Page:JPS-1917-Universal.djvu/1140

23.14 'Have her forth between the ranks; and whoso followeth her, let him be slain with the sword'; for the priest said: 'Slay her not in the house of the .' So they made way for her; and she went to the entry of the horse gate to the king's house; and they slew her there.

And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, and all the people, and the king, that they should be the people. And all the people went to the house of Baal, and broke it down, and broke his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the under the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the, to offer the burnt-offerings of the , as it is written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the direction of David. And he set the porters at the gates of the house of the, that none that was unclean in any thing should enter in. And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought down the king from the house of the ; and they came through the upper gate unto the king's house, and set the king upon the throne of the kingdom. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet; and they slew Athaliah with the sword.

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. And Joash did that which was right in the eyes of the all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begot sons and daughters.

And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to restore the house of the. And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them: 'Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter.' Howbeit the Levites hastened it not. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and unto him: 'Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax of Moses the servant of the, and of the congregation of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?' For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the hallowed things of the house of the did they bestow upon the Baalim.

So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of the. And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for the the tax that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end. And it was so, that at what time the chest was brought unto the king's officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and the chief priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it back to its place. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the ; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the, and also