2 Kings 12:5-15

5 Let the priests take some of that money to pay for whatever repairs are needed at the Temple.”

6 But by the twenty-third year of Joash’s reign, the priests still had not repaired the Temple.

7 So King Joash called for Jehoiada and the other priests and asked them, “Why haven’t you repaired the Temple? Don’t use any more money for your own needs. From now on, it must all be spent on Temple repairs.”

8 So the priests agreed not to accept any more money from the people, and they also agreed to let others take responsibility for repairing the Temple.

9 Then Jehoiada the priest bored a hole in the lid of a large chest and set it on the right-hand side of the altar at the entrance of the Temple of the LORD . The priests guarding the entrance put all of the people’s contributions into the chest.

10 Whenever the chest became full, the court secretary and the high priest counted the money that had been brought to the LORD ’s Temple and put it into bags.

11 Then they gave the money to the construction supervisors, who used it to pay the people working on the LORD ’s Temple—the carpenters, the builders,

12 the masons, and the stonecutters. They also used the money to buy the timber and the finished stone needed for repairing the LORD ’s Temple, and they paid any other expenses related to the Temple’s restoration.

13 The money brought to the Temple was not used for making silver bowls, lamp snuffers, basins, trumpets, or other articles of gold or silver for the Temple of the LORD .

14 It was paid to the workmen, who used it for the Temple repairs.

15 No accounting of this money was required from the construction supervisors, because they were honest and trustworthy men.

2 Kings 12:5-15 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.