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2 KINGS 12

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Bible Interpretation Seminar")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

1. First paragraph
2. Second paragraph
3. Etc.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 12:1-3
  ¹In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. ²Jehoash did right in the sight of the Lord all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

12:1 "he reigned forty years" There are two ways to view this number.

1. It is a round number ‒ see SPECIAL TOPIC: SYMBOLIC NUMBERS IN SCRIPTURE, #7.
2. It counts the reign of Athaliah, thereby counting from Ahaziah ‒ see SPECIAL TOPIC: KINGS OF THE DIVIDED MONARCHY.

▣ "his mother's name was Zibiah" Jehoash was not a son of Athaliah.

▣ "Jehoash did right in the sight of the Lord" This was true as long as Jehoiada was his counselor. This is a recurrent idiom related to a godly king (cf. Deut. 6:18; 12:28; 13:18; 1 Kgs. 11:38; 14:8; 15:11; 22:43; 2 Chr. 14:2; 20:32; 24:2).

SPECIAL TOPIC: ANTHROPOMORPHIC LANGUAGE TO DESCRIBE GOD

▣ "the priest" This was a way to designate the head priest. In v. 16 the ADJECTIVE "great" (BDB 152) designates the same person. It is usually translated "High Priest." See a good brief note on the changing titles for the High Priest in Roland deVauz, Ancient Israel, pp. 377-379.

12:3 "the high places" These were local places of worship (BDB 119). Originally they were not condemned but with the rise of a mandated central shrine in Jerusalem, they became identified with Ba'al worship.

Not until Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 18:4) were the high places destroyed (cf. 1 Kgs. 15:14; 22:43; 2 Kgs. 12:3; 14:4; 15:4,35).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 12:4-5
  ⁴Then Jehoash said to the priests, "All the money of the sacred things which is brought into the house of the Lord, in current money, both the money of each man's assessment and all the money which any man's heart prompts him to bring into the house of the Lord, ⁵let the priests take it for themselves, each from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the damages of the house wherever any damage may be found."

12:4-5 The temple of Solomon had been neglected, especially under Athaliah. It needed to be repaired. King Jehoash started the campaign to do this by collecting some of the revenue of the temple.

1. each man's assessment ‒ Exod. 30:11-16; Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 24:9, for priests (AB, p. 137 and NET Bible call it "a census tax")
2. free will offerings ‒ for any purpose (like peace offerings)
3. vow offerings ‒ Lev. 27:1-13

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 12:6-8
  ⁶But it came about that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damages of the house. ⁷Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests and said to them, "Why do you not repair the damages of the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but pay it for the damages of the house." ⁸So the priests agreed that they would take no more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the house.

12:6-15 For some reason not given, the priests did not use the money for repairs (cf. 2 Chr. 24:5). Because of this, King Jehoash demanded the collected money

1. be used exclusively for temple repair (v. 7)
2. be kept by both a royal representative and a priestly representative (v. 11)
3. be given directly to the laborers and craftsmen (v. 12)
4. there would be no required accounting from the workmen of the disbursement of the funds (v. 15, this may be a slap at the priests' handling of the money)

The NET Bible, p. 611, #21, suggests this reluctance on the part of the priests to repair the temple was due to the fact they wanted skilled workers to repair it, not themselves.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 12:9-16
  ⁹But Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money which was brought into the house of the Lord. ¹⁰When they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king's scribe and the high priest came up and tied it in bags and counted the money which was found in the house of the Lord. ¹¹They gave the money which was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the Lord; ¹²and to the masons and the stonecutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the damages to the house of the Lord, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. ¹³But there were not made for the house of the Lord silver cups, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver from the money which was brought into the house of the Lord; ¹⁴for they gave that to those who did the work, and with it they repaired the house of the Lord. ¹⁵Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hand they gave the money to pay to those who did the work, for they dealt faithfully. ¹⁶The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord; it was for the priests.

The UBS Text Project, p. 355, gives the MT/NASB (BDB 258) option an "A" rating (high probability).

The Expositor's Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 222, has a good note.

"At first sight a discrepancy seems to exist between the details in Kings and those in Chronicles. Whereas this verse locates Joash's chest "beside the altar, on the right side" (cf. Jos. Antiq. IX, 163 [viii.2]), 2 Chron 24:8 places it without "at the gate of the temple." Actually the chest could not have been placed beside the altar per se, for this would contravene Levitical stipulation. The intent of the text of Kings is simply that the chest was set against the altar wall at the entrance that lay to the right side of the altar, or the southern entrance to the middle court. So understood, the texts of Kings and Chronicles are in natural agreement."

12:10 "the king's scribe" See SPECIAL TOPIC: SCRIBES.

The MT has the VERB (BDB 848 II, KB 1015, Qal IMPERFECT with waw), which means "to confine," "to bind," and "to besiege." The UBS Text Project, p. 356, gives the MT a "B" rating (some doubt).

The NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 792, asserts that both roots refer to a melting process related to valuable metals. There were no coins in the ANE in this period. Gifts would be in the form of

1. pieces of metal
2. pieces of jewelry

12:11-12 Notice the type of laborers that were hired.

1. the carpenters ‒ BDB 781 (lit. "craftsmen in wood," NIDOTTE, vol. 2, pp. 298-299)
2. the builders ‒ BDB 124, KB 139, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE
3. the masons ‒ BDB 154, KB 180, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE
4. the stonecutters
   1. stone ‒ BDB 6
   2. cutters ‒ BDB 345, KB 342, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE
5. those who brought (BDB 888, KB 1111, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT) the materials
   1. timber ‒ BDB 781 (see #1)
   2. hewn stone ‒ BDB 6 CONSTRUCT BDB 345

12:13 The text in 2 Kings wants all the money collected to go to the repairs of the building. 2 Chronicles 24:14 tells us there was some money left over and this was used for temple utensils.

12:15 "faithfully" This is one of the great Hebrew roots/words. In the OT its main thrust is "faithfulness." In this context it may be a contrast to the priests who initially wasted the money collected for repairing the temple of Solomon.

SPECIAL TOPIC: BELIEVE, TRUST, FAITH, AND FAITHFULNESS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

12:16 The priests did retain their personal income from

1. guilt offerings ‒ see Lev. 5:14-6:7; 7:1-2; NIDOTTE, vol. 1, pp. 557-565
2. sin offerings ‒ see Lev. 4:1-5:13; 6:24-30

SPECIAL TOPIC: GUILT OFFERINGS

SPECIAL TOPIC: SIN OFFERINGS

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 12:17-18
  ¹⁷Then Hazael king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it, and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. ¹⁸Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred things and all the gold that was found among the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. Then he went away from Jerusalem.

12:17-18 Hazael continues his invasions. He controlled the trans-Jordan area but wanted more (see more details in 2 Chr. 24:23-27).

It is ironic that the priests were reluctant to use their income for temple repair; all the treasures of the temple and palace are used to pay off the Syrians.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 12:19-21
  ¹⁹Now 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? ²⁰His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash at the house of Millo as he was going 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, and Amaziah his son became king in his place.

12:19-21 The text does not state why Jehoash was assassinated by his own servants, but since these men did not flee, one is caused to assume that

1. Jehoash had done something, possibly idolatry (cf. 2 Chr. 24:15-22)
2. the king's actions were well known and not approved by the people
3. his death was not a coup but a judgment (later these men were killed, cf. 2 Kgs. 14:5)
4. these men were sons of foreign women; why it affected their actions is uncertain

12:20 "conspiracy" The VERB basically means "to bind." Here, to bind together for a conspiracy. Both the NOUN and the VERB appear together (BDB 905, KB 1153).

▣ "the house of Millo" See notes on "millo" (BDB 571) at 2 Sam. 5:9 and 1 Kgs. 11:27.

▣ "to Silla" This city/village/place (BDB 698) occurs only here and is unknown. It is omitted in the LXX.

This person is called "Zabad" in 2 Chr. 24:26. The UBS Text Project, p. 356, could not decide between "Jozacar" or "Jozachar," but gave them both "D" ratings (highly doubtful).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.

1. What does it mean "to do right in the sight of the Lord"?
2. What were the high places?
3. Why had the priests "not repaired the damages of the house" (v. 6)?
4. What was Jehoash's new procedure about the temple upkeep?
5. Define "the sacred things" (v. 18).

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