Joash

Joash survived Athaliah's purge of the Davidic line because his aunt Jehosheba hid him in a temple storeroom for six years, an act that preserved the sole remaining heir during the Divided Kingdom period.

Crowned at age seven in a carefully staged ceremony at the temple gate, Joash was the youngest king of Judah, with high priest Jehoiada using trumpets and royal regalia to proclaim him while Athaliah was seized outside the sacred precincts.

To fund temple repairs without taxing the people, Joash had a wooden chest with a single hole drilled in its lid placed by the altar, and the collected silver was paid directly to honest workmen who needed no oversight or audits.

After Jehoiada's death Joash ordered the stoning of the priest's son Zechariah inside the temple court for prophesying against the king's new idols, an act the chronicler links to Joash's later battlefield defeat and illness.

Joash bought off Hazael of Aram with gold from the temple and palace treasuries, then was assassinated in his bed at the Millo fortress by two of his officials, and was denied burial among the kings because of his apostasy.