2 Kings
2 Kings 12
1Jehoash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2Jehoash did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. 4Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things that is brought into Yahweh’s house, in current money, the money of the people for whom each man is evaluated, and all the money that it comes into any man’s heart to bring into Yahweh’s house, 5let the priests take it to them, each man from his donor; and they shall repair the damage to the house, wherever any damage is found.”
6But it was so, that in the twenty-third year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damage to the house. 7Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said to them, “Why don’t you repair the damage to the house? Now therefore take no more money from your treasurers, but deliver it for repair of the damage to the house.”
8The priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, and not repair the damage to the house. 9But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into Yahweh’s house; and the priests who kept the threshold put all the money that was brought into Yahweh’s house into it. 10When they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put it in bags and counted the money that was found in Yahweh’s house. 11They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of Yahweh’s house; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, who worked on Yahweh’s house, 12and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to Yahweh’s house, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. 13But there were not made for Yahweh’s house cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into Yahweh’s house; 14for they gave that to those who did the work, and repaired Yahweh’s house with it. 15Moreover they didn’t demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give to those who did the work; for they dealt faithfully. 16The money for the trespass offerings, and the money for the sin offerings was not brought into Yahweh’s house. It was the priests’.
17Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. 18Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own holy things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and of the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria; and he went away from Jerusalem. 19Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 20His servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and struck Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. 21For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in David’s city; and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
Commentary
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What others are saying
5 commentators · 53 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry3
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
The general account here given of Joash is, 1. That he reigned forty years. As he began his reign when he was very young, he might, in the course of nature, have continued much longer, for he was cut off when he was but forty-seven years old, Kg2 12:1. 2…
We have here an account of the repairing of the temple in the reign of Joash. I. It seems, the temple had gone out of repair. Though Solomon built it very strong, of the best materials and in the best manner, yet in time it went to decay, and there were…
When Joash had revolted from God and become both an idolater and a persecutor the hand of the Lord went out against him, and his last state was worse than his first. I. His wealth and honour became an easy prey to his neighbours. Hazael, when he had chastised…
John Gill21
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
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…
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…
But the high places were not taken away,.... Used before the temple was built, or set up in Rehoboam's time, 1 Kings 14:23 contrary to the law of God, which required that sacrifices should only be offered in the place the Lord chose to dwell in, Deuteronomy…
Adam Clarke13
The linguist of this set. Expect Hebrew and Greek word study, oriental custom, and geography — and an Arminian reading of grace and free will where Gill or Henry would read election. Note one real divergence: Clarke denied the eternal sonship of Christ, a position most of the tradition rejects, so read him closely on the person of Christ.
Why this voice is here: Where you want to know what a word actually says, Clarke is the one who will tell you — with the caveat above on Christ’s sonship.
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 Ch2 24:17, Ch2 24:18, that he departed from the worship of the true God after the death of this eminent…
The high places were not taken away - Without the total destruction of these there could be no radical reform. The toleration of any species of idolatry in the land, whatever else was done in behalf of true religion, left, and in effect fostered, a seed which…
All the money of the dedicated things - From all this account we find that the temple was in a very ruinous state; the walls were falling down, some had perhaps actually fallen, and there was no person so zealous for the pure worship of God, as to exert…
Keil & Delitzsch9
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
(1-5). Reign of Joash. - Kg2 12:1 (1, 2). His age on ascending the throne, viz., seven years (cf. Kg2 11:4). - Commencement and length of his reign. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. Kg2 12:2 (3). Joash did that which was right in the eyes of the…
(5-17). Repairing of the temple (cf. Ch2 24:5-14). - Kg2 12:4, Kg2 12:5. That the temple, which had fallen into ruins, might be restored, Joash ordered the priests to collect all the money of the consecrated gifts, that was generally brought into the house of…
But when the twenty-third year of the reign of Joash arrived, and the dilapidations had not been repaired, the king laid the matter before the high priest Jehoiada and the priests, and directed them not to take the money any more from their acquaintance, but…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown7
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
But the high places were not taken away--The popular fondness for the private and disorderly rites performed in the groves and recesses of hills was so inveterate that even the most powerful monarchs had been unable to accomplish their suppression; no wonder…
Jehoash said to the priests, &c.--There is here given an account of the measures which the young king took for repairing the temple by the levying of taxes: 1. "The money of every one that passeth the account," namely, half a shekel, as "an offering to the…
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. A chest was placed by the high priest at the…
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