not.
6. Then the king summoned Jehoiada, who was in charge, and said to him: “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and by the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?”
7. For the wicked Athaliah and her sons had damaged the house of God and had even turned over to the Baals the holy things of the Lord’s house.
8. At the king’s command, therefore, they made a chest, which they put outside the gate of the Lord’s house.
9. They had it proclaimed throughout Judah and Jerusalem that the tax which Moses, the servant of God, had imposed on Israel in the wilderness should be brought to the Lord.
10. All the princes and the people rejoiced; they brought what was asked and cast it into the chest until it was filled.