2 Kings 12:15-21

15 There was no need to check on those who received the money and paid the workers, because they acted honestly.

16 Now as for the money for compensation and purification offerings, it wasn't brought to the LORD's temple. It belonged to the priests.

17 About this same time, Aram's King Hazael came up, attacked Gath, and captured it. Next Hazael decided to march against Jerusalem.

18 Judah's King Jehoash took all the holy objects that had been dedicated by his ancestors–Judah's kings Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah—along with the holy objects he himself had dedicated, as well as all the gold in the treasure rooms of the LORD's temple and the palace, and he sent them to Aram's King Hazael. Hazael then pulled back from Jerusalem.

19 The rest of Jehoash's deeds and all that he accomplished, aren't they written in the official records of Judah's kings?

20 Jehoash's officials plotted a conspiracy and killed him at Beth-millo on the road that goes down to Silla.

21 It was Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer, his officials, who struck him so that he died. He was buried with his ancestors in David's City. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

2 Kings 12:15-21 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]. Heb Joash (also in 13:20); the king’s name is variously spelled in either long Jehoash or short Joash form. The latter is the form used in 2 Chron.