A reading from the book of Second Chronicles.

Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Zibia of Birshiba.

And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had

sons and daughters. After this, Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord, and he gathered

the priests and the Levites and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah and gather from all

Israel money to repair the house of your God

from year to year and see that you act quickly.

But the Levites did not act quickly.

So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief and said to him,

Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax

levied by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the congregation of Israel for the tent of testimony?

For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had

also used all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord for the

Bales. So the king commanded, and they made a chest and set it outside the gate of the

house of the Lord. And proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the

Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel

in the wilderness. And all the princes, and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax

and dropped it into the chest until they had finished. And whenever the chest was brought to

the king's officers by the Levites, when they saw that

there was much money in it, the king's secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come

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