Joash

The name Joash (also Jehoash) attaches to several distinct Old Testament figures: a son of Becher in the Benjamite genealogies, the keeper of David's oil cellars, the Abiezrite of Ophrah who was father of Gideon, a son of King Ahab in whose custody the prophet Micaiah was placed, the son of Ahaziah preserved as an infant from Athaliah's purge and crowned by the priest Jehoiada, the king of Israel who warred with Amaziah of Judah, a descendant of Shelah, and one of David's Benjamite officers at Ziklag. Most of the narrative weight in Scripture falls on the two royal figures — Joash king of Judah and Jehoash king of Israel — whose reigns overlap and whose stories repeatedly cross.

Joash Among the Genealogies

In the Benjamite line of Becher, Joash is named with Zemirah, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth (1Ch 7:8). Another Joash stands among the descendants of Shelah, named with Jokim, the men of Cozeba, and Saraph, "who had dominion in Moab" (1Ch 4:22). A further Joash appears among the warriors who joined David at Ziklag — "the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite," listed beside Ahiezer the chief, Jeziel and Pelet, Beracah, and Jehu the Anathothite (1Ch 12:3). Under David's officers a Joash is named over the cellars of oil while Baal-hanan the Gederite oversees the olive trees and sycamores in the lowland (1Ch 27:28).

Joash the Abiezrite, Father of Gideon

The Joash of the Gideon narrative is identified by the oak at Ophrah that pertained to him: "the angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites" (Jud 6:11). When the men of the city demand the death of the son who has thrown down the Baal altar — "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing" (Jud 6:29) — Joash answers them with the challenge that has made Gideon's other name: "Will you⁺ contend for Baal? Or will you⁺ save him? He who will contend for him, let him be put to death while [it is yet] morning: if he is a god, let him contend for himself, because one has broken down his altar" (Jud 6:31). The Midianite soldier's overheard dream-interpretation reaches the same patronymic — "the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel" (Jud 7:14). The narrative finally closes the figure at his own grave: Gideon "died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites" (Jud 8:32).

Joash the King's Son Under Ahab

When Ahab orders the prophet Micaiah remanded after the unwelcome word of judgment, the king sends him "back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son" (1Ki 22:26). The chronicler's parallel preserves the same detail: "Take⁺ Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son" (2Ch 18:25).

Joash King of Judah: Hidden, Crowned, and Faithful Under Jehoiada

The dynastic crisis breaks open at Athaliah's accession: "when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal seed" (2Ki 11:1). The boy is rescued by his aunt: "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 bedchamber; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain" (2Ki 11:2). The chronicler clarifies the temple-custody arrangement by adding that this same Jehoshabeath was "the wife of Jehoiada the priest" (2Ch 22:11). Joash "was hid with her in the house of Yahweh six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land" (2Ki 11:3).

In the seventh year Jehoiada strengthens himself with the captains of hundreds and the Levites of every city, and brings them into covenant in the house of God (2Ch 23:1-3); he sets the priests, the Levites, and the people in tiered guard around the temple (2Ch 23:4-7). Then "they brought out the king's son, and put the crown on him, and [gave him] the testimony, and made him king: and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and they said, [Long] live the king" (2Ch 23:11). Athaliah hears the noise, comes to the house of Yahweh, sees "that the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpets by the king," and cries "Treason! Treason!" (2Ch 23:12-13); she is taken out to the king's house and slain (2Ch 23:15; 2Ki 11:16). Jehoiada then "made a covenant between [the Speech of] Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh's people; between the king also and the people" (2Ki 11:17), and the people break down the house of Baal, slay Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars, and seat the king on the throne (2Ki 11:18-19). "Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign" (2Ki 11:21).

The early reign is graded by the chronicler under the priest's lifetime: "And Joash did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh all the days of Jehoiada the priest" (2Ch 24:2). The accession-formula in Kings runs in parallel: "In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba" (2Ki 12:1).

The Repair of the Temple

"After this, Joash was minded to restore the house of Yahweh" (2Ch 24:4). He gathers the priests and Levites and orders them to go through the cities of Judah and gather silver "to repair the house of your⁺ God from year to year" (2Ch 24:5). The Levites delay; the king summons Jehoiada and asks why he has not required of the Levites the Mosaic tax (2Ch 24:6), noting that "the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also they bestowed all the dedicated things of the house of Yahweh on the Baalim" (2Ch 24:7). The Kings parallel sharpens the rebuke into a direct address to the priests after twenty-three years of stalled work: "Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the [other] priests, and said to them, Why aren't you⁺ repairing the breaches of the house? Now therefore take no [more] silver from your⁺ acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house" (2Ki 12:7).

The reform is institutional. "Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Yahweh: and the priests who kept the threshold put in it all the silver that was brought into the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 12:9). When the chest fills, the king's scribe and the high priest count it out, and it is paid to the carpenters, builders, masons, and stone-hewers, and for timber and cut stone (2Ki 12:11-12); none of the silver is diverted to cups, snuffers, basins, trumpets, or vessels of gold or silver, "for they gave that to those who did the work" (2Ki 12:13-14); "they did not reckon with the men, into whose hand they delivered the silver to give to those who did the work; for they dealt faithfully" (2Ki 12:15). The chronicler closes the project with the offering of "burnt-offerings in the house of Yahweh continually all the days of Jehoiada" (2Ch 24:14), and the reign-summary points beyond itself: "Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens [laid] on him, and the rebuilding of the house of God, look, they are written in the Commentary of the Book of the Kings" (2Ch 24:27).

After Jehoiada: Apostasy and the Murder of Zechariah

The chronicler plants the pivot at the priest's death: "Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king listened to them" (2Ch 24:17). The transferred listening proves catastrophic. "They forsook the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness" (2Ch 24:18). Yahweh sends prophets "to bring them again to Yahweh; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear" (2Ch 24:19). Then "the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, Thus says God, Why do you⁺ transgress the commandments of Yahweh, so that you⁺ can't prosper? Because you⁺ have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you⁺" (2Ch 24:20). "And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of Yahweh" (2Ch 24:21). The verdict is sharpened by the kinship-debt: "Thus Joash the king didn't remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, Yahweh look at it, and require it" (2Ch 24:22).

The Syrian Campaign and Hazael's Tribute

Hazael of Syria moves on Judah. In Kings: "Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem" (2Ki 12:17). Joash strips the temple and palace to buy him off: "Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and of the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem" (2Ki 12:18). The chronicler reads the same campaign as Yahweh's own judgment: "the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them to the king of Damascus" (2Ch 24:23). "For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and Yahweh delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash" (2Ch 24:24).

The Conspiracy and Death of Joash

Kings names the place and the assassins: "his slaves arose, and made a conspiracy, and struck Joash at the house of Millo, [on the way] that goes down to Silla. For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his slaves, struck him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead" (2Ki 12:20-21). The chronicler grounds the conspiracy in the Zechariah-blood-debt and adds a withholding of royal honors at burial: "when they had departed from him (for they left him very sick), his own slaves conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings" (2Ch 24:25). The conspirators are Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess (2Ch 24:26).

Jehoash King of Israel

The other royal Joash — also called Jehoash — is the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, and reigns in Samaria. The accession-formula opens his reign and reaches at once to the dying prophet: "In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] sixteen years ... Now Elisha had fallen sick of his sickness of which he died: and Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him, and said, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" (2Ki 13:10, 14). After the prophet's word, "Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times Joash struck him, and recovered the cities of Israel" (2Ki 13:25).

The clash with Amaziah of Judah is sketched in both books. Amaziah sends to Jehoash: "Come, let us look one another in the face" (2Ki 14:8; 2Ch 25:17). Jehoash answers in fable: "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon" (2Ki 14:9). "But Amaziah would not hear. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh ... And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah ... and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits. And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria" (2Ki 14:11-14). The chronicler's parallel preserves the same Beth-shemesh capture and the same four-hundred-cubit breach in the Jerusalem wall (2Ch 25:23). Kings closes the reign: "Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his stead" (2Ki 14:16).