2 Kings 12:4–12

Repairing the Temple

⁴Then ^eJoash said to the priests, “All the dedicated money brought to the Lord’s temple, ^fcensus money, ^gmoney from vows, ^hand all money voluntarily given ⁱfor the Lord’s temple, ⁵each priest is to take from his assessor ^jand repair whatever damage to the temple is found.” ^kl

⁶But by the twenty-third year ^mof the reign of King Joash, the priests had not repaired the damage ⁿto the temple. ^o7So King Joash called Jehoiada ^pthe priest and the other priests and said, “Why haven’t you repaired the temple’s damage? Since you haven’t, don’t take any money from your assessors; instead, hand it over for the repair of the temple.” ⁸So the priests agreed they would not take money from the people and they would not repair the temple’s damage.

⁹Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, ^qbored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the Lord’s temple; in it the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money brought into the Lord’s temple. ^r10Whenever they saw there was a large amount of money in the chest, the king’s secretary ^sand the high priest would go to the Lord’s temple and count the money found there and tie it up in bags. ^t11Then they would put the counted money into the hands of those doing the work—those who oversaw the Lord’s temple. They in turn would pay it out to those working on the Lord’s temple—the carpenters, the builders, ¹²the masons, and the stonecutters—and would use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the damage to the Lord’s temple ^uand for all spending for temple repairs.