1. In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.
2. Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
3. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
4. Joash said to the priests, ‘Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord – the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple.
5. Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, then use it to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.’
6. But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple.
7. Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, ‘Why aren’t you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple.’
8. The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.
9. Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the Lord. The priests who guarded the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord.