2 Kings 12

2 KINGS CHAPTER 12

Judah’s King Joash (continued)

      • Joash became king in the 7th year of Jehu’s reign and he reigned for 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother, whose name was Zibiah, was from Beersheba. Joash did what was right in Yahweh’s eyes throughout his life while Jehoiada the priest instructed him. However, the high places were not removed and people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible notes, “Joash reigned from 835 to 796 BC. Joash’s indebtedness to Jehoiada the priest who instructed him, kept him faithful to the Lord while Jehoiada was alive. However, after Jehoiada’s death, godless leaders influenced Joash to forsake the Lord and follow Canaanite practices (see 2 Chr 24:17-22). Joash’s failure to destroy the pagan shrines later became a source of spiritual compromise. Royal tolerance of such shrines in Judah had previously provoked God’s anger (1 Kgs 14:23-26) and would do so again in Josiah’s day (2 Chr 24:23-24).”

Joash Repairs the Temple

      • Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the silver that is brought as sacred offerings to the house of Yahweh- the silver collected in the census, the silver received from personal vows, and the silver brought to the house voluntarily. The priests should receive the silver from the treasurers and repair any damage to the house that they find.”

        • NET Bible’s text critical notes say, “…The word…(makar), translated here ‘treasurer,’ occurs only in this passage. Some suggest it means ‘merchant’ or ‘benefactor.’ Its usage in Ugaritic texts, where it appears in a list of temple officials, suggests that it refers in this context to individuals who were in charge of disbursing temple funds.”

        • ESV Study Bible writes, “The temple of the Lord had suffered neglect during the years in which the worship of Baal was encouraged…Three sources of income are specified as the repair project gets underway here. Two of these represent regular temple income: payments made in relation to the periodic census of male Israelites (…Ex 30:11-16), and monetary equivalents for things dedicated to God (…Lev 27:1-25). Money that a man’s heart prompts him to bring [rendered “silver brought to the house voluntarily” above] refers to a special fund-raising campaign similar to that initiated by Moses, at God’s command, in Exodus 35 (where people also give from the heart; Ex 35:5, 21-22, 26, 29).”

      • However, by the 23rd year of King Joash’s reign, the priests had still not repaired the damage to the house. So King Joash called Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said, “Why haven’t you repaired the damage to the house? Since you haven’t, don’t take any more silver from your treasurers. Instead, hand it over for repairs to the house.” So the priests agreed that they wouldn’t collect any more silver from the people and that they wouldn’t repair the house’s damage.

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible notes, “After some time, the priests still had not repaired the Temple. So Joash took personal control of the project and put others in charge of the repairs (see also…2 Chr 24:4-8).”

      • Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the house of Yahweh. The priests who guarded the entrance put all the silver that was brought into Yahweh’s house into the chest. Whenever they saw that the chest was getting full, the king’s secretary and the high priest would go and count the silver and put it in bags. Then they would hand over the silver that had been weighed to the men who had been appointed to supervise the work on Yahweh’s house. These men would pay the silver to the men working on Yahweh’s house- the carpenters and builders, the masons and stonecutters. These supervisors also used the silver to buy the timber and quarried stone for making the repairs on Yahweh’s house as well as all the other expenses of restoring the house. The silver brought to Yahweh’s house was not used for silver bowls, trimming shears, basins, trumpets, or any other articles of gold or silver for Yahweh’s house. Instead, it was given to the workmen who were repairing Yahweh’s house with it. The men who received the silver to pay those doing the work were not required to provide an accounting of the silver because they dealt honestly. The silver collected from guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought to the house of Yahweh since it belonged to the priests.

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible writes, “Joash’s solution for securing and distributing the money for the Temple repairs included placing a large chest at an accessible place to receive the people’s contributions. When Joash informed the people of the need for a tax and voluntary offerings to complete the repairs, they ‘gladly brought their money and filled the chest with it’ (2 Chr 24:9-10)…”

        • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible adds this interesting information, “The measures described in this and the following verses and designed to ensure shared responsibility between the crown and the priesthood for the distribution of funds in respect of the temple restoration are interestingly paralleled in a letter from the crown official Mar-Istar to King Esarhaddon of Assyria concerning necessary repair work to the temples of Uruk and Der. This may suggest that Jehoiada did not himself invent the procedures described in these verses, but simply adapted practices already used in the temples of neighboring lands.”

        • Guzik remarks, “The point is made that the project succeeded without taking anything away from the priests. The temple was not repaired and refurbished at their expense; they still received money from the trespass offerings and from the sin offerings.”

The End of Joash’s Reign

      • At that time King Hazael of Syria attacked Gath and captured it. But when Hazael decided to attack Jerusalem, Judah’s King Joash collected all the sacred items consecrated by his ancestors, the kings of Judah- Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah- along with his own consecrated items and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of Yahweh and the king’s house. He sent it all to King Hazael of Syria, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.

        • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible explains, “Hazael king of Aram already controlled the entire Israelite Transjordan (10:32-33). Now he brings the Arameans right into the heart of Israelite territory to the west of the Jordan and threatens Jerusalem. The capture of the Philistine city of Gath in fact presupposes that Hazael could move at will throughout Israelite territory to the north. The campaign is best explained in terms of an attempt by Damascus to gain control over the western part of the incense trade that in later times came from south Arabia via the Wadi Arabah to southern Philistia. It is best dated during the reign of Jehu’s son Jehoahaz (c. 815-799), who, according to 13:1-7, 22-23, fared even worse than his father at the hands of Aram and thus provided no bulwark of defense (conscious or unconscious) for Judah.”

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible writes, “Such treasures had been contributed to the Temple earlier by Solomon and Asa (1 Kgs 7:51; 15:15). Hazael had already begun the attack against Jerusalem, and Joash was wounded during the battle (2 Chr 24:25). Paying tribute to Hazael may have prevented further destruction to the city.”

        • Guzik remarks, based on 2 Chr 24:23-24, “At this time, the kingdom of Syria attacked Judah with an inferior army, but God used them as an instrument of judgment against the disobedient Joash.”

        • ESV Study Bible adds, “…Like Asa, Joash knows no Solomonic peace during his rule, and tribute flows north from Israel to Syria, instead of south from Syria to Israel (cf 1 Kgs 15:18-24). Both Asa and Joash in fact empty the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house. Long past are those days when the king of Israel had ‘rest on every side’ (1 Kgs 5:4). Much later, Hag 2:7-8…foretold that one day the nations would bring their wealth to the temple.”

      • The rest of the events of Joash’s reign, including all of his accomplishments, are recorded in the book, “Annals of the Kings of Judah.” His officials conspired against him and murdered him at Beth Millo, on the road that goes down to Silla. Jozabad, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer, were the officials who killed him. He was buried with his ancestors in the city of David, and his son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible notes, “The assassination of the king in 796 BC by some of his own officers was in reprisal for the murder of Jehoiada’s son Zechariah (2 Chr 24:21-22, 25).” On Beth Millo the same source continues, “The district lay on a ridge of the eastern hill of Jerusalem in an area known as the City of David, where Solomon installed a series of supporting terraces (1 Kgs 9:15)…”

      • ESV Study Bible speculates, “Silla was probably a neighborhood of Jerusalem below ‘the Millo’…and the house of Millo was perhaps a prominent building in the Millo.”

*****Time Out*****

      • As a completely tangential side note, I’d like to point out that what we just read in the NLT’s note about Joash’s assassination being due to the murder of Jehoiada’s son Zechariah (per 2 Chr 24:21) completely demolishes a common Protestant argument that Jesus Himself defined the OT canon of Scripture to the exclusion of any inter-testamental literature. Let me explain:

        • Now, I’m not commenting on whether or not some inter-testamental literature (specifically the Apocrypha) should or shouldn’t be canonical. Personally, I think they are great to read just for their historical value. After all, practically every Jew in Jesus’s day would’ve been familiar with them. They were also originally included at the back of every King James Bible. (see included pic of the 1611 KJV book listing)

          • Luke 11:49-52 (ESV): “Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

        • The reasoning is that Jesus references the death of Abel in the first book (Genesis) and the death of Zechariah in the last book (2 Chronicles). Now I know you’re thinking, “Wait, 2 Chronicles is not the last book of the OT, Malachi is.” And you are correct- in English Bibles- but in Hebrew Bibles 2 Chronicles is the last book. The point of the argument is that the Zechariah mentioned in 2 Chronicles was at about the same time chronologically as Malachi. So, according to this argument, Jesus means to define the canon from A-Z, or from beginning to end, from Genesis to Malachi.

        • However, as we just read, the Zechariah in 2 Chronicles 24:21 is Jehoiada’s son, who lived during the reign of King Joash (835-796 BC). This puts him centuries before Malachi’s time.

        • In Matthew 23:35, Jesus says the Zechariah He is referring to is the son of Barachia. And Zechariah 1:1 says that this Zecharaiah lived during the reign of King Darius of Persia. King Darius ruled from 522-486 BC. So his rule was *after* the Babylonian Captivity, which was from 597-538 BC. There is no record in Scripture of when the prophet Zechariah, the son of Barachia, died. Not the same Zechariah. They are centuries apart. The argument doesn’t work.

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