2 Kings 12

Jehoash became king in the seventh year that Jehu ruled. He ruled forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah, and she was from Beersheba.

1In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

NoteJehoash and Joash are two forms of the same name, and this chapter uses both for the same king of Judah. Reigns were dated by reference to the neighboring kingdom: Jehu was king of Israel, the separate northern kingdom, and Judah was the southern kingdom with its capital at Jerusalem. Beersheba was a town at the far southern edge of Judah.

2Jehoash did what was right in the LORD's eyes for as long as Jehoiada the priest taught him.

2And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

NoteJehoiada was the chief priest who had hidden Joash as an infant during a purge of the royal family and later put him on the throne; Joash came to the throne as a child of seven. The Hebrew of this verse can be read two ways, either that Joash did right all his life, being taught by Jehoiada, or that he did right only for as long as Jehoiada was instructing him. Both readings are possible and translators divide over them.

3But the high places were not torn down. The people kept offering sacrifices and burning incense at those places.

3But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

Note"High places" were local open-air worship sites, often on hilltops, with an altar and sometimes a standing stone or sacred pole. They were the ordinary way people worshiped outside Jerusalem. Judah's official policy was that sacrifice belonged at the temple in Jerusalem alone, so the survival of these sites is reported as a failure. Burning incense meant burning fragrant resin as an offering.

4Jehoash said to the priests, "Collect all the money that people bring into the LORD's house as gifts set apart for God: the money each person owes when the people are counted, the money a person promises for himself, and any money someone freely decides to bring to the LORD's house.

4And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the LORD, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set at, and all the money that cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of the LORD,

NoteThere were no minted coins in this period; "money" meant silver measured out by weight. Three separate revenue streams are listed. The first is the fixed head-tax owed by each man counted in a census, half a shekel of silver each, a shekel being roughly two-fifths of an ounce. The second is money paid to discharge a vow: someone who had promised a person to God's service paid a set sum instead, scaled by age and sex. The third is a purely voluntary gift.

5Let each priest take that money from the people he deals with. Then let them use it to fix whatever damage they find in the house of the LORD."

5Let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance: and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase behind "the people he deals with" is obscure. It may mean each priest's own circle of acquaintances or donors, or it may refer to treasurers or assessors. The point is that each priest collected from a defined group of contributors and was expected to pass the funds on for repairs.

6But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests still had not fixed the damage to the temple.

6But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.

NoteJoash had been made king at the age of seven, so this is roughly thirty years into his life and twenty-three into his reign, a long delay for a project already ordered.

7So King Jehoash called in Jehoiada the priest and the other priests. He said to them, "Why have you not fixed the damage to the temple? From now on, do not take any more money from the people you deal with. Hand it over for the temple repairs instead."

7Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.

8The priests agreed that they would not take money from the people, and that they would not be the ones to make the repairs.

8And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house.

9So Jehoiada the priest took a chest, drilled a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as a person enters the house of the LORD. The priests who guarded the doorway put all the money brought to the LORD's house into that chest.

9But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.

NoteThe priests who guarded the doorway held a senior post, not a menial one; they controlled who and what entered the temple courts. Putting the collection chest in plain view beside the altar took the money out of individual priests' hands.

10Whenever they saw that a large amount of money was in the chest, the king's secretary and the high priest came, counted the money found in the house of the LORD, and tied it up in bags.

10And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the LORD.

NoteThe king's secretary was a high royal official who kept state records and accounts; sending him along with the chief priest meant the palace and the temple audited the money together. Silver was counted by weight and then tied up in bags of a fixed amount, so a sealed bag could be handled without recounting.

11They handed the counted money to the men who supervised the work on the house of the LORD. Those men paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the LORD's house,

11And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD,

12and to the masons and stonecutters. They also used it to buy wood and cut stone to repair the damage to the house of the LORD, and to cover every other cost of the repairs.

12And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.

13However, the money brought into the house of the LORD was not used to make silver bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any gold or silver objects for the temple.

13Howbeit there were not made for the house of the LORD bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD:

NoteThese are the utensils of temple service rather than the building itself: wick trimmers for tending the lamps, wide bowls used to catch and fling the blood of sacrifices, and silver trumpets blown to signal at festivals and assemblies. The point of the verse is accounting, every shekel went to the fabric of the building, not to replacing furnishings.

14Instead, it was paid to the workmen, and they used it to repair the house of the LORD.

14But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD.

15No one asked the men who received the money for the workmen to account for it, because they handled it honestly.

15Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.

NoteNo audit was demanded of the supervisors, an unusual arrangement, recorded here as a mark of their reputation rather than as normal practice.

16The money from the guilt offerings and the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD. That money belonged to the priests.

16The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests’.

NoteGuilt offerings and sin offerings were made to put right specific wrongs, and often involved a payment of compensation on top of the sacrifice. That payment was the priests' own income, their livelihood, so it was kept separate from the building fund.

17About this time Hazael king of Aram marched out, attacked the city of Gath, and captured it. Then Hazael decided to march against Jerusalem.

17Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

NoteAram (called Syria in the older wording) was the kingdom centered on Damascus, to the north-east, and Hazael was its aggressive king. Gath was one of the five main Philistine cities, on the coastal plain west of Jerusalem; taking it put Hazael's army on Judah's doorstep.

18So Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy objects that his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had set apart for God. He took his own holy objects too, along with all the gold in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and sent it all to Hazael king of Aram. Then Hazael pulled back from Jerusalem.

18And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and in the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.

NoteObjects "set apart for God" had been formally dedicated and could not be put to ordinary use; stripping the temple and palace treasuries of them was a drastic step. Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah were earlier kings of Judah in Joash's own line. What he sends is tribute, a payment to buy off an invader rather than fight him.

19The rest of what Joash did, and everything he accomplished, is written in the book of the yearly records of the kings of Judah.

19And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

NoteThis refers to the official court annals of Judah's kings, a record now lost. It is not the biblical books of 1 and 2 Chronicles. Formulas like this one close the account of nearly every king in these books, pointing readers to a fuller source.

20His officials plotted against him. They killed Joash at Beth Millo, on the road that goes down to Silla.

20And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla.

NoteThe Millo was a structure in Jerusalem, probably a stepped stone terrace or earth fill supporting the northern side of the old city; "Beth Millo" means the building at that spot. Silla is otherwise unknown.

21It was his officials Jozachar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer who struck him down, and he died. They buried him with his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Amaziah became king in his place.

21For Jozachar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

NoteThe City of David was the oldest and highest-status quarter of Jerusalem, the original fortified town David captured, and the customary burial ground of Judah's kings. Being buried "with his ancestors" there was the normal honorable end for a king.