2 Kings 12:7-16

12:7 So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest along with the other priests, and said to them, “Why have you not repaired the damage to the temple? Now, take no more silver from your treasurers unless you intend to use it to repair the damage.” 1  12:8 The priests agreed 2  not to collect silver from the people and relieved themselves of personal responsibility for the temple repairs. 3 

12:9 Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid. He placed it on the right side of the altar near the entrance of 4  the Lord’s temple. The priests who guarded the entrance would put into it all the silver brought to the Lord’s temple. 12:10 When they saw the chest was full of silver, the royal secretary 5  and the high priest counted the silver that had been brought to the Lord’s temple and bagged it up. 6  12:11 They would then hand over 7  the silver that had been weighed to the construction foremen 8  assigned to the Lord’s temple. They hired carpenters and builders to work on the Lord’s temple, 12:12 as well as masons and stonecutters. They bought wood and chiseled stone to repair the damage to the Lord’s temple and also paid for all the other expenses. 9  12:13 The silver brought to the Lord’s temple was not used for silver bowls, trimming shears, basins, trumpets, or any kind of gold or silver implements. 12:14 It was handed over 10  to the foremen who used it to repair the Lord’s temple. 12:15 They did not audit the treasurers who disbursed 11  the funds to the foremen, for they were honest. 12  12:16 (The silver collected in conjunction with reparation offerings and sin offerings was not brought to the Lord’s temple; it belonged to the priests.)

1 tn Heb “Now, do not take silver from your treasurers, because for the damages to the temple you must give it.”

2 tn Outside of this passage the verb אוּת (’ut) appears only in Gen 34:15-22.

3 tn Heb “and not to repair the damages to the temple.” This does not mean that the priests were no longer interested in repairing the temple. As the following context makes clear, the priests decided to hire skilled workers to repair the damage to the temple, rather than trying to make the repairs themselves.

4 tn Heb “on the right side of the altar as a man enters.”

5 tn Heb “the king’s scribe.”

6 tn Heb “went up and tied [it] and counted the silver that was found in the house of the Lord.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to make better sense in English, since it seems more logical to count the money before bagging it (cf. NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

7 tn Heb “would give.”

8 tn Heb “doers of the work.”

9 tn Heb “and for all that which was going out concerning the house for repair.”

10 tn Heb “was given.”

11 tn Heb “gave.”

12 tn Heb “and they did not conduct a reckoning of the men who gave the silver into their hand to give to the doers of the work, for in honesty they were working.”