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The Histories · Old Testament

2 Kings 12

2 Kings 12: Jehoash repairs the temple and buys off Hazael

General context

Jehoash begins to reign in Jehu's seventh year and reigns forty years in Jerusalem; his mother is Zibiah of Beer-sheba. The narrator says he did right all the days Jehoiada the priest instructed him, though the high places remained. Jehoash tells the priests to take the dedicated money, in its several kinds, and repair the breaches of the house. By his twenty-third year the breaches are still unrepaired; he summons Jehoiada and the priests, asks why, and orders them to take no more money from their acquaintance but hand it over for the repairs. The priests agree to receive no more money and to do no repairing. Jehoiada sets a chest with a bored lid beside the altar; the doorkeeping priests put the offerings in, and when it fills, the king's scribe and the high priest bag and count it. The money goes to the overseers, who pay carpenters, builders, masons and stone hewers and buy timber and hewn stone. None of it is made into silver or gold vessels; the men handling the money are not called to account, because they deal faithfully; the trespass and sin money stays with the priests. Hazael king of Syria takes Gath and turns toward Jerusalem. Jehoash sends him everything dedicated by Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah and by himself, with the gold from the temple and palace treasuries, and Hazael withdraws. The chapter closes with the source formula, a conspiracy of servants who kill Joash at the house of Millo, the names Jozachar and Jehozabad, his burial in the city of David, and Amaziah's accession.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 12:1, 2 Kings 12:2, 2 Kings 12:3, 2 Kings 12:4, 2 Kings 12:5, 2 Kings 12:6, 2 Kings 12:7, 2 Kings 12:8, 2 Kings 12:9, 2 Kings 12:10, 2 Kings 12:11, 2 Kings 12:12, 2 Kings 12:13, 2 Kings 12:15, 2 Kings 12:16, 2 Kings 12:17, 2 Kings 12:18, 2 Kings 12:20, 2 Kings 12:21

2 Kings 12 (KJV)

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 Beer-sheba.

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

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

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,

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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:

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

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

16The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the Lord: 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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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Historical context

The king is "Jehoash" in most of the chapter and "Joash" in the closing verses; 13:1 calls him "Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah". He must be kept apart from Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, who appears in 13:10 under both spellings. The narrator's approval is qualified by the clause "all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him", but this chapter does not narrate Jehoiada's death or any later change in the king. The "high priest" of verse 10 is not named. The text does not say why the priests failed to repair the house over twenty-three years, only that they had not. Hazael's approach ends with the tribute; no siege or battle at Jerusalem is described, and the narrator says simply that "he went away". The dedications of "Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers" name the king's line back three generations. The assassins are named with their fathers, and no motive is given for the conspiracy. Millo and Silla are named as the place of death without description.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 12:1, 2 Kings 12:19, 2 Kings 13:1, 2 Kings 13:10, 2 Kings 12:2, 2 Kings 12:10, 2 Kings 12:6, 2 Kings 12:17, 2 Kings 12:18, 2 Kings 12:21, 2 Kings 12:20

Literary context

After the opening formula, the chapter is mostly about money and the house of the Lord. The first arrangement, priests collecting from their acquaintance, produces nothing in twenty-three years; the second, a chest with a hole in the lid beside the altar, produces bags of counted silver and a list of trades paid. The narrator itemizes what the money did buy and what it did not, and adds that the men who paid the workmen were trusted without audit because "they dealt faithfully". Two verses later the same treasuries are emptied: the king who repaired the house sends its gold and three generations of dedicated things to Hazael, and the Syrian goes away; no fight is narrated, and the report carries no verdict. The ending is just as brief. The king whom chapter 11 crowned in the temple with the people's shout dies in a conspiracy of his own servants, named in one verse, and the succession follows in the same sentence.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 12:5, 2 Kings 12:6, 2 Kings 12:9, 2 Kings 12:10, 2 Kings 12:14, 2 Kings 12:15, 2 Kings 12:18, 2 Kings 11:12, 2 Kings 12:20, 2 Kings 12:21

Key moments

  1. Right while Jehoiada instructed (2 Kings 12:2). The narrator ties the king's good conduct to the years of the priest's instruction.
  2. Why repair ye not? (2 Kings 12:7). In his twenty-third year the king confronts the priests about the unrepaired house.
  3. A chest beside the altar (2 Kings 12:9). Jehoiada bores a hole in a chest lid so offerings can be collected for the work.
  4. Workmen paid without audit (2 Kings 12:15). The overseers are not called to account because they deal faithfully.
  5. Hazael turns toward Jerusalem (2 Kings 12:17). After taking Gath, the king of Syria sets his face toward the city.
  6. The treasures sent to Syria (2 Kings 12:18). Jehoash sends the dedicated things and temple gold to Hazael, who withdraws.
  7. Joash slain at Millo (2 Kings 12:20). His own servants conspire and kill him.

For reflection

Jehoash spends years getting the temple repaired and then sends its gold to Hazael to keep him from Jerusalem. The narrator gives no verdict on either act; what would a reader need to know to judge the second one?

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