Tuesday in Season after Pentecost

9Verse 9. Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. 10Verse 10. For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to help him up! 11Verse 11. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? 12Verse 12. And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. 13Verse 13. Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take a warning. 14Verse 14. For the youth has come from the prison to the kingship, though he was born poor in his own kingdom. 15Verse 15. I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed this second one, the youth who succeeded the king. 16Verse 16. There is no limit to all the people who were before them. Yet the successor will not be celebrated by those who come even later. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

21Verse 21. Joash was seven years old when he became king. 1Verse 1. In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. 2Verse 2. And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days he was instructed by Jehoiada the priest. 3Verse 3. Nevertheless, the high places were not removed; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there. 4Verse 4. Then Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money brought as sacred gifts into the house of the LORD — the census money, the money from vows, and the money brought voluntarily into the house of the LORD. 5Verse 5. Let every priest receive it from his constituency, and let it be used to repair any damage found in the temple.” 6Verse 6. By the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash, however, the priests had not yet repaired the damage to the temple. 7Verse 7. So King Joash called Jehoiada and the other priests and said, “Why have you not repaired the damage to the temple? Now, therefore, take no more money from your constituency, but hand it over for the repair of the temple.” 8Verse 8. So the priests agreed that they would not receive money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves. 9Verse 9. Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the house of the LORD. There the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money brought into the house of the LORD. 10Verse 10. Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal scribe and the high priest would go up, count the money brought into the house of the LORD, and tie it up in bags. 11Verse 11. Then they would put the counted money into the hands of those who supervised the work on the house of the LORD, who in turn would pay those doing the work — the carpenters, builders, 12Verse 12. masons, and stonecutters. They also purchased timber and dressed stone to repair the damage to the house of the LORD, and they paid the other expenses of the temple repairs. 13Verse 13. However, the money brought into the house of the LORD was not used for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any articles of gold or silver for the house of the LORD. 14Verse 14. Instead, it was paid to those doing the work, and with it they repaired the house of the LORD. 15Verse 15. No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay the workmen, because they acted with integrity. 16Verse 16. The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD; it belonged to the priests.