2 Kings 12:4-18

Jehoash Repairs the Temple

4 Jehoash said to the priests, "All the money of the holy things 1that is brought into the house of the LORD, the money for which each man is assessed--the money from the assessment of persons--and 2the money that a man's heart prompts him to bring into the house of the LORD,
5 let the priests take, each from his donor, and let them repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered."
6 But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had made no repairs on the house.
7 Therefore King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, "Why are you not repairing the house? Now therefore take no more money from your donors, but hand it over for the repair of the house."
8 So the priests agreed that they should take no more money from the people, and that they should not repair the house.
9 Then Jehoiada the priest took 3a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the LORD. And the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.
10 And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king's secretary and the high priest came up and they bagged and counted 4the money that was found in the house of the LORD.
11 Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD. And they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the LORD,
12 and 5to the masons and the stonecutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for making repairs on the house of the LORD, and for any outlay for the repairs of the house.
13 6But there were not made for the house of the LORD 7basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold, or of silver, from the money that was brought into the house of the LORD,
14 for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the house of the LORD with it.
15 And 8they did not ask an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly.
16 The money from 9the guilt offerings and the money from the 10sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD; 11it belonged to the priests.
17 At that time 12Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. But when Hazael set his face 13to go up against Jerusalem,
18 Jehoash king of Judah 14took all the sacred gifts that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, 15and his own sacred gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king's house, and sent these to Hazael king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem.

2 Kings 12:4-18 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.

Cross References 15

  • 1. 2 Kings 22:4
  • 2. [Exodus 35:5; 1 Chronicles 29:9]
  • 3. [Mark 12:41; Luke 21:1]
  • 4. [2 Kings 22:4]
  • 5. [2 Kings 22:5, 6]
  • 6. [2 Chronicles 24:14]
  • 7. 1 Kings 7:50
  • 8. 2 Kings 22:7
  • 9. Leviticus 5:15, 18
  • 10. Leviticus 4:24, 29
  • 11. Leviticus 7:7; Numbers 18:19
  • 12. 2 Kings 8:12; [1 Kings 19:17]
  • 13. [2 Chronicles 24:23, 24]
  • 14. 2 Kings 16:8; 2 Kings 18:15, 16; 1 Kings 15:18; [2 Kings 14:14; 1 Kings 14:26]
  • 15. ver. 4
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.