⁹The priest Jehoiada got a chest. He drilled a hole in its lid. He placed the chest beside the altar for burnt offerings. The chest was on the right side as people enter the Lord’s temple. Some priests guarded the entrance. They put into the chest all of the money the people brought to the temple.

¹⁰From time to time there was a large amount of money in the chest. When that happened, the royal secretary and the high priest came. They counted the money the people had brought to the temple. Then they put it into bags.

¹¹After they added it all up, they used it to repair the temple. They gave it to the men who had been put in charge of the work. Those men used it to pay the workers. They paid the builders and those who worked with wood. ¹²They paid those who cut stones and those who laid them. They bought lumber and blocks of stone. So they used the money to repair the Lord’s temple. They also paid all of the other costs to make the temple like new again.

¹³The money the people brought to the Lord’s temple wasn’t used to make silver bowls. It wasn’t used for wick cutters, sprinkling bowls or trumpets. And it wasn’t used for any other articles made out of gold or silver. ¹⁴Instead, it was paid to the workers. They used it to repair the temple. ¹⁵The royal secretary and the high priest didn’t require a report from those who were in charge of the work. That’s because they were completely honest. They always paid the workers.

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