World English Bible
- Jehoash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
- Jehoash did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
- However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
- Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things that is brought into the LORD’s house, in current money, the money of the people for whom each man is evaluated, and all the money that it comes into any man’s heart to bring into the LORD’s house,
- let the priests take it to them, each man from his donor; and they shall repair the damage to the house, wherever any damage is found.”
- But it was so, that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damage to the house.
- Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said to them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage to the house? Now therefore take no more money from your treasurers, but deliver it for repair of the damage to the house.”
- The priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, and not repair the damage to the house.
- But 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 the LORD’s house; and the priests who kept the threshold put all the money that was brought into the LORD’s house into it.
- When 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 the LORD’s house.
- They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the LORD’s house; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the LORD’s house,
- and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to the LORD’s house, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.
- But there were not made for the LORD’s house cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the LORD’s house;
- for they gave that to those who did the work, and repaired the LORD’s house with it.
- Moreover they didn’t demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give to those who 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 LORD’s house. It was the priests’.
- Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.
- Jehoash 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 the LORD’s house, and of the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria; and he went away from Jerusalem.
- Now 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?
- His servants arose and made a conspiracy, and struck Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla.
- For 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 David’s city; and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
(Reading for December 13 in our ongoing journey through 2 Kings)
Yesterday we remembered the terror of Athaliah and the daring rescue that hid an infant prince in the Temple storerooms (see December 11 note). Chapter 12 picks up when that child—Joash, also called Jehoash—has now worn the crown for seven quiet years.
• Jehoiada the priest “instructed” (Hebrew yaraʿ, to teach
or direct) the young king. It hints at a relationship much like Samuel
guiding the boy-king David.
• “Joash did what was right … all the years Jehoiada instructed him”
(New International Version). The text is already cautious; faith that is
borrowed from a mentor must one day stand on its own.
Cross-references: Deuteronomy 6 : 6-7; Psalm 71 : 17-18; 2 Timothy 1 : 5.
The Temple, built almost 130 years earlier, shows cracks. The Hebrew phrase bedeq ha-bayit literally means “the breach of the house,” hinting at physical gaps but also spiritual ones.
Historical window: Archaeologists have found weight stones from the 9th century BC stamped with priestly symbols and the word qōdesh (“holy”). They confirm a system for handling sacred silver much like the one Joash reforms.
Joash commands the priests to use the regular offerings (the half-shekel “atonement money,” freewill gifts, and “money each man’s heart prompts him to bring”) for repairs—but nothing happens. Centuries later Jesus meets the same problem when He drives out merchants from a Temple again in need of cleansing (Matthew 21 : 12-13).
Innovation follows failure. Jehoiada borrows a craftsman’s insight and places a wooden chest beside the altar, drilling a small round opening in its top. In modern terms: transparent accounting, public giving, clear purpose.
Literary note: the narrative slows, almost journalistic—listing coinage, weights, tools, and wages. The writer wants us to hear the clink of silver, to smell the fresh cedar shavings, to picture a house slowly restored.
Verse 15 is striking: “They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty.” Earlier mistrust forced structural change; now integrity blooms. Augustine used this passage to preach on “reformed structures producing reformed hearts,” while Calvin cautioned that human honesty still needs wise guardrails.
Suggested hymn: “Take My Life and Let It Be” (Frances R. Havergal, 1874) — a song of consecrated stewardship.
Cross-references: Exodus 30 : 11-16; 2 Corinthians 8 : 20-21; Mark 12 : 41-44 (another chest, another lesson).
Hazael of Aram marches south. Joash buys him off with gold dedicated to the Lord—treasure just restored now handed to a pagan king. The Chronicler (2 Chronicles 24) says Joash later turns to idolatry after Jehoiada’s death; 2 Kings lets the tribute payment speak for itself.
Theological tension: Can holy things be used for political survival? Rabbinic tradition calls it ḥillul qōdesh—profaning the holy—yet also notes that sometimes mercy tempers the strict letter of the law. Christian thinkers have seen here a warning about the slow leak of compromise: when crisis strikes, we reveal where our trust truly rests.
Cross-references: 1 Kings 15 : 18-19 (Asa did something similar); Psalm 20 : 7; Matthew 6 : 19-21.
Joash, once the child of promise, is assassinated by servants “on the way down to Silla.” Nothing more is said; the brevity stings. Starting well is not the same as finishing well (cf. Galatians 5 : 7).
Early church writers paired Joash with Demas (2 Timothy 4 : 10)—both began in good company but drifted. Spurgeon used Joash to counsel pastors: “Borrowed light fades at sunset; kindle your own lamp at the altar of God.”
Borrowed Faith vs. Owned Faith
Godly mentors are gifts; yet each soul must meet God
personally.
Stewardship and Transparency
Sacred resources—money, time, talent—need structures that encourage
integrity.
The Slow Erosion of Compromise
Fear of earthly powers can tempt us to spend what belongs to God for
quick safety.
The Call to Finish Well
Early flashes of obedience must ripen into lifelong
faithfulness.
• Bedeq (“breach, crack”) appears here and in Leviticus 24 :
12 about a blasphemer “held in custody.” Both contexts show something
broken awaiting judgment or repair.
• Repetitions of “silver” (ke ʾsef) create an audible
thread—seventeen times in the Hebrew text—mirroring the ringing of
coins. It is deliberate prose-music.
• Read 2 Chronicles 24 for the fuller tragedy.
• Compare Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple (John 2 : 13-22) and notice
echoes of Joash’s reforms.
• Skim modern reports on Temple-period weight stones (e.g., Israel
Museum catalogue no. 86-112) to see physical reminders of this
chapter.
Lord of every house,
You rescued Joash from the shadows and mended Your dwelling through
willing hands.
Mend the hidden breaches in us today.
Teach us to give what is Yours with glad, open hearts,
to build structures that honor honesty,
to trust You, not our compromises, when enemies press in,
and to finish the race with eyes still fixed on Jesus.
For His glory we pray. Amen.