2 Kings 12:7

7 Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the [other] priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no [more] money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.

2 Kings 12:7 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 12:7

Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other
priests
The common priests, Jehoiada being high priest:

and said unto them, why repair ye not the breaches of the house?
in which they appeared to him very dilatory; the reason might be, the people were not forward to pay in their money, and they might not choose to begin the repairs until they had got it all in, or at least what was sufficient to carry them through them:

now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance;
suspecting that what they had received they kept for their own use:

but deliver it for the breaches of the house;
into other hands for that use, and so dismissed them at once from collecting the money, and being concerned in the repairs of the temple.

2 Kings 12:7 In-Context

5 let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found.

6 But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.

7 Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the [other] priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no [more] money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.

8 And the priests consented that they should take no [more] money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house.

9 But 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 cometh into the house of Jehovah: and the priests that kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah.