Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 12
Charles Ellicott Commentary
2 Kings 12
Charles Ellicott Commentary
2 Kings 12
"In the seventh year of Jehu began Jehoash to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother`s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba." — 2 Kings 12:1 (ASV)
THE REIGN OF JEHOASH, OR JOASH. (Compare to 2 Chronicles 24)
Forty years. —A common round number. David and Solomon are each said to have reigned forty years.
His mother’s name. —The author of these short abstracts generally gives this particular in regard to the kings of Judah.
Beer-sheba. —A famous Simeonite sanctuary, and resort of pilgrims (Amos 5:5; Amos 8:14).
"And Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him." — 2 Kings 12:2 (ASV)
All his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. —The Hebrew is ambiguous, but may certainly mean this, which is the rendering of the Septuagint and Vulgate. (The accent dividing the verse ought to fall on “the Lord” rather than on “his days.”) Perhaps the peculiar form of the sentence arose in this way: the writer first recorded the usual statement concerning kings who supported the worship of Jehovah, and then, remembering the evils which followed the death of the high priest (2 Chronicles 24:17), added as a correction of that statement, “during which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” Thenius says the words can only be rendered, all his life long, because Jehoiada had instructed him.
They certainly can, however, be rendered as our version renders them, and further, in this way: “And Jehoash did ... all his days, whom Jehoiada the priest instructed.” But the ambiguity of the statement gave an opportunity for discrediting the chronicler.
"Howbeit the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places." — 2 Kings 12:3 (ASV)
But.—Except that; as in 2 Kings 15:4. (For the statement of the verse, compare to 1 Kings 15:14.)
Sacrificed ... burnt.—Used to sacrifice ... burn. The worship of the high places continued even under the régime of Jehoiada.
"And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man`s heart to bring into the house of Jehovah," — 2 Kings 12:4 (ASV)
The money of the dedicated things. —Compare to 1 Kings 15:15.
Is brought — that is, from time to time. All the silver given for the purposes of the sanctuary is meant.
Even the money of every one that passeth the account. — Rather, that is, current money (Genesis 23:16). The currency at this period consisted of pieces of silver of a fixed weight. There was no such thing as a Hebrew coinage before the exile. The reason “current money” was wanted was that it might be paid out immediately to the workpeople employed in the repairs.
The money that every man is set at. —Literally, each the money of the souls of his valuation, that is, every kind of redemption money, such as was paid in the case of the first-born (Numbers 18:16) and of a vow (Leviticus 27:2 and following). In the latter case, the priest fixed the amount to be paid.
And all the money that cometh into any man’s heart to bring —That is, all the free-will offerings in money.
In 2 Chronicles 24:6 the revenues here specified are called “the tax of Moses ... for the tabernacle,” implying that Moses had originally instituted them. The chronicler’s language, indeed, appears to indicate that he understood the money collected to have been chiefly the tax of half a shekel, which the law ordered to be paid by every male on occasion of the census (Exodus 30:12–16), for the good of the sanctuary.
"And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man`s heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the [other] priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no [more] money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented that they should take no [more] money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house. But 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 Jehovah: and the priests that kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah. And 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 counted the money that was found in the house of Jehovah. And they gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of Jehovah: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, that wrought upon the house of Jehovah, and to the masons and the hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of Jehovah, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. But there were not made for the house of Jehovah cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah; for they gave that to them that did the work, and repaired therewith the house of Jehovah. Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to give to them that did the work; for they dealt faithfully. The money for the trespass-offerings, and the money for the sin-offerings, was not brought into the house of Jehovah: it was the priests`." — 2 Kings 12:4-16 (ASV)
The restoration of the Temple.
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