2 Kings 12:4-16

Common English Bible

⁴ Jehoash said to the priests, “Collect all the currently available money relating to holy things that is brought to the temple—some is money people pay to redeem persons according to their assessed value. Collect all the money brought to the Lord’s temple that people offer voluntarily.^{[a] 5} The priests should take the money from their donors and use it to repair the temple wherever such a need for repair is discovered.”

⁶ But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests still hadn’t repaired the temple. ⁷ So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests together. “Why haven’t you repaired the temple?” he asked them. “Stop taking money from your donors; instead, give it directly for temple repairs.” ⁸ The priests agreed that they wouldn’t take any more money from the people nor be responsible for temple repairs. ⁹ Then the priest Jehoiada took a box, made a hole in its lid, and placed it beside the altar, to the right as one enters the Lord’s temple. The priests who stood watch at the door put all the money brought to the Lord’s temple in the box. ¹⁰ As soon as they saw that a large amount of money was in the box, the royal scribe and the high priest would come, count the money that was in the temple, and put it in a bag. ¹¹ They would then hand over the money that had been counted^[b] to those who supervised the work on the temple. These supervisors then paid money to those who worked on the Lord’s temple: carpenters, builders, ¹² masons, and stonecutters. The money was used to purchase wood and quarried stone to repair the Lord’s temple and for every other cost involved in repairing it. ¹³ But the money that was brought to the Lord’s temple was not used to make silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any gold or silver object for the Lord’s temple. ¹⁴ Instead, it was given directly to those who did the repair work; they used it to repair the Lord’s temple. ¹⁵ There was no need to check on those who received the money and paid the workers, because they acted honestly. ¹⁶ Now as for the money for compensation and purification offerings, it wasn’t brought to the Lord’s temple. It belonged to the priests.