2 Kings 12:7

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."

2 Kings 12:7 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 12:7

Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other
priests
The common priests, Jehoiada being high priest:

and said unto them, why repair ye not the breaches of the house?
in which they appeared to him very dilatory; the reason might be, the people were not forward to pay in their money, and they might not choose to begin the repairs until they had got it all in, or at least what was sufficient to carry them through them:

now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance;
suspecting that what they had received they kept for their own use:

but deliver it for the breaches of the house;
into other hands for that use, and so dismissed them at once from collecting the money, and being concerned in the repairs of the temple.

2 Kings 12:7 In-Context

5 each priest is to take from his assessor and repair whatever damage to the temple is found.

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