The Living Bible (121 page)

2 Kings
11

When Athaliah, the mother of King Ahaziah of Judah, learned that her son was dead, she killed all of his children,
^2-3
 except for his year-old son
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Joash. Joash was rescued by his Aunt Jehosheba, who was a sister of King Ahaziah (for she was a daughter of King Jehoram, Ahaziah’s father). She stole him away from among the rest of the king’s children who were waiting to be slain and hid him and his nurse in a storeroom of the Temple.
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They lived there for six years while Athaliah reigned as queen.

    
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 In the seventh year of Queen Athaliah’s reign, Jehoiada the priest
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summoned the officers of the palace guard and the queen’s bodyguard. He met them in the Temple, swore them to secrecy, and showed them the king’s son.

    
⁵
 Then he gave them their instructions: “A third of those who are on duty on the Sabbath are to guard the palace.
^6-8
 The other two-thirds shall stand guard at the Temple; surround the king, weapons in hand, and kill anyone who tries to break through. Stay with the king at all times.”

    
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 So the officers followed Jehoiada’s instructions. They brought to Jehoiada the men who were going off duty on the Sabbath and those who were coming on duty,
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 and he armed them from the Temple’s supply of spears and shields that had belonged to King David.
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 The guards, with weapons ready, stood across the front of the sanctuary and surrounded the altar, which was near Joash’s hideaway.

    
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 Then Jehoiada brought out the young prince and put the crown upon his head and gave him a copy of the Ten Commandments, and anointed him as king. Then everyone clapped and shouted, “Long live the king!”

    
^13-14
 When Athaliah heard all the noise, she ran into the Temple and saw the new king standing beside the pillar, as was the custom at times of coronation, surrounded by her bodyguard and many trumpeters; and everyone was rejoicing and blowing trumpets.

    
“Treason! Treason!” she screamed, and began to tear her clothes.

    
¹⁵
 “Get her out of here,” shouted Jehoiada to the officers of the guard. “Don’t kill her here in the Temple. But kill anyone who tries to come to her rescue.”

    
¹⁶
 So they dragged her to the palace stables and killed her there.

    
¹⁷
 Jehoiada made a treaty between the Lord, the king, and the people, that they would be the Lord’s people. He also made a contract between the king and the people.
¹⁸
 Everyone went over to the temple of Baal and tore it down, breaking the altars and images and killing Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altar. And Jehoiada set guards at the Temple of the Lord.
¹⁹
 Then he and the officers and the guard and all the people led the king from the Temple, past the guardhouse, and into the palace. And he sat upon the king’s throne.

    
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 So everyone was happy, and the city settled back into quietness after Athaliah’s death.
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 Joash was seven years old when he became king.

2 Kings
12

It was seven years after Jehu had become the king of Israel that Joash became king of Judah. He reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. (His mother was Zibiah, from Beersheba.)
²
 All his life Joash did what was right because Jehoiada the High Priest instructed him.
³
 Yet even so he didn’t destroy the shrines on the hills—the people still sacrificed and burned incense there.

    
^4-5
 One day King Joash said to Jehoiada, “The Temple building needs repairing. Whenever anyone brings a contribution to the Lord, whether it is a regular assessment or some special gift, use it to pay for whatever repairs are needed.”

    
⁶
 But in the twenty-third year of his reign the Temple was still in disrepair.
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 So Joash called for Jehoiada and the other priests and asked them, “Why haven’t you done anything about the Temple? Now don’t use any more money for your own needs; from now on it must all be spent on getting the Temple into good condition.”

    
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 So the priests agreed to set up a special repair fund that would not go through their hands, lest it be diverted to care for their personal needs.
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 Jehoiada the priest bored a hole in the lid of a large chest and set it on the right-hand side of the altar at the Temple entrance. The doorkeepers put all of the people’s contributions into it.
¹⁰
 Whenever the chest became full, the king’s financial secretary and the High Priest counted it, put it into bags,
^11-12
 and gave it to the construction superintendents to pay the carpenters, stonemasons, quarrymen, timber dealers, and stone merchants, and to buy the other materials needed to repair the Temple of the Lord.
^13-14
 It was not used to buy silver cups, gold snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or similar articles, but only for repairs to the building.
¹⁵
 No accounting was required from the construction superintendents, for they were honest and faithful men.
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 However, the money that was contributed for guilt offerings and sin offerings was given to the priests for their own use. It was not put into the chest.

    
¹⁷
 About this time, King Hazael of Syria went to war against Gath and captured it; then he moved on toward Jerusalem to attack it.
¹⁸
 King Joash took all the sacred objects that his ancestors—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—had dedicated, along with what he himself had dedicated, and all the gold in the treasuries of the Temple and the palace, and sent it to Hazael. So Hazael called off the attack.

    
¹⁹
 The rest of the history of Joash is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Judah.
²⁰
 But his officers plotted against him and assassinated him in his royal residence at Millo on the road to Silla.
²¹
 The assassins were Jozachar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer—both trusted aides.
*
He was buried in the royal cemetery in Jerusalem, and his son Amaziah became the new king.

2 Kings
13

Jehoahaz (the son of Jehu) began a seventeen-year reign over Israel during the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash of Judah.
²
 But he was an evil king, and he followed the wicked paths of Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin.
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 So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and he continually allowed King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-hadad to conquer them.

    
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 But Jehoahaz prayed for the Lord’s help, and the Lord listened to him; for the Lord saw how terribly the king of Syria was oppressing Israel.
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 So the Lord raised up leaders among the Israelis to rescue them from the tyranny of the Syrians; and then Israel lived in safety again as they had in former days.
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 But they continued to sin, following the evil ways of Jeroboam; and they continued to worship the goddess Asherah at Samaria.
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 Finally the Lord reduced Jehoahaz’s army to fifty mounted troops, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry; for the king of Syria had destroyed the others as though they were dust beneath his feet.

    
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 The rest of the history of Jehoahaz is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

    
^9-10
 Jehoahaz died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Joash reigned in Samaria for sixteen years. He came to the throne in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of King Joash of Judah.
¹¹
 But he was an evil man, for, like Jeroboam, he encouraged the people to worship idols and led them into sin.
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 The rest of the history of the reign of Joash, including his wars against King Amaziah of Judah, are written in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
¹³
 Joash died and was buried in Samaria with the other kings of Israel; and Jeroboam II became the new king.

    
¹⁴
 When Elisha was in his last illness, King Joash visited him and wept over him.

    
“My father! My father! You are the strength of Israel!”
*
he cried.

    
¹⁵
 Elisha told him, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did.

    
^16-17
 “Open that eastern window,” he instructed. Then he told the king to put his hand upon the bow, and Elisha laid his own hands upon the king’s hands.

    
“Shoot!” Elisha commanded, and he did.

    
Then Elisha proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s arrow, full of victory over Syria; for you will completely conquer the Syrians at Aphek.
¹⁸
 Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the floor.”

    
So the king picked them up and struck the floor three times.
¹⁹
 But the prophet was angry with him. “You should have struck the floor five or six times,” he exclaimed, “for then you would have beaten Syria until they were entirely destroyed; now you will be victorious only three times.”

    
^20-21
 So Elisha died and was buried.

    
In those days bandit gangs of Moabites used to invade the land each spring. Once some men who were burying a friend spied these marauders so they hastily threw his body into the tomb of Elisha. And as soon as the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet!

    
²²
 King Hazael of Syria had oppressed Israel during the entire reign of King Jehoahaz.
²³
 But the Lord was gracious to the people of Israel, and they were not totally destroyed. For God pitied them, and also he was honoring his contract with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this is still true.
²⁴
 Then King Hazael of Syria died, and his son Ben-hadad reigned in his place.

    
²⁵
 King Joash of Israel
*
(the son of Jehoahaz) was successful on three occasions in reconquering the cities that his father had lost to Ben-hadad.