Queen Athaliah of Judah

¹As soon as King Ahaziah's mother Athaliah learned of her son's murder, she gave orders for all the members of the royal family to be killed.

²Only Ahaziah's son Joash escaped. He was about to be killed with the others, but was rescued by his aunt Jehosheba, who was King Jehoram's daughter and Ahaziah's half sister. She took him and his nurse into a bedroom in the Temple and hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not killed.

³For six years Jehosheba took care of the boy and kept him hidden in the Temple, while Athaliah ruled as queen.

⁴But in the seventh year Jehoiada the priest sent for the officers in charge of the royal bodyguard and of the palace guards, and told them to come to the Temple, where he made them agree under oath to what he planned to do. He showed them King Ahaziah's son Joash

⁵and gave them the following orders: “When you come on duty on the Sabbath, one third of you are to guard the palace;

⁶another third are to stand guard at the Sur Gate, and the other third are to stand guard at the gate behind the other guards.

⁷The two groups that go off duty on the Sabbath are to stand guard at the Temple to protect the king.

⁸You are to guard King Joash with drawn swords and stay with him wherever he goes. Anyone who comes near you is to be killed.”

⁹The officers obeyed Jehoiada's instructions and brought their men to him—those going off duty on the Sabbath and those going on duty.

¹⁰He gave the officers the spears and shields that had belonged to King David and had been kept in the Temple,

¹¹and he stationed the men with drawn swords all around the front of the Temple, to protect the king.

¹²Then Jehoiada led Joash out, placed the crown on his head, and gave him a copy of the laws governing kingship. Then Joash was anointed and proclaimed king. The people clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!”

¹³Queen Athaliah heard the noise being made by the guards and the people, so she hurried to the Temple, where the crowd had gathered.

¹⁴There she saw the new king standing by the column at the entrance of the Temple, as was the custom. He was surrounded by the officers and the trumpeters, and the people were all shouting joyfully and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes in distress and shouted, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁵Jehoiada did not want Athaliah killed in the Temple area, so he ordered the army officers: “Take her out between the rows of guards, and kill anyone who tries to rescue her.”

¹⁶They seized her, took her to the palace, and there at the Horse Gate they killed her.

Jehoiada's Reforms

¹⁷The priest Jehoiada had King Joash and the people make a covenant with the Lord that they would be the Lord's people; he also made a covenant between the king and the people.

¹⁸Then the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down; they smashed the altars and the idols, and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. Jehoiada put guards on duty at the Temple,

¹⁹and then he, the officers, the royal bodyguard, and the palace guards escorted the king from the Temple to the palace, followed by all the people. Joash entered by the Guard Gate and took his place on the throne.

²⁰All the people were filled with happiness, and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been killed in the palace.

²¹Joash became king of Judah at the age of seven.

King Joash of Judah

¹In the seventh year of the reign of King Jehu of Israel, Joash became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother was Zibiah from the city of Beersheba.

²Throughout his life he did what pleased the Lord, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

³However, the pagan places of worship were not destroyed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

⁴Joash called the priests and ordered them to save up the money paid in connection with the sacrifices in the Temple, both the dues paid for the regular sacrifices and the money given as freewill gifts.

⁵Each priest was to be responsible for the money brought by those he served, and the money was to be used to repair the Temple, as needed.

⁶But by the twenty-third year of Joash's reign the priests still had not made any repairs in the Temple.

⁷So he called in Jehoiada and the other priests and asked them, “Why aren't you repairing the Temple? From now on you are not to keep the money you receive; you must hand it over, so that the repairs can be made.”

⁸The priests agreed to this and also agreed not to make the repairs in the Temple.

⁹Then Jehoiada took a box, made a hole in the lid, and placed the box by the altar, on the right side as one enters the Temple. The priests on duty at the entrance put in the box all the money given by the worshipers.

¹⁰Whenever there was a large amount of money in the box, the royal secretary and the High Priest would come, melt down the silver, and weigh it.

¹¹After recording the exact amount, they would hand the silver over to the men in charge of the work in the Temple, and these would pay the carpenters, the builders,

¹²the masons, and the stone cutters, buy the timber and the stones used in the repairs, and pay all other necessary expenses.

¹³None of the money, however, was used to pay for making silver cups, bowls, trumpets, or tools for tending the lamps, or any other article of silver or of gold.

¹⁴It was all used to pay the workers and to buy the materials used in the repairs.

¹⁵The men in charge of the work were thoroughly honest, so there was no need to require them to account for the funds.

¹⁶The money given for the repayment offerings and for the offerings for sin was not deposited in the box; it belonged to the priests.

¹⁷At that time King Hazael of Syria attacked the city of Gath and conquered it; then he decided to attack Jerusalem.

¹⁸King Joash of Judah took all the offerings that his predecessors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah had dedicated to the Lord, added to them his own offerings and all the gold in the treasuries of the Temple and the palace, and sent them all as a gift to King Hazael, who then led his army away from Jerusalem.

¹⁹Everything else that King Joash did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

^20-21King Joash's officials plotted against him, and two of them, Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer, killed him at the house built on the land that was filled in on the east side of Jerusalem, on the road that goes down to Silla. Joash was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

¹Listen to this, you women of Samaria, who grow fat like the well-fed cows of Bashan, who mistreat the weak, oppress the poor, and demand that your husbands keep you supplied with liquor!

²As the Sovereign Lord is holy, he has promised, “The days will come when they will drag you away with hooks; every one of you will be like a fish on a hook.

³You will be dragged to the nearest break in the wall and thrown out.”

Israel's Failure to Learn

⁴The Sovereign Lord says, “People of Israel, go to the holy place in Bethel and sin, if you must! Go to Gilgal and sin with all your might! Go ahead and bring animals to be sacrificed morning after morning, and bring your tithes every third day.

⁵Go on and offer your bread in thanksgiving to God, and brag about the extra offerings you bring! This is the kind of thing you love to do.

⁶“I was the one who brought famine to all your cities, yet you did not come back to me.

⁷I kept it from raining when your crops needed it most. I sent rain on one city, but not on another. Rain fell on one field, but another field dried up.

⁸Weak with thirst, the people of several cities went to a city where they hoped to find water, but there was not enough to drink. Still you did not come back to me.

⁹“I sent a scorching wind to dry up your crops. The locusts ate up all your gardens and vineyards, your fig trees and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.

¹⁰“I sent a plague on you like the one I sent on Egypt. I killed your young men in battle and took your horses away. I filled your nostrils with the stink of dead bodies in your camps. Still you did not come back to me.

¹¹“I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Those of you who survived were like a burning stick saved from a fire. Still you did not come back to me,” says the Lord.

¹²“So then, people of Israel, I am going to punish you. And because I am going to do this, get ready to face my judgment!”

¹³God is the one who made the mountains and created the winds. He makes his thoughts known to people; he changes day into night. He walks on the heights of the earth. This is his name: the Lord God Almighty!

A Call to Repentance

¹Listen, people of Israel, to this funeral song which I sing over you:

²Virgin Israel has fallen, Never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, And no one helps her up.

³The Sovereign Lord says, “A city in Israel sends out a thousand soldiers, but only a hundred return; another city sends out a hundred, but only ten come back.”

⁴The Lord says to the people of Israel, “Come to me, and you will live.

⁵Do not go to Beersheba to worship. Do not try to find me at Bethel—Bethel will come to nothing. Do not go to Gilgal—her people are doomed to exile.”

⁶Go to the Lord, and you will live. If you do not go, he will sweep down like fire on the people of Israel. The fire will burn up the people of Bethel, and no one will be able to put it out.

⁷You are doomed, you that twist justice and cheat people out of their rights!

⁸The Lord made the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into daylight and day into night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth. His name is the Lord.

⁹He brings destruction on the mighty and their strongholds.

¹⁰You people hate anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court.

¹¹You have oppressed the poor and robbed them of their grain. And so you will not live in the fine stone houses you build or drink wine from the beautiful vineyards you plant.

¹²I know how terrible your sins are and how many crimes you have committed. You persecute good people, take bribes, and prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts.

¹³And so, keeping quiet in such evil times is the smart thing to do!

¹⁴Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is.

¹⁵Hate what is evil, love what is right, and see that justice prevails in the courts. Perhaps the Lord will be merciful to the people of this nation who are still left alive.

¹⁶And so the Sovereign Lord Almighty says, “There will be wailing and cries of sorrow in the city streets. Even farmers will be called to mourn the dead along with those who are paid to mourn.

¹⁷There will be wailing in all the vineyards. All this will take place because I am coming to punish you.” The Lord has spoken.

¹⁸How terrible it will be for you who long for the day of the Lord! What good will that day do you? For you it will be a day of darkness and not of light.

¹⁹It will be like someone who runs from a lion and meets a bear! Or like someone who comes home and puts his hand on the wall—only to be bitten by a snake!

²⁰The day of the Lord will bring darkness and not light; it will be a day of gloom, without any brightness.

²¹The Lord says, “I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them!

²²When you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will not accept the animals you have fattened to bring me as offerings.

²³Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps.

²⁴Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.

²⁵“People of Israel, I did not demand sacrifices and offerings during those forty years that I led you through the desert.

²⁶But now, because you have worshiped images of Sakkuth, your king god, and of Kaiwan, your star god, you will have to carry those images

²⁷when I take you into exile in a land beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is Almighty God.

The Destruction of Israel

¹How terrible it will be for you that have such an easy life in Zion and for you that feel safe in Samaria—you great leaders of this great nation Israel, you to whom the people go for help!

²Go and look at the city of Calneh. Then go on to the great city of Hamath and on down to the Philistine city of Gath. Were they any better than the kingdoms of Judah and Israel? Was their territory larger than yours?

³You refuse to admit that a day of disaster is coming, but what you do only brings that day closer.

⁴How terrible it will be for you that stretch out on your luxurious couches, feasting on veal and lamb!

⁵You like to compose songs, as David did, and play them on harps.

⁶You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest perfumes, but you do not mourn over the ruin of Israel.

⁷So you will be the first to go into exile. Your feasts and banquets will come to an end.

⁸The Sovereign Lord Almighty has given this solemn warning: “I hate the pride of the people of Israel; I despise their luxurious mansions. I will give their capital city and everything in it to the enemy.”

⁹If there are ten men left in a family, they will die.

¹⁰The dead man's relative, the one in charge of the funeral, will take the body out of the house. The relative will call to whoever is still left in the house, “Is anyone else there with you?” The person will answer, “No!” Then the relative will say, “Be quiet! We must be careful not even to mention the Lord's name.”

¹¹When the Lord gives the command, houses large and small will be smashed to pieces.

¹²Do horses gallop on rocks? Does anyone plow the sea with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison, and right into wrong.

¹³You brag about capturing the town of Lodebar. You boast, “We were strong enough to take Karnaim.”

¹⁴The Lord God Almighty himself says, “People of Israel, I am going to send a foreign army to occupy your country. It will oppress you from Hamath Pass in the north to the Brook of the Arabah in the south.”

In Praise of Jerusalem

¹I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the Lord's house.”

²And now we are here, standing inside the gates of Jerusalem!

³Jerusalem is a city restored in beautiful order and harmony.

⁴This is where the tribes come, the tribes of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord according to his command.

⁵Here the kings of Israel sat to judge their people.

⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you prosper.

⁷May there be peace inside your walls and safety in your palaces.”

⁸For the sake of my relatives and friends I say to Jerusalem, “Peace be with you!”

⁹For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I pray for your prosperity.