Bible Commentaries

2 Kings 12:1 In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name [was] Zibiah of Beersheba.

Ver. 1. Forty years reigned he in Jerusalem.] A great part of these years, Jehoiada lived with him; and so long, did he not "eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?" as Jeremiah 22:15.

2 Kings 12:2 And Jehoash did [that which was] right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

Ver. 2. All his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.] As when Jehoiada died, Jehoash revolted from the Lord. Nero, while he would be instructed by Seneca and Burrhus, was of so good a carriage that Trajan was wont to say, None ever came near him; but this lasted for five years only. In Apostatis -

“ Principium fervet, medium tepet, exitus alger. ”

2 Kings 12:3 But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

Ver. 3. But the high places.] Tyrannus ille trium literarum, mos; Custom had so prevailed, that Jehoiada durst not advise the king to cross the people in this superstition, lest it should cause a tumult; lest they should more regard commotioners than commissioners, and be more guided by rage, than by right; violence and obstinacy, like two untamed horses, drawing their desires in a blindfold career, as it fell out here in England when King Edward VI began to reform.

2 Kings 12:4 And 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,

Ver. 4. And Jehoash said to the priests.] His first care was the repair of the temple, where he had been so long hid and preserved to the crown.

All the money of the dedicated things.] Heb., Money of holinesses; contrary whereunto is the mammon of iniquity. [Luke 16:11]

The money of every one that passeth the account.] The half shekel, [Exodus 30:12-13, &c.} paid by all above twenty, as a perpetual poll money, to the use of the tabernacle and temple, called the collection of Moses. {2 Chronicles 24:6] The Pope had here his Peter’s pence - and Polydor Virgil was his collector - so long as it held.

The money that every man is set at.] See Leviticus 27:2, &c. Redemption money.

And all the money that cometh into any man’s heart.] Freewill offerings; for God straineth upon no man. See Exodus 35:5, &c. Hereunto the priests were in all places to exhort those that they knew. [2 Chronicles 24:5]

2 Kings 12:5 Let 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.

Ver. 5. And let them repair the breaches of the house.] Labes domus, rupturas, fissuras, scissuras, such as the temple had contracted, either by antiquity, for it had stood one hundred and fifty-five years, or by the iniquity of the times. See 2 Chronicles 24:7.

2 Kings 12:6 But it was [so, that] in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.

Ver. 6. The priests had not repaired.] Perhaps because themselves should have no benefit thereby; they should have but their labour for their pains; receiving the money with one hand and paying it out with another. We love to see somewhat coming toward us of our labour; which else hath little life in it.

2 Kings 12:7 Then 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.

Ver. 7. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada.] It was wonder that he should need quickening; but he was grown very old, and his work was done in a manner. Howbeit Josephus saith that he excited Joash, and would be called for among the rest, whom haply he could not so well prevail with.

Why repair ye not the breaches of the house?] A temporary, then, we see may be the fore-horse in the team, the εργοδιωκτης, the ringleader of good exercises, and stir others up thereto, as Jehoash here did his best officers, and yet perish.

2 Kings 12:8 And the priests consented to receive no [more] money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house.

Ver. 8. And the priests consented.] See on 2 Kings 12:6.

2 Kings 12:9 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 the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money [that was] brought into the house of the LORD.

Ver. 9. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest.] This he did by the king’s appointment, [2 Chronicles 24:8] and it took good effect. [2 Kings 12:9-10]

2 Kings 12:10 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 told the money that was found in the house of the LORD.

Ver. 10. When they saw.] They stood at the door, and might easily see what any one put in. Lycurgus, the Lacedemonian lawgiver - who is thonght to have flourished about these times - enjoined his countrymen not to exceed in their offerings, lest they should grow weary of well doing; for, said he, God respecteth more the internal devotion than the external oblation.

2 Kings 12:11 And 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,

Ver. 11. That did the work.] Though with other men’s hands.

2 Kings 12:12 And 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].

Ver. 12. For the house to repair it.] See on 2 Kings 12:5.

2 Kings 12:13 Howbeit 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:

Ver. 13. Howbeit there were not made,] viz., Till the fabric was finished; but afterwards they were. [2 Chronicles 24:14] So earnestly they repaired, - Baruch-like. [Nehemiah 3:20]

2 Kings 12:14 But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD.

Ver. 14. But they gave that to the workmen.] Who both bought the materials, and wrought them: providing both for their credit and their work, that it might go on end, as they say, and have nothing to hinder it.

2 Kings 12:15 Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.

Ver. 15. For they dealt faithfully.] This was much to their commendation. See on Nehemiah 7:2.

2 Kings 12:16 The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests’.

Ver. 16. The trespass money.] Which was for omissions.

And sin money.] Which was for commissions, saith Tostatus. Or for wrongs done the Lord in his holy things, either ignorantly or wittingly, as others will have it.

2 Kings 12:17 Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

Ver. 17. Then Hazael king of Syria went up.] "Then," when Jehoiada was dead, and Jehoash revolted. [2 Chronicles 24:23]

And Hazael set his face.] He resolved that he would take Jerusalem likewise, and doubted not but he should. So when the Turks had taken Adrianople, they soon after took Constantinople, the seat of the eastern emperor.

2 Kings 12:18 And 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.

Ver. 18. He went away.] But the next year he returned again, spoiled Jerusalem, killed many, wounded Jehoash, after that he had put to death Zechariah the son of Jehoiada for his plain dealing. {2 Chronicles 24:17, &c.}

2 Kings 12:19 And 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?

Ver. 19. Are they not written, &c.?] And therehence extracted, many of them by Ezra. {2 Chronicles 24:27, &c.}

2 Kings 12:20 And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla.

Ver. 20. And slew Joash.] After that the Syrian rovers had first wounded him, and, perhaps by torturing him, left him under sore diseases, [2 Chronicles 24:23-25] according to what holy Zechariah at his death had prayed and prophesied, The Lord look upon it (i.e., my death), and require it.

2 Kings 12:21 For 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.

Ver. 21. For Jozachar the son of Shimeath.] An Ammonitess.

And Jehozabad the son of Shomer.] A Moabitess. [2 Chronicles 24:26] These were his bondwomen likely, and their sons his slaves.

And they buried him with his fathers.] But not among the kings, [2 Chronicles 24:25] probably because his body was so putrefied with his wounds and other maladies.