2 Kings 12:1-8

1 He became king in Jehu's seventh year, and he ruled for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba.

2 Jehoash always did what was right in the LORD's eyes, because the priest Jehoiada was his teacher.

3 However, the shrines were not removed. People kept sacrificing and burning incense at them.

4 Jehoash said to the priests, "Collect all the currently available money relating to holy things that is brought to the temple—some is money people pay to redeem persons according to their assessed value. Collect all the money brought to the LORD's temple that people offer voluntarily.

5 The priests should take the money from their donors and use it to repair the temple wherever such a need for repair is discovered."

6 But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests still hadn't repaired the temple.

7 So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests together. "Why haven't you repaired the temple?" he asked them. "Stop taking money from your donors; instead, give it directly for temple repairs."

8 The priests agreed that they wouldn't take any more money from the people nor be responsible for temple repairs.

2 Kings 12:1-8 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]. 12:2 in Heb
• [b]. Heb uncertain