Lives of Scripture

Joah son of Joahaz held the office of recorder in the court of King Josiah of Judah, one of the few kings Scripture commends without qualification (2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34-35). In the eighteenth year of his reign, after Josiah had already begun purging Judah of idolatry, he turned to the long-neglected house of the LORD. He sent three officials -- Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder -- to repair the temple (2 Chronicles 34:8). Joah and his colleagues came to Hilkiah the high priest and delivered the silver that the Levite doorkeepers had collected from the people of Israel and Judah for the repair project (34:9). That money was passed on to the workmen and used to buy quarried stone and timber, restoring a temple that generations of unfaithful kings had let fall into ruin (34:10-11). This same initiative soon led to Hilkiah's discovery of the Book of the Law in the temple, which Josiah heard read aloud and which sparked the most sweeping covenant renewal and reform of idolatry Judah had seen since David. Joah's task was modest and administrative -- he moved money, not mountains -- but his small, faithful errand was one thread in a larger act of national repentance that Scripture treats as one of Judah's last bright moments before the exile.