The Living Bible (145 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, from Beersheba.
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Joash tried hard to please the Lord all during the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest.
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Jehoiada arranged two marriages for him, and he had sons and daughters.
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Later on Joash decided to repair and recondition the Temple.
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He summoned the priests and Levites and gave them these instructions:
“Go to all the cities of Judah and collect offerings for the building fund so that we can maintain the Temple in good repair. Get at it right away. Don’t delay.” But the Levites took their time.
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So the king called for Jehoiada the High Priest and asked him, “Why haven’t you demanded that the Levites go out and collect the Temple taxes from the cities of Judah and from Jerusalem? The tax law enacted by Moses the servant of the Lord must be enforced so that the Temple can be repaired.”
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(The followers of wicked Athaliah had ravaged the Temple, and everything dedicated to the worship of God had been removed to the temple of Baalim.) So now the king instructed that a chest be made and set outside the Temple gate.
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Then a proclamation was sent to all the cities of Judah and throughout Jerusalem telling the people to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had assessed upon Israel.
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And all the leaders and the people were glad, and brought the money and placed it in the chest until it was full.
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Then the Levites carried the chest to the king’s accounting office, where the recording secretary and the representative of the High Priest counted the money and took the chest back to the Temple again. This went on day after day, and money continued to pour in.
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The king and Jehoiada gave the money to the building superintendents, who hired masons and carpenters to restore the Temple, and to foundrymen, who made articles of iron and brass.
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So the work went forward, and finally the Temple was in much better condition than before.
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When all was finished, the remaining money was brought to the king and Jehoiada, and it was agreed to use it for making the gold and silver spoons and bowls used for incense, and for making the instruments used in the sacrifices and offerings.
Burnt offerings were sacrificed continually during the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest.
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He lived to a very old age, finally dying at 130.
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He was buried in the City of David among the kings because he had done so much good for Israel, for God, and for the Temple.
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But after his death, the leaders of Judah came to King Joash and induced him to abandon the Temple of the God of their ancestors and to worship shameful idols instead! So the wrath of God came down upon Judah and Jerusalem again.
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God sent prophets to bring them back to the Lord, but the people wouldn’t listen.
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Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son. He called a meeting of all the people. Standing before them upon a platform, he said to them, “God wants to know why you are disobeying his commandments. For when you do, everything you try fails. You have forsaken the Lord, and now he has forsaken you.”
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Then the leaders plotted to kill Zechariah, and finally King Joash himself ordered him executed in the court of the Temple.
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That was how King Joash repaid Jehoiada for his love and loyalty—by killing his son. Zechariah’s last words as he died were, “Lord, see what they are doing and pay them back.”
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A few months later the Syrian army arrived and conquered Judah and Jerusalem, killing all the leaders of the nation and sending back great quantities of booty to the king of Damascus.
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It was a great triumph for the tiny Syrian army, but the Lord let the great army of Judah be conquered by them because they had forsaken the Lord God of their ancestors. In that way God executed judgment upon Joash.
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When the Syrians left—leaving Joash severely wounded—his own officials decided to kill him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest. They assassinated him as he lay in bed, and buried him in the City of David, but not in the cemetery of the kings.
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The conspirators were Zabad, whose mother was Shimeath, a woman from Ammon; and Jehozabad, whose mother was Shimrith, a woman from Moab.
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If you want to read about the sons of Joash and the curses laid upon Joash, and about the restoration of the Temple, see
The Annals of the Kings.
When Joash died, his son Amaziah became the new king.
Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan, a native of Jerusalem.
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He did what was right, but sometimes resented it!
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When he was well established as the new king, he executed the men who had assassinated his father.
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However, he didn’t kill their children but followed the command of the Lord written in the law of Moses, that the fathers shall not die for the children’s sins, nor the children for the father’s sins. No, everyone must pay for his own sins.
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Another thing Amaziah did was to organize the army, assigning leaders to each clan from Judah and Benjamin. Then he took a census and found that he had an army of 300,000 men twenty years old and older, all trained and highly skilled in the use of spear and sword. He also paid $200,000 to hire 100,000 experienced mercenaries from Israel.
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But a prophet arrived with this message from the Lord: “Sir, do not hire troops from Israel, for the Lord is not with them.
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If you let them go with your troops to battle, you will be defeated no matter how well you fight; for God has power to help or to frustrate.”
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“But the money!” Amaziah whined. “What shall I do about that?”
And the prophet replied, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this!”
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So Amaziah sent them home again to Ephraim, which made them very angry and insulted.
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Then Amaziah took courage and led his army to Salt Valley and there killed 10,000 men from Seir.
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Another 10,000 were taken alive to the top of a cliff and thrown over so that they were crushed upon the rocks below.
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Meanwhile, the army of Israel that had been sent home raided several of the cities of Judah in the vicinity of Beth-horon toward Samaria, killing 3,000 people and carrying off great quantities of booty.
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When King Amaziah returned from this slaughter of the Edomites, he brought with him idols taken from the people of Seir, set them up as gods, bowed before them, and burned incense to them!
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This made the Lord very angry, and he sent a prophet to demand, “Why have you worshiped gods who couldn’t even save their own people from you?”
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“Since when have I asked your advice?” the king retorted. “Be quiet now before I have you killed.”
The prophet left with this parting warning: “I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have worshiped these idols and have not accepted my counsel.”
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King Amaziah of Judah now took the advice of his counselors and declared war on King Joash of Israel (son of Jehoahaz, grandson of Jehu).
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King Joash replied with this parable: “Out in the Lebanon mountains a thistle demanded of a cedar tree, ‘Give your daughter in marriage to my son.’ Just then a wild animal came by and stepped on the thistle, crushing it!
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You are very proud about your conquest of Edom, but my advice is to stay home and don’t meddle with me, lest you and all Judah get badly hurt.”
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But Amaziah wouldn’t listen for God was arranging to destroy him for worshiping the gods of Edom.
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The armies met at Beth-shemesh in Judah,
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and Judah was defeated and its army fled home.
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King Joash of Israel captured the defeated King Amaziah of Judah and took him as a prisoner to Jerusalem. Then King Joash ordered 200 yards of the walls of Jerusalem dismantled, from the gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate.
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He carried off all the treasures and gold bowls from the Temple, as well as the treasures from the palace; and he took hostages, including Obed-edom, and returned to Samaria.
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However, King Amaziah of Judah lived on for fifteen years after the death of King Joash of Israel.
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The complete biography of King Amaziah is written in
The Annals of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
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This account includes a report of Amaziah’s turning away from God, how his people conspired against him in Jerusalem, and how he fled to Lachish—but they went after him and killed him there.
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And they brought him back on horses to Jerusalem and buried him in the royal cemetery.
The people of Judah now crowned sixteen-year-old Uzziah as their new king.
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After his father’s death, he rebuilt the city of Eloth and restored it to Judah.
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In all, he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah, from Jerusalem.
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He followed in the footsteps of his father Amaziah and was, in general, a good king in the Lord’s sight.
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While Zechariah was alive Uzziah was always eager to please God. Zechariah was a man who had special revelations from God. And as long as the king followed the paths of God, he prospered, for God blessed him.
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He declared war on the Philistines and captured the city of Gath and broke down its walls, also those of Jabneh and Ashdod. Then he built new cities in the Ashdod area and in other parts of the Philistine country.
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God helped him not only with his wars against the Philistines but also in his battles with the Arabs of Gur-baal and in his wars with the Meunites.
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The Ammonites paid annual tribute to him, and his fame spread even to Egypt, for he was very powerful.
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He built fortified towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, and the Valley Gate, and at the turning of the wall.
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He also constructed forts in the Negeb and made many water reservoirs, for he had great herds of cattle out in the valleys and on the plains. He was a man who loved the soil and had many farms and vineyards, both on the hillsides and in the fertile valleys.
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He organized his army into regiments to which men were drafted under quotas set by Jeiel, the secretary of the army, and his assistant, Maaseiah. The commander-in-chief was General Hananiah.
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Twenty-six hundred brave clan leaders commanded these regiments.
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The army consisted of 307,500 men, all elite troops.
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Uzziah issued to them shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and sling stones.
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And he produced engines of war manufactured in Jerusalem, invented by brilliant men to shoot arrows and huge stones from the towers and battlements. So he became very famous, for the Lord helped him wonderfully until he was very powerful.
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But at that point he became proud—and corrupt. He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the forbidden sanctuary of the Temple and personally burning incense upon the altar.
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Azariah the High Priest went in after him with eighty other priests, all brave men, and demanded that he get out.
“It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense,” they declared. “That is the work of the priests alone, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to this work. Get out, for you have trespassed, and the Lord is not going to honor you for this!”
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Uzziah was furious and refused to set down the incense burner he was holding. But look! Suddenly—leprosy appeared on his forehead!
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When Azariah and the others saw it, they rushed him out; in fact, he himself was as anxious to get out as they were to get him out because the Lord had struck him.
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So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death and lived in isolation, cut off from his people and from the Temple. His son Jotham became vice-regent, in charge of the king’s affairs and of the judging of the people of the land.
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The other details of Uzziah’s reign from first to last are recorded by the prophet Isaiah (son of Amoz).
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When Uzziah died, he was buried in the royal cemetery even though he was a leper, and his son Jotham became the new king.