2 Kings 12:2-12

2 Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
3 But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
4 And Jehoash said to the priests, "All the money of the dedicated gifts that are brought into the house of the Lord--each man's census money, each man's assessment money--and all the money that a man purposes in his heart to bring into the house of the Lord,
5 let the priests take it themselves, each from his constituency; and let them repair the damages of the temple, wherever any dilapidation is found."
6 Now it was so, by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, that the priests had not repaired the damages of the temple.
7 So King Jehoash called Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and said to them, "Why have you not repaired the damages of the temple? Now therefore, do not take more money from your constituency, but deliver it for repairing the damages of the temple."
8 And the priests agreed that they would neither receive more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the temple.
9 Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who kept the door put there all the money brought into the house of the Lord.
10 So it was, whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up and put it in bags, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord.
11 Then they gave the money, which had been apportioned, into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the Lord,
12 and to masons and stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone, to repair the damage of the house of the Lord, and for all that was paid out to repair the temple.

2 Kings 12:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 12

In this chapter some account is given of the reign of Jehoash, that it was long, and the beginning of it good, during the life of Jehoiada, 2Ki 12:1-3 how urgent he was to have the temple repaired, and what methods were taken for that purpose, 2Ki 12:4-16, how meanly, as well as impiously, he behaved, when the king of Syria was about to come up to Jerusalem and besiege it, 2Ki 12:17,18, and the chapter is closed with an account of his death, and the manner of it, 2Ki 12:19-21.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.