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| 1 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. |
Forty years – Link No.34 in the chain of Bible chronology. B50; R1980:4
Usher reckons this as 39 years, while the Bible gives it as forty years. B52
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| 2 And Joash did what was right in the sight of Jehovah all the days of Jehoiada the priest. |
Jehoida the priest – The Lord's High Priest, whose wife, Joash's aunt, had secreted Joash as an infant. R2366:3
Joash's foster-father. R2366:6
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| 3 And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begot sons and daughters.
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| 4 And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to renew the house of Jehovah. |
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| 5 And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah and collect of all Israel money for the repair of the house of your God from year to year, and ye shall hasten the matter. But the Levites hastened it not. |
Levites hastened it not – Probably because the people of Judah had come to doubt the priesthood. R2367:1, R3447:6
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| 6 And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tribute of Moses the servant of Jehovah laid upon the congregation of Israel, for the tent of the testimony? |
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| 7 For the wicked Athaliah and her sons had devastated the house of God; and also all the hallowed things of the house of Jehovah had they employed for the Baals. |
Broken up the house of God – Stones had been taken for building the temple of Baal, representing the damage done to the true Temple during the Dark Ages. R3448:1, 2
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| 8 And the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it at the gate of the house of Jehovah without, |
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| 9 and they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring to Jehovah the tribute of Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. |
The collection – A tax of half a shekel on each male of 20 years old and upward (See Exod. 30:11-16). R2367:1
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| 10 And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in and cast into the chest, until they had finished. |
All the people – The remnant of the ten tribes joined in the work. R2084:5
Rejoiced – "The Lord loveth a cheerful (Greek, hilarious-- merry) giver." (2 Cor. 9:7) R3448:5
Cast Into the chest – When they once see the need of repairs and the safety of the channel the people of God will be encouraged to do everything necessary for the accomplishment of the work. R3448:4
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| 11 And it came to pass at the time the chest was brought for the king's control by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and high priest's officer came, and they emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. |
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| 12 And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of Jehovah, and they hired masons and carpenters to renew the house of Jehovah, and also such as wrought in iron and bronze, to repair the house of Jehovah. |
Jehoiada – Representing our High Priest, Christ. R3448:2
Repair the house – To this end we are exhorted by the Apostle to build one another up in the most holy faith. R2367:4
It is our duty to keep our bodies, which are temples of the holy Spirit, pure in thought, word and act, and to take reasonable care of our physical systems. R2367:2
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| 13 So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in its state, and strengthened it. |
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| 14 And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada; and they made of it vessels for the house of Jehovah, utensils to minister, and with which to offer up, and cups, and utensils of gold and silver. And they offered up burnt-offerings in the house of Jehovah continually all the days of Jehoiada. |
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| 15 And Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; he was a hundred and thirty years old when he died. |
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| 16 And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house. |
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| 17 And after the death of Jehoiada the princes of Judah came and made obeisance to the king; then the king hearkened to them. |
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| 18 And they forsook the house of Jehovah the God of their fathers, and served the Asherahs and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. |
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| 19 And he sent prophets among them to bring them again to Jehovah, and they testified against them; but they would not give ear. |
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| 20 And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood up above the people and said unto them, Thus saith God: Wherefore do ye transgress the commandments of Jehovah? And ye cannot prosper; for ye have forsaken Jehovah, and he hath forsaken you. |
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| 21 And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the command of the king in the court of the house of Jehovah. |
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| 22 And king Joash remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, Jehovah see and require it ! |
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| 23 And it came to pass at the end of the year that the army of Syria came up against him; and they entered into Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them to the king at Damascus. |
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| 24 Truly with a small company of men came the army of the Syrians, but Jehovah delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken Jehovah the God of their fathers; and they executed judgment upon Joash. |
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| 25 And when they had departed from him (for they left him in great diseases), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the sepulchres of the kings. |
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| 26 And these are they that conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess. |
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| 27 And as to his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the building of the house of God, behold, they are written in the treatise of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead. |
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