2 Kings 12:4-16

Repairing the Temple

4 Then Joash said to the priests, "All the dedicated money brought to the Lord's temple, census money, money from vows,^[a] and all money voluntarily given for the Lord's temple,

5 each priest is to take from his assessor^[b] and repair whatever damage to the temple is found.^[c]

6 But by the twenty-third year [of the reign] of King Joash, the priests had not repaired the damage^[d] to the temple.

7 So King Joash called Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said, "Why haven't you repaired the temple's damage? Since you haven't, don't take any money from your assessors; instead, hand it over for the repair of the temple."

8 So the priests agreed they would not take money from the people and they would not repair the temple's damage.

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 enters the Lord's temple; in it the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money brought into the Lord's temple.

10 Whenever they saw there was a large amount of money in the chest, the king's secretary and the high priest would go to the Lord's temple and count the money found there and tie it up in bags.

11 Then they would put the counted money into the hands of those doing the work-those who oversaw the Lord's temple. They [in turn] would pay it out to those working on the Lord's temple-the carpenters, the builders,

12 the masons, and the stonecutters-and [would use it] to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the damage to the Lord's temple^[e] and for all spending for temple repairs.^[f]

13 However, no silver bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, trumpets, or any articles of gold or silver were made for the Lord's temple from the money brought into the temple.

14 Instead, it was given to those doing the work, and they repaired the Lord's temple with it.

15 No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay those doing the work, since they worked with integrity.

16 The money from the restitution offering and the sin offering was not brought to the Lord's temple since it belonged to the priests.

2 Kings 12:4-16 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Ex 30:12-16; Lv 27:2-8,14-20
• [b]. Hb obscure
• [c]. Lit repair the breach of the house wherever there is found a breach
• [d]. Lit breach in 2 Kg 12:5-12
• [e]. 2 Kg 22:5-6
• [f]. 2 Ch 24:5-12
• [g]. 2 Kg 22:7; 2 Ch 34:12
• [h]. Lv 7:7