2 Kings 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
835-796 BC, the forty-year reign of Joash of Judah, beginning when he was seven years old
Location
Jerusalem and its temple, with a threat from the Aramean army approaching by way of Gath in the Philistine lowlands to the west
Audience
Judean readers, many of whom had seen the temple looted or destroyed, reading about an earlier king who repaired it and then emptied it
Situation
Joash orders the priests to use donated silver to repair the temple, and when little work has been done after twenty-three years he sets up a chest with a hole bored in the lid beside the altar. Late in his reign he strips the temple and palace treasuries to buy off Hazael of Aram, and his own officials assassinate him.
Key Background
Temple income came from assessed valuations, guilt payments, and voluntary gifts, all handled by priests who also lived off it, which is the conflict of interest the chapter is describing when the repairs stall. The chest with a bored lid, sealed and counted by the royal secretary and the high priest together, is one of the earliest recorded audit procedures, and the text notes that the workmen were trusted without accounting because they dealt honestly. Paying tribute to buy off an advancing army was ordinary regional diplomacy rather than surrender, though it meant handing over gifts dedicated by earlier kings, and Hazael's pressure on Judah in this period matches what Assyrian records show of Aramean expansion.
In the seventh year of became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah, from
Joash did what was in the entire time the priest guided him.
However, the were not removed. The people continued to offer sacrifices and at those
Joash said to the priests, "All the money brought into as gifts to the money collected from each person's the money from personal vows, and any money someone decides on their own to bring to
the priests are to receive it, each from his own And they are to use it to whatever damage is found in the temple.”
But by the twenty-third year of King Joash, the priests still had not repaired any of the damage to the temple.
So King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, “Why haven’t you been repairing the damage to the temple? From now on, you may no longer keep the money from your contacts. You must hand it over for the temple repairs.”
The priests agreed not to collect money from the people anymore and not to be responsible for the repairs themselves.
Then Jehoiada the priest took a drilled a hole in its lid, and set it beside the on the right side as you enter Yahweh’s house. The priests who the put all the money brought into Yahweh’s house into it.
Whenever they saw the chest was full of money, the and the would come up, count the money that had been brought into Yahweh’s house, and bag it up.
Then they would hand the counted money over to the supervising the work on Yahweh’s house. Those paid the carpenters and builders working on the temple,
as well as the and stonecutters. They also used it to buy timber and for repairing the damage to Yahweh’s house — covering every expense that came up in the restoration.
However, none of the money brought into Yahweh’s house was used to make silver basins, trumpets, or any gold or silver vessels for the temple.
It was all given to the workers, and they used it to repair Yahweh’s house.
They did not require an accounting from the men who received the money to pay the workers, because they dealt with
Money from and money from was not brought into Yahweh’s house. It went to the priests.
Around that time, King of marched against and captured it. Then turned to attack Jerusalem.
So King Joash of Judah took everything his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah, had to along with what he himself had plus all the gold in the of Yahweh's house and the royal palace, and sent it all to King Hazael of Aram. Hazael pulled back from Jerusalem.
As for the rest of what Joash did — everything he accomplished — isn’t it all written in the of the kings of Judah?
His own officials against him and assassinated him at on the road down to
The officials who struck him down were son of Shimeath and son of Shomer. He died, and they buried him with his ancestors in the of His son became king in his place.