What changes after the priests have not repaired the temple by Joas’s twenty-third year?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Joas tells the priests to take no more money according to their order and to restore it for the repairs. Joiada sets a chest by the altar. Door-keeping priests put the money in it; the king’s scribe and high priest count it, and it is handed to those over the builders to pay for the work.

Chapter breakdown

Joas begins to reign in Jehu’s seventh year and reigns forty years in Jerusalem. His mother is Sebia of Bersabee. He does what is right before the Lord all the days Joiada the priest teaches him. Yet he does not remove the high places, where the people still sacrifice and burn incense.

Joas speaks to the priests about all the money of sanctified things brought into the Lord’s temple by those who pass, money offered for the price of a soul, and what people bring of their own accord and free heart.

The Challoner note explains sanctified things as things dedicated to God’s service. It explains the price of a soul as the ordinary offering every soul was to make by the law, citing Exodus 30. These are the edition’s explanations, separate from Joas’s words.

Joas tells the priests to take the money according to their order and repair the house wherever they see anything needing repair. Until his twenty-third year, however, the priests do not make the temple repairs.

King Joas calls Joiada the high priest and the priests and asks why they do not repair the temple. He tells them to take money no more according to their order, but to restore it for the temple’s repair. The priests are forbidden to take any more money from the people and to make the house’s repairs.

Joiada the high priest takes a chest, bores a hole in its top and sets it by the altar, on the right of those entering the Lord’s house. The priests keeping the doors put into it all the money brought to the Lord’s temple. When they see very much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest come up, pour it out and count the money found in the Lord’s house.

They give the money out by number and measure into the hands of those over the builders of the Lord’s house. Those men pay the carpenters and masons who work there and make the repairs, and those who cut stones. They buy timber and stones to be hewn so the repairs can be completely finished, and pay wherever expenses are needed to uphold the house.

That same money brought to the Lord’s temple is not used to make bowls, fleshhooks, censers, trumpets, or any gold or silver vessel for the temple. It is given to those doing the work so the temple can be repaired.

They do not reckon with the men who receive the money to distribute to the workmen; those men distribute it faithfully. Money for trespass and money for sins are not brought into the Lord’s temple, because that money is for the priests.

Hazael, king of Syria, goes up, fights against Geth and takes it. He sets his face to go up to Jerusalem. Joas, king of Juda, therefore takes all the sanctified things his fathers Josaphat, Joram and Ochozias, kings of Juda, dedicated to holy uses, along with what he himself offered. He also takes all the silver found in the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the king’s palace. He sends it to Hazael, king of Syria, who goes off from Jerusalem.

The account asks whether the rest of Joas’s acts and all he did are written in the book of the words of the days of Juda’s kings. His servants rise and conspire among themselves. They kill Joas in the house of Mello, in the descent of Sella.

Josachar, son of Semaath, and Jozabad, son of Somer, his servant, strike Joas, and he dies. They bury him with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Amasias reigns in his place.

The Challoner note explains that Joas is buried in the same city as his fathers, but not in the kings’ sepulchres. The note cites 2 Par. 14. This burial distinction and reference belong to the edition’s commentary.

The story inside

The account begins with Joas’s reign, mother and right conduct during Joiada’s teaching, while noting the high places remain. Joas’s first repair instruction tells the priests what money to use and where to repair. The failure to make repairs by his twenty-third year leads to his question and changed instruction, followed by the two prohibitions on the priests. Joiada’s chest then provides the stated collection arrangement. When very much money is seen, the scribe and high priest pour it out and count it; by number and measure it goes to those over the builders, who pay the named workers and buy materials for repairs and upkeep. The account distinguishes those payments from vessels not made with this money and from trespass and sin money kept for the priests. It says the distributors act faithfully without being reckoned with. Next Hazael’s capture of Geth and intention to go up to Jerusalem lead Joas to send the named dedicated things and all the available temple and palace silver. Hazael goes off from Jerusalem. After the other-record reference, the servants’ conspiracy, named attack, death and burial lead to Amasias’s succession. No reason for the conspiracy is supplied. The money explanations and burial distinction are Challoner commentary, separate from the Scripture sequence.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The repair change follows a specific failure and date. Joas first tells the priests to repair what needs repair, yet by his twenty-third year they have not made the repairs. He questions them, changes their collection instruction and tells them to restore the money. This sequence should not become an invented twenty-three-year interval from the original command or a claim that the king personally takes custody of all funds.
2
The chapter carefully distinguishes who receives money and how it is used. Door-keeping priests put it in the chest; the scribe and high priest count it; those over the builders receive it by number and measure and pay workers and materials. Bowls, fleshhooks, censers, trumpets and gold or silver vessels are not made from this money. Trespass and sin money belongs to the priests. Retaining these details preserves the particular arrangement rather than adding a general rule about modern finance.
3
The Hazael episode has a stated result: after Joas sends the dedicated things and temple and palace silver, Hazael goes off from Jerusalem. The later conspiracy is reported without a motive or a link to that payment. The burial text says Joas is buried with his fathers in David’s city, and Challoner separately explains the city-versus-sepulchres distinction. Keeping those boundaries avoids turning the sequence into an unsupported judgment about why Joas dies.

Test your recall

Why does Joas change the priests’ repair-money instruction, how does the chest arrangement carry money to the workers, and what action and result follow Hazael’s capture of Geth and intention toward Jerusalem?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 39394–39408
4 Kings Chapter 12 The temple is repaired. Hazael is bought off from attacking Jerusalem. Joas is slain. 12:1. In the seventh year of Jehu, Joas began to reign: and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Sebia, of Bersabee. 12:2. And Joas did that which was right before the Lord all the days that Joiada, the priest, taught him. 12:3. But yet he took not away the high places: for the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
Lines 39409–39414
12:4. And Joas said to the priests: all the money of the sanctified things, which is brought into the temple of the Lord by those that pass, which is offered for the price of a soul, and which of their own accord, and of their own free heart, they bring into the temple of the Lord:
Lines 39415–39418
Sanctified.... That is, dedicated to God’s service.—Ibid. The price of a soul.... That is, the ordinary oblation, which every soul was to offer by the law. Ex. 30.
Lines 39419–39424
12:5. Let the priests take it according to their order and repair the house, wheresoever they shall see any thing that wanteth repairing. 12:6. Now till the three and twentieth year of king Joas the priests did not make the repairs of the temple.
Lines 39425–39432
12:7. And king Joas called Joiada, the high priest, and the priests, saying to them: Why do you not repair the temple? Take you, therefore, money no more according to your order, but restore it for the repairing of the temple. 12:8. And the priests were forbidden to take any more money of the people, and to make the repairs of the house.
Lines 39433–39441
12:9. And Joiada, the high priest, took a chest, and bored a hole in the top, and set it by the altar at the right hand of them that came into the house of the Lord; and the priests that kept the doors, put therein all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord. 12:10. And when they saw that there was very much money in the chest, the king’s scribe, and the high priest, came up, and poured it out, and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord.
Lines 39442–39451
12:11. And they gave it out by number and measure into the hands of them that were over the builders of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to the carpenters, and the masons, that wrought in the house of the Lord, 12:12. And made the repairs: and to them that cut stones, and to buy timber, and stones to be hewed, that the repairs of the house of the Lord might be completely finished, and wheresoever there was need of expenses to uphold the house.
Lines 39452–39459
12:13. But there were not made of the same money for the temple of the Lord, bowls, or fleshhooks, or censers, or trumpets, or any vessel of gold and silver, of the money that was brought into the temple of the Lord: 12:14. For it was given to them that did the work, that the temple of the Lord might be repaired.
Lines 39460–39465
12:15. And they reckoned not with the men that received the money to distribute it to the workmen, but they bestowed it faithfully. 12:16. But the money for trespass, and the money for sins, they brought not into the temple of the Lord, because it was for the priests.
Lines 39466–39475
12:17. Then Hazael, king of Syria, went up, and fought against Geth, and took it, and set his face to go up to Jerusalem. 12:18. Wherefore Joas, king of Juda, took all the sanctified things, which Josaphat, and Joram, and Ochozias, his fathers, the kings of Juda, had dedicated to holy uses, and which he himself had offered: and all the silver that could be found in the treasures of the temple of the Lord, and in the king’s palace: and sent it to Hazael, king of Syria, and he went off from Jerusalem.
Lines 39476–39481
12:19. And the rest of the acts of Joas, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? 12:20. And his servants arose, and conspired among themselves, and slew Joas, in the house of Mello, in the descent of Sella.
Lines 39482–39486
12:21. For Josachar the son of Semaath, and Jozabad the son of Somer his servant, struck him, and he died: and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David; and Amasias, his son, reigned in his stead.
Lines 39487–39490
The city of David.... He was buried in the same city with his fathers, but not in the sepulchres of the kings. 2 Par. 14.