Bible Study 2 Kings 12
‹ 2 Kings

2 Kings 12 · WEB

Joash Repairs the Temple; High Places Remain; Joash Assassinated

Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.

Tap a verse to copy it, open the Hebrew, or write a note.

In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2Joash 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.
4Joash said to the priests, "All the money of the holy things that is brought into Yahweh's house — the money from those who each pass over and the money from the persons for whom each man is assessed — and all the money that it comes into any man's heart to bring into Yahweh's house,
5let the priests take it for themselves, every man from his donors; and let them repair the broken parts of the house wherever any breach shall be found."
6But it was so, that in the twenty-third year of king Joash the priests had not repaired the broken parts of the house.
7Then king Joash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said to them, "Why don't you repair the broken parts of the house? Now therefore don't take money from your donors, but deliver it for the broken parts of the house."
8The priests agreed that they would not receive money from the people, and that they would not repair the broken parts of 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. The priests who kept the threshold put in all the money that was brought into Yahweh's house.
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 broken parts of 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, or any vessels of gold or vessels of silver, from 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 require an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay 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.
18Joash 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, which 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 the city of David. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
✶

Summary

Joash reigns forty years in Jerusalem, doing right before God as long as Jehoiada the priest guides him. He initiates a major repair project for the Temple, but the priests fail to act on the money for over twenty years until Joash introduces a collection chest at the Temple entrance, which proves highly effective. The funds are used faithfully to repair the structure. When Hazael of Aram threatens Jerusalem, Joash strips the Temple and palace of accumulated treasures and pays him off. The chapter ends with Joash's assassination by his own servants — a stark reversal for the king who repaired God's house.

Themes

  • The importance of godly mentorship in sustaining a leader's faithfulness
  • Faithful stewardship of resources given to God's purposes
  • The incompleteness of Joash's reform — high places remained
  • The fragility of a faith that depends entirely on human guides

Key verses

  • 2 Kgs 12:15 — “Moreover they didn't require an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money… for they dealt faithfully.”
  • 2 Kgs 12:2 — “Joash did that which was right in Yahweh's eyes all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.”
  • 2 Kgs 12:9 — “Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and set it beside the altar.”

Context & background

Jerusalem (modern Jerusalem, Israel) was the capital of Judah and the site of Solomon's Temple, which had fallen into disrepair during the reigns of Athaliah and the Baal-influenced kings before her. Gath (one of the five Philistine cities, in the Shephelah region of modern southwestern Israel) was taken by Hazael of Aram (modern Syria) as part of his westward expansion campaign. The stripping of Temple treasures to pay off a foreign threat was a recurring pattern in Judah's history, beginning as early as Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:26). Joash was later killed in a conspiracy possibly connected to resentment over his execution of Jehoiada's son Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24:20-26).

Cross-references

  • 1 Kgs 14:25-26 — Rehoboam strips the Temple treasury earlier in a similar pattern
  • 2 Chr 24:17-25 — Explains that after Jehoiada's death, Joash abandoned God and killed Jehoiada's son Zechariah
  • Mal 3:10 — "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse" — the principle behind Joash's collection system
  • Matt 23:35 — Jesus references the murder of Zechariah son of Jehoiada
  • Neh 10:32-33 — The post-exilic community reinstitutes Temple contributions echoing Joash's chest

Check your reading

Log in to take the quiz and save your progress.

  1. Observe

    Why did the original system of Temple repair funding fail, and what solution did Jehoiada devise?

  2. Observe

    What happened to the Temple treasury when Hazael of Aram threatened Jerusalem?

  3. Interpret

    What does the qualifier "all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him" suggest about Joash's faith?

  4. Interpret

    What conditions had to exist for the workers to be trusted without an accounting "because they dealt faithfully"?

  5. Apply

    What sustaining practices or relationships are essential for faith that endures past the loss of mentors?

  6. Apply

    What does Joash's stripping of the Temple to pay off Hazael warn about using sacred resources as bargaining chips?

Your journal

Write your own answers — they save automatically, and only you can see them.

Log in to write and save journal answers.

Apply (How does it apply to me?)

Personal notes (anything else about this chapter)