In the eighteenth year of his reign, he continued his policy of purifying the land and the temple. ¹  He sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the city official, and Joah son of Joahaz the secretary to repair the temple of the Lord his God.

They had dedicated some of the plunder taken in battles to be used for repairs on the Lord’s temple.

Shallun son of Col-Hozeh, head of the district of Mizpah, worked on the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it, put on its roof, and positioned its doors, its bolts, and its bars. In addition, he rebuilt the wall of the Pool of Siloam, ¹  by the royal garden, as far as the steps that go down from the City of David.

You made the earth quake; you split it open. ¹  Repair its breaches, for it is ready to fall. ² 

Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; ¹  you will reestablish the ancient foundations. You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls, the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ ² 

They worked hard and made the repairs. ¹  They followed the measurements specified for God’s temple and restored it. ² 

(4:1) ¹  When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem ²  had moved ahead and that the breaches had begun to be closed, they were very angry.

They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; ¹  they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

“In that day I will rebuild the collapsing hut ¹  of David. I will seal its ²  gaps, repair its ³  ruins, and restore it to what it was like in days gone by. ⁴ 

He assembled the priests and Levites and ordered them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect the annual quota of silver from all Israel for repairs on the temple of your God. Be quick about it!” But the Levites delayed.

Now ¹  let the king be aware that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and odious city. ²  They are completing its walls and repairing its foundations.

Nehemiah son of Azbuk, head of a half-district of Beth Zur, worked after him as far as the tombs of David and the artificial pool and the House of the Warriors.

After him Palal son of Uzai worked ¹  opposite the buttress and the tower that protrudes from the upper palace ²  of the court of the guard. After him Pedaiah son of Parosh

This is what prompted him to rebel against the king: ¹  Solomon built a terrace and he closed up a gap in the wall of the city of his father David. ² 

Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us ¹  to restore the temple of our God and to raise ²  up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem. ³ 

You have not gone up in the breaks in the wall, nor repaired a wall for the house of Israel that it would stand strong in the battle on the day of the Lord.

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged. ¹  He removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had seized in the Ephraimite hill country. He repaired the altar of the Lord in front of the porch of the Lord’s temple. ² 

Therefore, his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant ¹  he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.

The list of Joash’s ¹  sons, the many prophetic oracles pertaining to him, and the account of his building project on God’s temple are included in the record of the Scroll of the Kings. ²  His son Amaziah replaced him as king.

“I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ¹