2 Kingschapter 12
21 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
Key verse
And 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,
It stands in Joash does right all the days of Jehoiada the priest, verses 1 to 5.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Jehoash reigns forty years and does right all the days that Jehoiada instructs him, though the high places remain. The temple has fallen into disrepair, and the priests' arrangement (each taking money from his acquaintance to fund repairs), produces nothing for twenty-three years. So Jehoiada bores a hole in the lid of a chest and sets it beside the altar, and when the money is much, the king's scribe and the high priest count it and give it to the workmen. The famous detail: no reckoning is required of the men into whose hands it is delivered, for they dealt faithfully. Hazael is bought off with the hallowed things; Joash is killed by his own servants.
Context
History · Jeremiah · 2 Kings overview
The world of this chapter
The reign of Joash in Judah · 835 to 796 BC · The temple in Jerusalem, and the road where Hazael's army turned aside · Judeans who paid for temple repairs and wanted to know where the money went
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Joash, crowned at seven and reigning forty years, and to Jehoiada the priest who instructed him. The years are 835 to 796 BC, and the repair itself begins in the king's twenty-third year.
The place is the temple in Jerusalem, and at the end of the chapter the road where Hazael's army turned aside from the city. The occasion is a house of God left in disrepair while money for it was being collected.
A first hearer knew the three streams of temple money by name. There was the fixed amount assessed on each person in a census, the payment made when someone vowed the value of a person to God, and the freewill gift. The king's order was that all of it go to the repairs.
The fix is one of the earliest recorded accounting reforms. A chest with a hole bored in its lid stood beside the altar, on the right as a worshipper came in. The doorkeepers put every gift straight into a locked box in public view.
When it filled, the royal secretary and the high priest came together, two officials from different institutions, neither able to act alone, counted the silver and tied it in bags. The money then went to the foremen, who paid carpenters, builders, masons and stonecutters and bought timber and dressed stone.
The line that no reckoning was required of them because they dealt honestly is a comment on what the earlier arrangement had lacked, which was honest men rather than audits. Guilt and sin offerings continued to go to the priests, so the reform left their income in place.
Significance
The first hearers heard the verdict carefully qualified. Joash did what was right all the days that Jehoiada the priest instructed him, and the goodness lasted as long as the man behind it.
The chest with the hole in its lid is the other memory. A practical change, counted in public with two officers present and the workers paid directly, did in one year what twenty-three years of good intentions had not.
Where the chapter sits
2 Kings 12 falls in Elijah's ascension; Elisha's ministry (chapters 1–13). Elijah taken up by whirlwind; double portion; widow's oil; the Shunammite's son raised; Naaman healed; siege of Samaria broken; Elisha dies and his bones raise a man.
After it: Northern kingdom's fall, chapters 14–17.
The whole shape of 2 Kings→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Joash does right all the days of Jehoiada the priest
1. (vv. 1-3)
his mother’s name was Zibiah: Jehoash begins a forty year reign, the same span the text gives David and Solomon, under a mother named from Beersheba on the kingdom's southern edge. The formula that carries the reign is scoped by its own clause: he did right all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him, a qualification the sequel bears out once the tutor is gone. The high places still stand through this good reign, as through nearly every reign of a king in Judah who does right, and the text records the worship there without excusing it.
2 Kings 12:1
“In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign,.... So that he reigned twenty one or twenty two years contemporary with Jehu's reign, for Jehu reigned twenty eight years: and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem; the same number of years David and Solomon reigned: and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba; a city in the tribe of Simeon, in the extreme part of the land of Canaan southward; her name in the Chaldee dialect is Tabitha, the same with Dorcas in Greek, Act 9:36.”
2 Kings 12:2
“And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days,.... Worshipping the only true God, and ruling and walking according to the law of God: wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him; and so long as he observed his instructions, and as long as that priest lived, he reigned well; for to that period "all his days must be limited"; for after his death he was seduced by the princes of Judah to idolatry, and lived scandalously, and died ignominiously; see 2Ch 24:2.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 12:2
“Jehoash did - right in the sight of the Lord - While Jehoiada the priest, who was a pious, holy man, lived, Jehoash walked uprightly; but it appears from 2Ch 24:17, 2Ch 24:18, that he departed from the worship of the true God after the death of this eminent high priest, lapsed into idolatry, and seems to have had a share in the murder of Zechariah, who testified against his transgressions, and those of the princes of Judah. See above, 2Ki 11:20-21 (note). O how few of the few who begin to live to God continue unto the end!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 12:3
“The worship on the “high places” seems to have continued uninterruptedly to the time of Hezekiah, who abolished it 2Ki 18:4. It was, however, again established by Manasseh, his son 2Ki 21:3. The priests at this time cannot have regarded it as idolatrous, or Jehoiada would have put it during his regency.”
2. (vv. 4-5)
2 Kings 12:4-6
cometh into any man’s heart: Jehoash names three streams of temple money in one breath, the assessed price of every soul numbered, the valuation price set on a vow, and whatever a man's own heart moves him to bring, the same threefold shape the law gave census money and vow redemption. The priests are told to collect it from their own acquaintance and repair the house wherever a breach is found, a plan built on personal trust rather than any office of accounting. Twenty three years pass and the breaches still stand, the money gathered but the work not done.
2 Kings 12:4
"The money of every one that passeth the account," namely, half a shekel, as "an offering to the Lord" (Ex 30:13). "The money that every man is set at," that is, the redemption price of every one who had devoted himself or any thing belonging to him to the Lord, and the amount of which was estimated according to certain rules (Le 27:1-8).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 12:4
“The money - The half shekel, which was paid for every one that was numbered from twenty years old and upward. Is set at - Hebrew. the money of souls, or persons according to his taxing, the money which every man that had vowed his person to God, paid according to the rate which the priest put upon him.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Kings 12:5
“The collection was not to be made in Jerusalem only, but in all “the cities of Judah” 2Ch 24:5; the various priests and Levites being collectors in their own neighborhoods. Breaches - The word in the original includes every kind and degree of ruin or dilapidation.”
B. A chest with a hole bored in the lid: repairs at last
1. (v. 6)
2 Kings 12:6
“But it was so, that in the twenty and third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. Either the people being backward to pay in the money, or the priests converted it to their own use: or, however, were negligent of doing the work enjoined them by the king, either in collecting the money, or in using it as they were directed.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 12:6
“In the three and twentieth year - In what year Jehoash gave the orders for these repairs, we cannot tell; but the account here plainly intimates that they had been long given, and that nothing was done, merely through the inactivity and negligence of the priests; see 2Ch 24:6. It seems that the people had brought money in abundance, and the pious Jehoiada was over the priests, and yet nothing was done!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 7-8)
Why repair ye not the breaches: The king who has reigned under Jehoiada's tutelage now corrects him, asking why the breaches remain after twenty three years of collecting. The rebuke names its own remedy in the same sentence: take no more money of your acquaintance, but hand it over for the breaches themselves. The priests consent, giving up both the collecting and the repairing at once, an office surrendered rather than defended.
2 Kings 12:7
“Why repair ye not the breaches of the house?--This mode of collection not proving so productive as was expected (the dilatoriness of the priests was the chief cause of the failure), a new arrangement was proposed.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Kings 12:8
“And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people,.... And delivered up what they had: neither to repair the breaches of the house; being very willing to be stop both services, and especially since they seemed to be suspected.”
3. (vv. 9-10)
bored a hole in the lid: Jehoiada bores a hole in a chest's lid and sets it beside the altar where everyone entering can see it, money dropped in past retrieving rather than handled by any one man's account. It stands as Scripture's first dedicated building fund, a public box in place of a private collection, and its design answers the failure of the verses just before it. When the chest is full, the king's scribe and the high priest come up together, a civil officer beside the priesthood, to count and bag what has gathered.
2 Kings 12:9
“The priests that kept the door - The north door into the priests’ court Eze 40:35-43 seems to be intended, not the door of the temple building. The chest must have been placed a little to the right of this north door, between it and the altar of burnt-offering, so that the people could see it from the doorway. The people were not ordinarily allowed to go within the doorway into this court, which belonged to the priests and Levites only.”
2 Kings 12:10
“The king’s scribe and the high priest - It was necessary to associate with the high priest some civil authority and activity, in order to get the neglected work performed.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
4. (vv. 11-12)
carpenters and builders, that wrought: The counted money passes into the hands of the men who have oversight of the work, and from them to carpenters and builders, masons and hewers of stone, and to timber bought for the repair. Every trade named draws its own wage from the same fund, the work of the house parceled out to the workers whose craft it is. Two verses do nothing but name who was paid, the plainest record a temple repair can leave.
2 Kings 12:11
“And 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,....”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 12:11
“Those were fittest to be entrusted with this business whose employment lay that way. Tractant fabrilia fabri -- Every artist has his trade assigned; but let not those who are called to war the holy warfare entangle themselves in the affairs of this life.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 12:12
“And to masons, and hewers of stone,.... Which they cut out of the mountain, and the masons repaired the stone walls with: and to buy timber; felled in Lebanon: and hewed stone; fitted for building with: to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord; where both timber and stone were wanting: and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it; in whatsoever else it needed, as iron and brass to mend it, 2Ch 24:12.”
5. (vv. 13-14)
bowls of silver, snuffers, basons: No bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, or any vessel of gold or silver came out of this money, the very furniture that filled Solomon's temple in chapter 7 left unmade here. Every shekel went to the workmen and to the house itself, repair before adornment, until the walls stood before any vessel was replaced. The distinction is the chapter's own, drawn without a word on which use would have served better.
2 Kings 12:13
“Comparing this verse with the marginal reference, it will be seen that the author of Kings desires to point out, that the repairs were not delayed by any deductions from the money that flowed in. The writer of Chronicles describes what became of the surplus in the chest after the last repairs were completed. The need of supplying fresh bowls, snuffers, etc., arose from the pollution of those previously used in the temple service by their application to the Baal worship during the reigns of Ahaziah and Athaliah (see 2Ch 24:7).”
2 Kings 12:14
“But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the Lord. They took care that the workmen should first be paid for the repairs of the temple.”
6. (vv. 15-16)
they reckoned not with the men: The overseers who received the money were never called to account, and the reason given is the reason itself: for they dealt faithfully, the chest's whole audit resting on proven trust rather than inspection. Bede reads the same verse as a standing pattern for how a house of God ought to treat honest stewards. A separate stream, the trespass money and the sin money owed under the law, stayed with the priests and never entered this fund, the chapter keeping the two revenues distinct rather than folding one into the other.
2 Kings 12:15
“Moreover, they reckoned not with the men into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on the workmen,.... That is, the king's secretary and the high priest, or his officer, never called to account the overseers of the workmen, to whom they committed the money to pay them with; never examined how they laid it out, and for what: for they dealt faithfully; they saw they acted such an honest and upright part, and such an high opinion had they of them, that they never examined their accounts, or called for their bills.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 12:15
“They reckoned not with the men - They placed great confidence in them, and were not disappointed, for they dealt faithfully.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 12:15
“Faithfully - For they perceived by many experiments that they were faithful.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Kings 12:16
“The trespass-money and the sin-money (which were given to them by that law, Lev. v. 15, 16 ) were reserved to them. Let not the servants of the temple be starved under colour of repairing the breaches of it. For laying out the money that was raised.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. Temple gold sent to Hazael; servants strike the king in his bed
1. (vv. 17-18)
set his face to go up: Hazael's army takes Gath, the one recorded expedition of Damascus reaching so far south, then turns to face Jerusalem itself. Jehoash empties two treasuries to send him back, the hallowed things three generations of his own fathers had dedicated and his own hallowed things besides, all the gold the temple and the king's house together held. Hazael takes the payment and withdraws, the wealth a repaired temple had only lately received now spent to cancel a siege rather than furnish worship.
2 Kings 12:17
“There was probably a considerable interval between the conclusion of the arrangement for the repairs and the Syrian expedition related in these verses. For the events which had happened, see 2Ch 24:15-22. 2Ki 12:17 This is the first and last time that we hear of the Damascene Syrians undertaking so distant an expedition. Gath (see Jos 13:3 note) could only be reached from Syria through Israel or Judah. It was not more than 25 or 30 miles from Jerusalem. It is uncertain whether the city belonged at this time to Judah or to the Philistines.”
2 Kings 12:18
“Took all the hallowed things - He dearly bought a peace which was of short duration, for the next year Hazael returned, and Jehoash, having no more treasures, was obliged to hazard a battle, which he lost, with the principal part of his nobility, so that Judah was totally ruined, and Jehoash shortly after slain in his bed by his own servants; 2Ch 24:23.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 19-21)
the book of the chronicles of the kings: The formula that measures every king's reign against a fuller record gives way at once to conspiracy: his own servants, named by name and by mother, kill Jehoash in the house of Millo, the royal building David had raised, on the road going down to Silla. Judah's throne does not fall with him. Amaziah his son reigns in his place, the one dynasty promised for David's sake outliving the very king who had repaired its temple, and 2 Kings records him buried with his fathers in the city of David.
2 Kings 12:19
“The rest of the acts of Joash - We have already seen that this man, so promising in the beginning of his reign, apostatized, became an idolater, encouraged idolatry among his subjects, and put the high priest Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada his benefactor, to death; and now God visited that blood upon him by the hands of the tyrannous king of Syria, and by his own servants.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 12:20
“The house of Millo - Was a royal palace, built by David; (see 2Sa 5:9); and Silla is supposed to be the name of the road or causeway that led to it. Millo was situated between the old city of Jerusalem, and the city of David.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 12:20
“And slew Joash - We are told, in the Chronicles, that his murdering the prophet, Jehoiada's son, was the provocation. In this, how unrighteous so ever they were, yet the Lord was righteous.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Kings 12:20
“In this, how unrighteous soever they were (vengeance was not theirs, nor did it belong to them to repay), God was righteous; and this was not the only time that he let even kings know that it was at their peril if they touched his anointed and did his prophets any harm, and that, when he comes to make inquisition for blood, the blood of prophets will run the account very high.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 12:21
“For Jozachar - This person is called Zabad in 2Ch 24:26; and Shimeath his mother is said to be an Ammonitess, as Jehozabad is said to be the son, not of Shomer, but of Shimrith, a Moabitess. They buried him with his fathers in the city of David - But they did not bury him in the sepulchres of the kings; this is supposed to express the popular disapprobation of his conduct. Thus ended a reign full of promise and hope in the beginning, but profligate, cruel, and ruinous in the end.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Bede, Thirty Questions on the Book of Kings; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.