2 Chronicles 24:5

5 So he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, "Go out to the cities of Judah and gather money from all Israel to strengthen the house of your God sufficiently year by year. Now you yourselves must hasten to the matter." But the Levites did not act with haste.

2 Chronicles 24:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 24:5

And he gathered together the priests and Levites
To communicate his mind unto, and give them a charge and instructions:

and said unto them, go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all
Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year;
what money he means is more fully explained in ( 2 Kings 12:4 ) ,

and see that ye haste the matter;
for he was very desirous of having this work accomplished, it being the place of the worship of God, and where he had been preserved in his infancy:

howbeit, the Levites hastened it not;
either through negligence in them to collect the money, or backwardness in the people to give, or through an avaricious disposition to keep it, and use it for themselves; so that it was delayed unto the twenty third year of his reign ( 2 Kings 12:6 ) .

2 Chronicles 24:5 In-Context

3 And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he fathered sons and daughters.

4 And afterward it was in the heart of Joash to repair the house of Yahweh.

5 So he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, "Go out to the cities of Judah and gather money from all Israel to strengthen the house of your God sufficiently year by year. Now you yourselves must hasten to the matter." But the Levites did not act with haste.

6 So the king called Jehoiada the chief, and he said to him, "Why have you not required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax of Moses, the servant of Yahweh, and [of] the assembly of Israel for the tent of the testimony?"

7 For the sons of the wicked Athaliah had broken into the house of God and had used all the holy vessels of the house of Yahweh for the Baals.