Repairs - Finally



2 Kings 12:7-16
7 Therefore King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the house? Now therefore take no more money from your donors, but hand it over for the repair of the house.”
8 So the priests agreed that they should take no more money from the people, and that they should not repair the house.
9 Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the Lord. And the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord.
10 And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s secretary and the high priest came up and they bagged and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord.
11 Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen 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,
12 and to the masons and the stonecutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for making repairs on the house of the Lord, and for any outlay for the repairs of the house.
13 But there were not made for the house of the Lord basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold, or of silver, from the money that was brought into the house of the Lord,
14 for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the house of the Lord with it.
15 And they did not ask for an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly.
16 The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord; it belonged to the priests.

After 23 years, Jehoash finally demands an accounting for the donations made for the upkeep of the temple. The priests agree that changes need to be made in the system and readily comply with the kings demands. (I was originally confused about verse 8, as it sounds like the priests decided not to repair the temple. But what they decided was that they personally should not do the work. They would hire skilled tradesmen to do the repairs. The ESV is a little unclear in that particular translation.) The work is completed and was done honestly without contract! That would be amazing, wouldn’t it!

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