Joash of Judah

Joash (also Jehoash), son of Ahaziah of Judah, was hidden as an infant by his aunt Jehosheba in the temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah usurped the throne (2 Kings 11:2-3). In the seventh year the priest Jehoiada gathered the Carites and the guards, presented Joash in the temple courts, anointed and crowned him, and put Athaliah to death (2 Kings 11). Joash was seven years old. He reigned forty years and 'did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him' (2 Kings 12:2). His major project was the repair of the temple of the LORD, which had been neglected and damaged under Athaliah. After the Levites moved too slowly, he had a chest set beside the altar; offerings were brought in, weighed, and paid out to workmen — masons, carpenters, and those who supplied timber and hewn stone (2 Kings 12:9-15; 2 Chronicles 24:8-14). After Jehoiada died at 130, however, Joash listened to the princes of Judah who came bowing, and the temple was again forsaken for Asherim and idols. When Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest stood up by command of the Spirit to rebuke him, Joash had him stoned to death in the court of the temple (2 Chronicles 24:21). Within the year an Aramean army under Hazael ravaged Judah, looting Jerusalem of its sacred treasure; Joash was assassinated in his bed by his own servants for the blood of Zechariah, son of Jehoiada.