2 Kings 22:4

4 "Go to the chief priest Hilkiah. Have him count the money that has been brought into the LORD's temple, [the money] that the doorkeepers 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 the LORD considered right. He lived in the ways of his ancestor David and never stopped.

3 In Josiah's eighteenth year as king of Judah, he sent the scribe Shaphan, son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam, to the LORD's temple with these instructions:

4 "Go to the chief priest Hilkiah. Have him count the money that has been brought into the LORD's temple, [the money] that the doorkeepers have collected from the people.

5 Give [some of] it to the foremen who are in charge of the LORD's temple. They should give it to the workmen who are making repairs on the LORD's temple.

6 (These workers include the carpenters, builders, and masons.) Also, use [the rest of] the money to buy lumber and quarried stones to repair the temple.