2 Kings 12:4

4 Joash instructed the priests: "Take the money that is brought into The Temple of God for holy offerings - both mandatory offerings and freewill offerings -

2 Kings 12:4 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 12:4

And Jehoash said to the priests
Being minded or having it in his heart, to repair the temple, as in ( 2 Chronicles 24:4 ) not only because it was the sanctuary of the Lord, though that chiefly, but because it had been a sanctuary to him, where he was hid and preserved six years:

all the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of
the Lord:
or rather, "that is to be brought", as De Dieu, and others render it, the particulars of which follow:

even the money of everyone that passeth [the account];
or that passeth among them that are numbered, as in ( Exodus 30:13 Exodus 30:14 ) that were upwards of twenty years of age, and bound to pay the half shekel for the ransom of their souls; and it is called the collection or burden Moses laid on them in the wilderness, ( 2 Chronicles 24:6 2 Chronicles 24:9 )

the money that every man is set at;
the price the priest set upon or estimated a man at, or whomsoever that belonged to him, that he devoted to the Lord, which by the law he was bound to pay for his redemption, and, till that was done, he and they were not his, but the Lord's, of which see ( Leviticus 27:1-8 ) and here the Targum calls it, the money of the redemption of souls, which is the gift of a man for the redemption of his soul:

and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the
house of the Lord:
vows and freewill offerings made of their own accord.

2 Kings 12:4 In-Context

2 Taught and trained by Jehoiada the priest, Joash did what pleased God for as long as he lived.
3 (Even so, he didn't get rid of the sacred fertility shrines - people still frequented them, sacrificing and burning incense.)
4 Joash instructed the priests: "Take the money that is brought into The Temple of God for holy offerings - both mandatory offerings and freewill offerings -
5 and, keeping a careful accounting, use them to renovate The Temple wherever it has fallen into disrepair."
6 But by the twenty-third year of Joash's rule, the priests hadn't done one thing - The Temple was as dilapidated as ever.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.