Confused by the fast pace lists of lineage of kings and the seemingly never-ending bloody battles and religious tensions? If helpful - there are some lists here, but the focus should be not just on the specific kings and kingmakers but the overall progression - as written by these authors and editors who are trying to tell us something still relevant today - maybe about what happens when religion dictates government, and how unnecessary discord can end up destroying a nation?
The warning is loud when it comes to the current king of Judah, and his mysterious and messy end, depicted both in today’s chapter and in one other place in the Bible, with more substantial clues.
Yoash the kid-king crowned when he was seven years old, after growing up, hidden in the temple, under the watchful eye of the priests.
He ruled Judah for 40 years but he too met a violent death.
Who killed the king and Why? It’s most likely the priests who helped hide him as a child. But Why? Hints in the chapter point to how the kid who became king tried to change the religious system but it didn’t pay off. To get what’s going on here we must follow the money.
By the time the king is 30 years old he no longer needs or wants his uncle’s guiding hand in every decision. Yehoiadah, the high priest of YHWH who hid the kid and ruled behind the scenes until Yoash was old enough, was able to build up the cult of YHWH and define, again, its prominence. That’s why they threw off the previous regime in the first place. But as the king grows up he realizes that the temple is not well maintained and that corruption is common - the taxes and tithes go to the priests’ pockets while the lavish temple built by his great-grandfather Solomon 150 years ago is falling apart.
So the king begins a capital campaign - assigning the priests and levites the roles of fundraisers. It doesn’t go well, not surprisingly, and the money still seems to be missing.
So then they come up with Plan B - the first known money collection box inside a temple - the earliest evidence of an actual object for collecting fees for religious services in a Jewish context. This first Kosher piggy bank is King Yoash’s idea, is made by his uncle, the high priest, but it will cost the king his life:
וַיִּקַּ֞ח יְהוֹיָדָ֤ע הַכֹּהֵן֙ אֲר֣וֹן אֶחָ֔ד וַיִּקֹּ֥ב חֹ֖ר בְּדַלְתּ֑וֹ וַיִּתֵּ֣ן אֹתוֹ֩ אֵ֨צֶל הַמִּזְבֵּ֜חַ (בימין) [מִיָּמִ֗ין] בְּבוֹא־אִישׁ֙ בֵּ֣ית יְהֹוָ֔ה וְנָֽתְנוּ־שָׁ֤מָּה הַכֹּֽהֲנִים֙ שֹׁמְרֵ֣י הַסַּ֔ף אֶת־כל־הַכֶּ֖סֶף הַמּוּבָ֥א בֵית־יְהֹוָֽה׃
And the priest Yehoiada took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it at the right side of the altar as one entered the House of YHWH, and the priestly guards of the threshold deposited there all the money that was brought into the House of YHWH.
The box seems like a reasonable and transparent way to make sure all the people’s dues are accounted for. The following verses specify that two different officials, one from the temple and one from the royal treasury had to be present each time this box was opened and its content counted.
So what went wrong?
While our chapter in Kings 2 is quite cryptic, there is much more detail in the corresponding chapter in the Book of Chronicles, the very end of the Hebrew Bible, where the accounts of the Kings of Judah are also listed, mostly with corresponding detail but with a different emphasis, agenda, and, sometimes, narrative.
The writers of Chronicles were most likely writing from a Judean perspective in the period following the destruction of the first temple and the loss of Judean sovereignty, identifying the historical-religious path that led to their eventual exile.
In this case they accuse King Yoash of turning on Yehoiyadah, his relative priestly mentor, but waiting to do it only after the old man dies. By that time, Yoash attempted more religious reforms, similar to what he did with the collection box. But Zecaraia, Yeoiyadah’s son and new high priest, is putting up a fight against the king and his reformers. And so they kill him, and silence the protest.
And as religious tensions within Judah rise, the Aramean army, once again, is at the gate. In order to appease the enemy and prevent a siege on Jerusalem, King Yoash bribes Aram with gold from his own treasury - and from the temple troves. That really upsets the priests - and then one day, King Yoash is conspired against, killed and buried alongside his royal ancestors at the end of this chapter.
What seems to emerge from between the lines here is that Yoash’s attempted religious reforms, were connected to economics and politics as well. By turning to the more international agenda of his neighbors to the north - he was reclaiming the family values he comes from, and not sticking with the more nationalist agenda of the Jerusalem priests who raised him to be their voice. In II Chronicles 24:55 they clearly blame Yoash for messing with the priesthood and claim that his murder was revenge for ‘the blood of sons of Yehoiada.”
In later rabbinic traditions, King Yoash’s betrayal of the priests who saved and raised him is considered a role model for lack of gratitude. Not only that, the blood of this priest that he had killed for protesting the reforms kept bubbling up in spooky pools outside the temple for many more years to come. A peculiar legend in the Talmud describes the terrible day on which Nebuzaradan, the Babyloian warrior who will destroy Jerusalem and Judah enters the temple and sees the bubbling blood of Zecharia, the slain priest, a century after his murder.
Follow the money, and the blood trail of betrayal to sense what’s going on here - religious tensions, competing claims for crown and ideology, power and control. The House of David will hold on for yet another century, while meanwhile in the north things are going to go very wrong even sooner.
Amazia becomes King of Judah after his killed father Yoash. And this new king is about to do some things right - but mostly not. The next phase of the war between Judah and Israel is around the corner.