2 Kings 22:4

4 "Go to the High Priest Hilkiah and get a report on the amount of money that the priests on duty at the entrance to the Temple have collected from the people.

2 Kings 22:4 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 22:4

Go up to Hilkiah the high priest
Who had an apartment in the temple; there was an Hilkiah, a priest, in those times, who was the father of Jeremiah the prophet, ( Jeremiah 1:1 Jeremiah 1:2 ) , whom an Arabic writer ^F12 takes to be the same with this; but it is not likely:

that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the Lord
which the people voluntarily offered for the repairing of it; this he would have the priest take an account of, that the sum total might be known; his meaning is, that he should take it out of the chest in which it was put, and count it, that it might be known what it amounted to; see ( 2 Kings 12:9 2 Kings 12:10 ) , some understand this of melting and coining the silver thus given

which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people:
who were Levites, ( 2 Chronicles 34:9 ) , either porters of the door, or rather the treasurers, as the Targum; the keepers of the vessels of the sanctuary, that had the care of them, as the Jewish commentators generally interpret it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 68.

2 Kings 22:4 In-Context

2 Josiah did what was pleasing to the Lord; he followed the example of his ancestor King David, strictly obeying all the laws of God.

3 In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the court secretary Shaphan, the son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam, to the Temple with the order:

4 "Go to the High Priest Hilkiah and get a report on the amount of money that the priests on duty at the entrance to the Temple have collected from the people.

5 Tell him to give the money to the men who are in charge of the repairs in the Temple. They are to pay

6 the carpenters, the builders, and the masons, and buy the timber and the stones used in the repairs.