Joash the king reigned in Jerusalem for forty years. But his people still sacrificed in the high places. Everything that is offered for the sanctuary, the priests shall take and repair what is damaged in the house of the Lord. But because in twenty-three years nothing was repaired under Joash the king, he called for Jehoiada and all the priests, saying, “Why are you not repairing the damage to the house? Now therefore take no more money from the donors.” And Jehoiada took a chest and bored a hole it and put it over the altar on the right side. And the priests kept watch at the threshold and put all the money that was brought into house into it.
When there was much money in it, the scribe and the high priest came up and they counted and gathered the money. They gave the money to the foremen and they counted out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the Lord. Also to the masons and carpenters and stonecutters, and to everyone who worked to repair the house of the Lord. They did not make silver bowls, snuffers, basins, trumpets, no vessels of gold or silver but they gave it to the workers. They did not demand an accounting, because those who did the work dealt faithfully. The money for the guilt and sin offering, however, was for the priests. At this time, Hazael came to Jerusalem and fought against Gath and conquered it. Joash took all the holy things his fathers Jehoshaphat, Joram and Ahaziah had dedicated and sent them to Hazael. And he went away from Jerusalem. The elders who were with Joash were angry, and made a conspiracy. And they struck Joash dead and buried him with his fathers in the city of David. His son Amaziah became king.