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 ) .