2 Chronicles 23

1 In the seventh year, Jehoiada took courage and entered a conspiracy with certain captains: Azariah, son of Jehoram; Ishmael, son of Jehohanan; Azariah, son of Obed; Masseiah, son of Adaiah; and Elishaphat, son of Zichri.
2 They journeyed about Judah, gathering the Levites from all the cities of Judah and also the heads of the Israelite families. When they had come to Jerusalem,
3 the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. Jehoiada said to them: Here is the king's son who must reign, as the LORD promised concerning the sons of David.
4 This is what you must do: a third of your number, both priests and Levites, who come in on the sabbath must guard the thresholds,
5 another third must be at the king's palace, and the final third at the Foundation Gate, when all the people will be in the courts of the LORD'S temple.
6 Let no one enter the LORD'S house except the priests and those Levites who are ministering. They may enter because they are holy; but all the other people must observe the prescriptions of the LORD.
7 The Levites shall surround the king on all sides, each with his weapon drawn. Whoever tries to enter the house must be slain. Stay with the king wherever he goes.
8 The Levites and all Judah did just as Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each brought his men, those who were to come in on the sabbath as well as those who were to depart on the sabbath, since Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed any of the divisions.
9 Jehoiada the priest gave the captains the spears, shields and bucklers of King David which were in the house of God.
10 He stationed all the people, each with his spear in hand, from the southern to the northern extremity of the enclosure, around the altar and the temple on the king's behalf.
11 Then they brought out the king's son, set the crown and the insignia upon him, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they cried, Long live the king!
12 When Athaliah heard the din of the people running and acclaiming the king, she went to the people in the temple of the LORD.
13 She looked, and there was the king standing beside his pillar at the entrance, the officers and the trumpeters around him, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, while the singers with their musical instruments were leading the acclaim. Athaliah tore her garments and cried out, Treason! treason!
14 Then Jehoiada the priest sent out the captains who were in command of the army; he said to them: Take her outside through the ranks, and if anyone tries to follow her, let him die by the sword. For, the priest continued, you must not put her to death in the LORD'S temple.
15 So they seized her, and when she arrived at the entrance to the Horse Gate of the palace, they put her to death there.
16 Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they should be the LORD'S people.
17 And all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed its altars and images, and they slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars.
18 Then Jehoiada gave the charge of the LORD'S temple into the hands of the levitical priests, to whom David had assigned turns in the temple for offering the holocausts of the LORD, as is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and song, as David had provided.
19 Moreover, he stationed guards at the gates of the LORD'S temple so that no one unclean in any respect might enter.
20 Then he took the captains, the nobles, the rulers among the people, and all the people of the land, and led the king out of the LORD'S house. When they had come within the upper gate of the king's house, they seated the king upon the royal throne.
21 All the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been put to death by the sword.

2 Chronicles 24

1 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother, named Zibiah, was from Beer-sheba.
2 Joash did what was pleasing to the LORD as long as Jehoiada the priest lived.
3 Jehoiada provided him with two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
4 After some time, Joash decided to restore the LORD'S temple.
5 He called together the priests and Levites and said to them: Go out to all the cities of Judah and collect money from all Israel that you may repair the house of your God over the years. You must hasten this affair. But the Levites did not hasten.
6 Then the king summoned Jehoiada, who was in charge, and said to him: Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the LORD, and by the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?
7 For the wicked Athaliah and her sons had damaged the house of God and had even turned over to the Baals the dedicated resources of the LORD'S temple.
8 At the king's command, therefore, they made a chest, which they put outside the gate of the LORD'S temple.
9 They had it proclaimed throughout Judah and Jerusalem that the tax which Moses, the servant of God, had imposed on Israel in the desert should be brought to the LORD.
10 All the princes and the people rejoiced; they brought what was asked and cast it into the chest until it was filled.
11 Whenever the chest was brought to the royal officials by the Levites and they saw that it contained much money, the royal scribe and an overseer for the high priest came, emptied the chest, then took it back and returned it to its place. This they did day after day until they had collected a large sum of money.
12 Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to the workmen in charge of the labor on the LORD'S temple, who hired masons and carpenters to restore the temple, and also iron-and bronze-smiths to repair it.
13 The workmen labored, and the task of restoration progressed under their hands. They restored the house of God according to its original form, and reinforced it.
14 After they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and to Jehoiada, who had it made into utensils for the LORD'S temple, utensils for the service and the holocausts, and basins and other gold and silver utensils. They offered holocausts in the LORD'S temple continually throughout the lifetime of Jehoiada.
15 Jehoiada lived to a ripe old age; he was a hundred and thirty years old when he died.
16 He was buried in the City of David with the kings, because he had done good in Israel, in particular with respect to God and his temple.
17 After the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and the king then listened to them.
18 They forsook the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and began to serve the sacred poles and the idols; and because of this crime of theirs, wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
19 Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD, the people would not listen to their warnings.
20 Then the spirit of God possessed Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He took his stand above the people and said to them: God says, 'Why are you transgressing the LORD'S commands, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.'
21 But they conspired against him, and at the king's order they stoned him to death in the court of the LORD'S temple.
22 Thus King Joash was unmindful of the devotion shown him by Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, and slew his son. And as he was dying, he said, May the LORD see and avenge.
23 At the turn of the year a force of Arameans came up against Joash. They invaded Judah and Jerusalem, did away with all the princes of the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.
24 Though the Aramean force came with few men, the LORD surrendered a very large force into their power, because Judah had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers. So punishment was meted out to Joash.
25 After the Arameans had departed from him, leaving him in grievous suffering, his servants conspired against him because of the murder of the son of Jehoiada the priest. They killed him on his sickbed. He was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
26 These conspired against him: Zabad, son of Shimeath from Ammon, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith from Moab.
27 Of his sons, and the great tribute imposed on him, and of his rebuilding of the house of God, there is a written account in the midrash of the book of the kings. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

2 Chronicles 25

1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother, named Jehoaddan, was from Jerusalem.
2 He did what was pleasing in the sight of the LORD, though not wholeheartedly.
3 After he had strengthened his hold on the kingdom, he slew those of his servants who had killed the king, his father;
4 but he did not put their children to death, for he acted according to what is written in the law, in the Book of Moses, as the LORD commanded: Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; but only for his own guilt shall a man be put to death.
5 Amaziah mustered Judah and placed them, out of all Judah and Benjamin according to their ancestral houses, under leaders of thousands and of hundreds. When he had counted those of twenty years and over, he found them to be three hundred thousand picked men fit for war, capable of handling lance and shield.
6 He also hired a hundred thousand valiant warriors from Israel for a hundred talents of silver.
7 But a man of God came to him and said: O king, let not the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with any Ephraimite.
8 Instead, go on your own, strongly prepared for the conflict; otherwise the LORD will defeat you in the face of the enemy. It is God who has the power to reinforce or to defeat.
9 Amaziah answered the man of God, But what is to be done about the hundred talents that I paid for the troops of Israel? The man of God replied, The LORD can give you much more than that.
10 Amaziah then disbanded the troops that had come to him from Ephraim, and sent them home. They, however, became furiously angry with Judah, and returned home blazing with resentment.
11 Amaziah now assumed command of his army. They proceeded to the Valley of Salt, and there they killed ten thousand men of Seir.
12 The Judahites also brought back another ten thousand alive, whom they led to the summit of the Rock and then cast down, so that they were all crushed.
13 Meanwhile, the mercenaries whom Amaziah had dismissed from battle service with him raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon. They killed three thousand of the inhabitants and took away much booty.
14 When Amaziah returned from his conquest of the Edomites he brought back with him the gods of the people of Seir, which he set up as his own gods; he bowed down before them and offered sacrifice to them.
15 Then the anger of the LORD blazed out against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him who said: Why have you had recourse to this people's gods that could not save their own people from your hand?
16 While he was still speaking, however, the king said to him: Have you been made the king's counselor? Be silent! Why should it be necessary to kill you? Therefore the prophet desisted. I know, however, he said, that God has let you take counsel to your own destruction, because you have done this thing and have refused to hear my counsel.
17 Having taken counsel, King Amaziah of Judah sent messengers to Joash, son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying, Come, let us meet each other face to face.
18 King Joash of Israel sent this reply to King Amaziah of Judah: The thistle of the Lebanon sent a message to the cedar of the Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son for his wife.' But the wild beasts of the Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle down.
19 You are thinking, 'See, I have beaten Edom!', and thus ambition makes you proud. Remain at home. Why involve yourself, and Judah with you, in misfortune and failure?
20 But Amaziah would not listen, for God had determined to hand them over because they had had recourse to the gods of Edom.
21 Therefore King Joash of Israel advanced and he and King Amaziah met in battle at Beth-shemesh of Judah.
22 There Judah was defeated by Israel, and all the Judean soldiers fled homeward.
23 King Joash of Israel captured Amaziah, king of Judah, son of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem. Then he tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of four hundred cubits.
24 He took away all the gold and silver and all the vessels he found in the house of God with Obed-edom, together with the treasures of the palace, and hostages as well. Then he returned to Samaria.
25 Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, survived Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, by fifteen years.
26 The rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, can be found written, as is well known, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
27 Now from the time that Amaziah ceased to follow the LORD, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem; hence he fled to Lachish. But they pursued him to Lachish and put him to death there.
28 They brought him back on horses and buried him with his ancestors in the City of Judah.