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 Beer-sheba.
2. And Joash did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
3. And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters.
4. And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to restore the house of Jehovah.
5. And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year; and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it not.
6. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax of Moses the servant of Jehovah, and of the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?
7. For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of Jehovah did they bestow upon the Baalim.
8. So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of Jehovah.
9. And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for Jehovah the tax that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness.
10. And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end.
11. And it was so, that, at what time the chest was brought unto 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.