2 Kings 12:1
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2 Kings 9:27
27But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there.
2 Kings 11:21
21Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.
2 Chronicles 24:1-14
1Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, of Beersheba. 2Joash did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes all the days of Jehoiada the priest. 3Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
4After this, Joash intended to restore the LORD’s house. 5He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter.” However the Levites didn’t do it right away. 6The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, “Why haven’t you required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the Tent of the Testimony?” 7For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God’s house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of the LORD’s house to the Baals.
8So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the LORD’s house. 9They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. 10All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had filled it. 11Whenever the chest was brought to 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 to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. 12The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the LORD’s house. They hired masons and carpenters to restore the LORD’s house, and also those who worked iron and bronze to repair the LORD’s house. 13So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands. They set up God’s house as it was designed, and strengthened it. 14When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, from which were made vessels for the LORD’s house, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, including spoons and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in the LORD’s house continually all the days of Jehoiada.
1 Chronicles 3:11
11Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,
2 Kings 11:1-4
1Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring. 2But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedroom; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3He was with her hidden in the LORD’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.
4In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the LORD’s house; and he made a covenant with them, and made a covenant with them in the LORD’s house, and showed them the king’s son.
Study
2 Kings 12:1
Joash was king from 835 to 796 BC.
Section overviews (1)
2 Kings 11:21–12.21
The record of Joash's reign follows a typical format:
It describes when he became king (2 Kings 11:21–12:3)
It tells about his royal activities (2 Kings 12:4–18)
It gives the closing notice of his reign (2 Kings 12:19–21).
The main focus is Joash’s efforts to repair the temple of the Lord (2 Kings 12:4–16). Later, when the army of Aram [the Arameans] invaded, Joash took treasures from the temple and gave them away to protect his city (2 Kings 12:17–18).
12:1-3
The general account here given of Joash is, 1. That he reigned forty years. As he began his reign when he was very young, he might, in the course of nature, have continued much longer, for he was cut off when he was but forty-seven years old, Kg2 12:1. 2. That he did that which was right as long as Jehoiada lived to instruct him, Kg2 12:2. Many young men have come too soon to an estate - have had wealth, and power, and liberty, before they knew how to use them - and it has been of bad consequence to them; but against this danger Joash was well guarded by having such a good director as Jehoiada was, so wise, and experienced, and faithful to him, and by having so much wisdom as to hearken to him and be directed by him, even when he was grown up. Note, It is a great mercy to young people, and especially to young princes, and all young men of consequence, to be under good direction, and to have those about them that will instruct them to do that which is right in the sight of the Lord; and they then do wisely and well for themselves when they are willing to be counselled and ruled by such. A child left to himself brings his mother to shame, but a child left to such a tuition may bring himself to honour and comfort. 3. That the high places were not taken away, Kg2 12:3. Up and down the country they had altars both for sacrifice and incense, to the honour of the God of Israel only, but in competition with, and at least in tacit contempt of, his altar at Jerusalem. These private altars, perhaps, had been more used in the late bad reigns than formerly, because it was not safe to go up to Jerusalem, nor was the temple-service performed as it should have been; and, it may be, Jehoiada connived at them, because some well-meaning people were glad of them when they could not have better, and he hoped that the reforming of the temple, and putting things into a good posture there, would by degrees draw people from their high places and they would dwindle of themselves; or perhaps neither the king nor the priest had zeal enough to carry on their reformation so far, nor courage and strength enough to encounter such an inveterate usage.
12:1
In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign,.... So that he reigned twenty one or twenty two years contemporary with Jehu's reign, for Jehu reigned twenty eight years:
and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem; the same number of years David and Solomon reigned:
and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba; a city in the tribe of Simeon, in the extreme part of the land of Canaan southward; her name in the Chaldee dialect is Tabitha, the same with Dorcas in Greek, Acts 9:36.
12:1-3
(1-5). Reign of Joash. - Kg2 12:1 (1, 2). His age on ascending the throne, viz., seven years (cf. Kg2 11:4). - Commencement and length of his reign. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
Kg2 12:2
(3). Joash did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord וגו אשׁר כּל־ימין, "all his days that," etc., i.e., during the whole period of his life that Jehoiada instructed him (for אשׁר after substantives indicating time, place, and mode, see Ewald, 331, c., 3; and for the use of the suffix attached to the noun defined by וגו אשׁר, compare Kg2 13:14); not "all his life long, because Jehoiada had instructed him," although the Athnach under ימין favours this view. For Jehoiada had not instructed him before he began to reign, but he instructed him after he had been raised to the throne at the age of seven years, that is to say, so long as Jehoiada himself lived. The יהוידע כּל־ימי of the Chronicles is therefore a correct explanation. But after Jehoiada's death, Joash yielded to the petitions of the princes of Judah that he would assent to their worshipping idols, and at length went so far as to stone the son of his benefactor, the prophet Zechariah, on account of his candid reproof of this apostasy (Ch2 24:17-22).
Kg2 12:3
(4). But the worship on the high places was not entirely suppressed, notwithstanding the fact that Jehoiada instructed him (on this standing formula see the Comm. on Kg1 15:14).