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2 Kings 12

Jehoash’s reign brings temple repairs through changed oversight, yet leaves the high places standing and ends in tribute and assassination.

Jehoash reigns in Jerusalem under the instruction of Jehoiada the priest, doing right in YHWH’s eyes while the high places remain. He orders the priests to fund repairs to the temple, but the work remains undone in his twenty-third year. A new collection chest and payment system put the money into the workers’ hands. Later, Jehoash sends temple treasures to Hazael of Syria to avert an attack on Jerusalem. His reign ends when his servants conspire against him and kill him.

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1Jehoash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2Jehoash did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
3However, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
4Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things that is brought into the LORD’s house, in current money, the money of the people for whom each man is evaluated, and all the money that it comes into any man’s heart to bring into the LORD’s house,
5let the priests take it to them, each man from his donor; and they shall repair the damage to the house, wherever any damage is found.”
6But it was so, that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damage to the house.
7Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said to them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage to the house? Now therefore take no more money from your treasurers, but deliver it for repair of the damage to the house.”
9But Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the LORD’s house; and the priests who kept the threshold put all the money that was brought into the LORD’s house into it.
10When they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put it in bags and counted the money that was found in the LORD’s house.
11They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the LORD’s house; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the LORD’s house,
12and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to the LORD’s house, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.
13But there were not made for the LORD’s house cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the LORD’s house;
15Moreover they didn’t demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give to those who did the work; for they dealt faithfully.
16The money for the trespass offerings and the money for the sin offerings was not brought into the LORD’s house. It was the priests’.
17Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.
18Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own holy things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the LORD’s house, and of the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria; and he went away from Jerusalem.
19Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
20His servants arose and made a conspiracy, and struck Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goes 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 David’s city; and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
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Key verses
2 Kings 12:3The surviving high places qualify the account of Jehoash’s obedience and show the limits of his reforms.
2 Kings 12:17Hazael’s capture of Gath brings the threat toward Jerusalem and sets up Jehoash’s surrender of dedicated treasures.
2 Kings 12:20The servants’ conspiracy brings Jehoash’s forty-year reign to a violent end, without explaining their motives here.
Where this chapter reaches

2 Chronicles recounts the same king’s temple repairs and death, while 1 Kings shares the recurring concern with high places that remain during otherwise approved reigns. Ezra also describes money and materials directed toward work on God’s house, linking worship with the practical demands of building.

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How does the survival of the high places shape your reading of Jehoash’s temple repairs?

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What stands out to you about the changed handling of repair funds and the trust placed in workers?

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Questions people ask about 2 Kings 12

Are Joash and Jehoash the same king in 2 Kings 12?

Yes. The chapter uses Jehoash at the start and Joash near the end for the same king of Judah. He reigns forty years in Jerusalem, receives instruction from Jehoiada the priest, and sponsors temple repairs. After his servants kill him, his son Amaziah becomes king.

Why had the priests not repaired the temple?

The chapter reports that the repairs remained undone in Jehoash’s twenty-third year, but it does not explain why. The king challenges the priests and changes the arrangement. Money then goes into a chest, is counted by royal and priestly officials, and is handed to those overseeing the work.

Why was King Joash killed in 2 Kings 12?

This chapter names the killers, Jozacar and Jehozabad, and says that his servants formed a conspiracy. It does not state their motive or connect the assassination to a particular act by Joash. The account closes with his death and burial, followed by Amaziah’s accession to the throne.

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2 Kings · 25 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).