1. In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king. He reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2. Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all his days because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
3. However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings in the high places.
4. Now Jehoash said to the priests, “All the consecrated money that is brought into the house of the Lord, the money for which each man is currently assessed, and all the money that is brought voluntarily to the house of the Lord,
5. let the priests receive it, each from his donor, and repair the damages to the house wherever damages are found.”
6. But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damages to the house.
7. Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damages to the house? So now money will no longer be taken from your donors. You will give it over for the damages to the house.”
8. The priests agreed that they should take no more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the house.
9. So Jehoiada the priest took a chest, made a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the house of the Lord. The priests guarding the threshold put there all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord.
10. Whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest went up, emptied it, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord.
11. They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workers who were appointed to the house of the Lord. Then they paid it out to the carpenters and builders working on the house of the Lord,
12. to the masons and stonecutters, and to buy timber and cut stone to repair the damages to the house of the Lord, that is, whatever went out for repairs to the house.
13. But for the house of the Lord silver bowls, snuffers, sprinkling basins, trumpets, and all the gold and silver vessels were not made with any of the money that was brought into the house of the Lord,
14. for they gave it to the workmen, and they repaired the house of the Lord with it.