2 Kings · chapter 12 of 25
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2 Kings 12 tells the reign of Joash of Judah, who does what is right while the priest Jehoiada guides him and orders the temple repaired. After years of neglect he sets up a chest to collect money, and the workmen labor honestly. When Hazael of Aram threatens Jerusalem, Joash hands over the temple treasures so he will withdraw, and his servants murder him. His son Amaziah succeeds him.
Joash, the child hidden and crowned in chapter 11, is now king of Judah. 2 Kings 12 shows the first part of his reign, under the guidance of the priest Jehoiada, and his drive to restore the house of the Lord. The chapter acknowledges what was good in his rule but also reveals the priests' neglect and the bitter end of his life.
Joash begins to reign in the seventh year of Jehu and reigns forty years in Jerusalem. His mother is Zibiah of Beersheba. He does what is right in the sight of the Lord all the days that the priest Jehoiada instructs him, although the high places are not removed and the people keep offering sacrifices there.
Joash tells the priests to use all the money brought into the temple to repair the damage to the house of the Lord. But in the twenty-third year of his reign the priests still have not made the repairs. The king summons Jehoiada and the priests and orders them to stop taking money for themselves and to hand it over for the temple. Jehoiada takes a chest, bores a hole in its lid and sets it beside the altar, on the right as one enters. The priests put in it the money brought in. When the chest is full, the king's secretary and the high priest count the money and give it to those who oversee the work, who pay the carpenters, builders, masons and those who buy timber and stone for the repairs. The workmen are so honest that no accounting is required of them. The money from guilt offerings and sin offerings still belongs to the priests.
Then Hazael, king of Aram, attacks Gath and captures it, and sets his face to go up to Jerusalem. Joash takes all the sacred gifts his fathers had dedicated, and the gold in the treasuries of the temple and the palace, and sends them to Hazael, who withdraws. His servants conspire and strike him down at the house of Millo, and he is buried with his fathers in the city of David. His son Amaziah reigns.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Joash does what is right in the sight of the Lord all the days that the priest Jehoiada instructs him. The text stresses that his uprightness depended on good influence and hints at the fragility of a faith that has not put down its own roots.
Jehoiada sets a chest with a hole in its lid beside the altar for people to leave their money. The solution is simple and transparent, and it returns to the people a direct share in the care of God's house.
No accounting was demanded of those who received the money to pay the workmen, because they dealt faithfully. It is an example of integrity: a community in which service to God is carried out honestly and with mutual trust.
Joash sends Hazael the sacred gifts and the gold of the temple so he will withdraw. The same king who had restored the house of the Lord ends up buying peace with its treasures, a sign that his trust was no longer in God.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Forty years. — 2 Kings 12:1
Answer: By the priest Jehoiada. — 2 Kings 12:2
Answer: The priests still had not repaired the temple. — 2 Kings 12:6
Answer: He took a chest, bored a hole in its lid and set it beside the altar. — 2 Kings 12:9
Answer: Because they dealt faithfully. — 2 Kings 12:15
Answer: He sent him the sacred gifts and the gold of the temple and the palace. — 2 Kings 12:17-18
Joash started well, but his faith depended on Jehoiada. A mature Christian cannot rest faith only on the influence of others: it needs its own roots in prayer, the Word and fellowship. In a class or small group you can ask what would happen to our faith if the people who guide us today were gone.
The story of the chest shows that transparency and simplicity help the work of God move forward, and that leaders also need to give account with humility. And Joash's end reminds us that yielding to pressure by buying security with what belongs to God is a poor way out; true security is in the Lord.
2 Kings 12 ends with the violent death of Joash and the reign of his son Amaziah. In chapter 13 the story returns to Israel, where the sons of Jehu continue to reign under Hazael's pressure, and where Elisha speaks his last words.
The text does not give the reason, but it says they had not made the repairs by the twenty-third year. They probably used the money for other needs. Joash removed the money from their responsibility and placed it in a chest under supervision.
His servants conspired against him and struck him down at the house of Millo. The names of those who killed him were Jozacar and Jehozabad. He was buried with his fathers in the city of David.
In this part of the book he is sometimes called Joash and sometimes Jehoash, which are forms of the same name. He should not be confused with Jehoash, king of Israel, who appears in chapter 13.