In the seventh year of Jehu Joas began to reign: and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Sebia of Bersabee.
2 And Joas did that which was right before the Lord all the days that Joiada the priest taught him.
3 But yet he took not away the high places: for the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
4 And Joas said to the priests: O All the money of the sanctified things, which is brought into the temple of the Lord by those that pass, which is offered for the price of a soul, and which of their own accord, and of their own free heart they bring into the temple of the Lord:
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5 Let the priests take it according to their order, and repair the house, wheresoever they shall see any thing that wanteth repairing.
6 Now till the three and twentieth year of king Joas, the priests did not make the repairs of the temple.
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7 And king Joas called Joiada the high priest and the priests, saying to them: Why do you not repair the temple? Take you therefore money no more according to your order, but restore it for the repairing of the temple.
8 And the priests were forbidden to take any more money of the people, and to make the repairs of the house.
9 And Joiada the high priest took a chest and bored a hole in the top, and set it by the altar at the right hand of them that came into the house of the Lord, and the priests that kept the doors put therein all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord.
10 And when they saw that there was very much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and poured it out, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord:
11 And they gave it out by number and measure into the hands of them that were over the builders of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to the carpenters, and the masons that wrought in the house of the Lord,
12 And made the repairs: and to them that cut stones, and to buy timber, and stones, to be hewed, that the repairs of the house of the Lord might be completely finished, and wheresoever there was need of expenses to uphold the house.
13 But there were not made of the same money for the temple of the Lord, bowls, or fleshhooks, or censers, or trumpets, or any vessel of gold and silver, of the money that was brought into the temple of the Lord.
14 For it was given to them that did the work, that the temple of the Lord might be repaired.
15 And they reckoned not with the men that received the money to distribute it to the workmen, but they bestowed it faithfully.
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16 But the money for trespass, and the money for sins, they brought not into the temple of the Lord, because it was for the priests.
17 Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Geth, and took it and set his face to go up to Jerusalem.
18 Wherefore Joas king of Juda took all the sanctified things, which Josaphat, and Joram, and Ochozias his fathers the kings of Juda had dedicated to holy uses, and which he himself had offered: and all the silver that could be found in the treasures of the temple of the Lord, and in the king’s palace: and sent it to Hazael king of Syria, and he went off from Jerusalem.
19 And the rest of the acts of Joas, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?
20 And his servants arose, and conspired among themselves, and slew Joas in the house of Mello in the descent of Sella.
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21 For Josachar the son of Semaath, and Jozabad the son of Somer his servant struck him, and he died: and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amasias his son reigned in his stead.
Ishodad of Merv
“"The money for the assessment." [The Scripture] uses [this term] for the money which is voluntarily given by the people for the "assessment" of their own person and whose payment has survived from the time of Moses who, after the [Israelites] were counted in the census, prescribed that four zouzē should be deducted from each of them. This form of contribution was perpetuated up to the days of our Lord as a memory of the kindness of God toward them. But at the time of our Lord they only gave two zouzē, because they had become poor.”
Ephrem the Syrian
“"Therefore King Joash summoned the priest Jehoiada with the other priests and said to them, 'Why are you not repairing the house?' " The reason why king Joash and the high priest Jehoiada called a meeting to discuss the repairing of the house of God is revealed in the second book of the Annals with these words: "Athaliah instructed the children of iniquity, and undermined the house of the Lord and drove all the priests who were in the house of the Lord to the worship of the idols." And it is not surprising that Athaliah, a woman endowed with audacity and shrewdness, made that attempt in order to aspire to power and take hold of the kingdom. Therefore, when everything was under her control and the king Ahaziah himself obeyed her blindly, nothing was neglected by her in order to draw the Jews away from the divine worship and to drive them to the ancient religion of the Sidonians. For this reason, while the temple of the true God remained abandoned after the introduction of the foreign cult, it had begun to be in ruin in many spots and was in danger of collapsing because of that. So the king, in order to remedy this serious situation, together with the authority of the high priest, gathered a large sum of money freely offered by the people and entrusted with it some priests elected to accomplish that task. But later on, when he realized that they were not making the progress he had hoped for in the task they had received, he transferred the care of the temple to other men of certain integrity who could work on that assignment with the highest perseverance and dedication. From the allegorical point of view you can recognize here a type of the saints who, after receiving from God the gift of knowledge, set out to repair that same house shaken by vain cults and various crimes.”
Bede
“"And no account was made with the men who received the money, etc." [2 Kings 12:15] This is said, about the restoration of the house of the Lord by the aforesaid king Jehoash: And no reckoning was made with the men who received the money to distribute it to the craftsmen, but they dealt with it in faith, showing their devotion, because they had so much fervor in religion that no one doubted but that they handled the Lord's money without suspicion of any fraud, and that they faithfully offered it, taken from the treasury, to the workmen for repairing the house, as each had need.”
Ephrem the Syrian
“"His servants arose, devised a conspiracy and killed Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla." When he reached the age of 130 years, the priest Jehoiada died. Joash, being persuaded by the advice of some of his princes, abandoned the true religion which he had piously served when Jehoiada was alive, and restored the idolatry introduced by the women of Sidon, which he had gloriously banished with the help of the high priest himself. And while Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, attempted to prevent [that impiety] with all his might, and being inflamed with the divine spirit and standing between the temple and the altar, reproached the king and his princes, he was stoned to death in the hall itself of the house of God. And that was an act of extreme cruelty on the part of Joash, and every person's mind was disturbed because he, being oblivious of the benefits received from Jehoiada, allowed that the son of that very holy man was treated with such brutality before him and even incited [the crowd to stone him]. And [Zechariah], calling God as the witness of his innocence and his avenger, said, "May the Lord see and avenge." The holy man foresaw the calamities that would shortly befall the king and his kingdom. One year later the Syrians invaded Judah and plundered the land so that Joash, in order to save his life, was forced to deprive himself of the goods of the royal house and of the temple but was, nevertheless, shamefully ill treated by his enemies; and eventually he fell ill and lay in bed. While Joash was ill in his own bed, he was the victim of a plot of his servants, who stabbed him to death.”