Bible Commentaries
2 Kings 12

Verses 1-21

Chapter 12

Now in the seventh year in which Jehu was the king in Israel is when this king began to reign ( 2 Kings 12:1 );

Because you remember, he was just one year old when his dad was killed by Jehu. He was hid for six years and so in the seventh year in which Jehu was reigning, this young man began to reign.

Now Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him ( 2 Kings 12:2 ).

And so, he was more or less a puppet leader. Jehoiada the priest was the influence behind the throne. However, there were high places of worship where the people burnt incense and offered sacrifices which was following after the pagan customs, and these they did not destroy. And of course, that remained the blotch on the kingdom.

Now Jehoash, this young king, as he grew older he ordered that they take all of the money that was brought into the temple and they use it to repair the temple, for the temple had come into a state of disrepair because the people were worshipping on the high places and they were worshipping Baal and all. And so the temple of God had come into a state of disrepair, and the king Jehoash ordered that they take the money and they repair all of these places in the temple. But after a period of time, the priest had done nothing in the repair of the temple. So Jehoash came and said, "What's happened? How come you haven't made the repairs?" And the priest were pocketing all of the money. So Jehoiada put this agape box in there. He got a box and put a hole in the top of it so that the people could drop the money in the box so that the priest couldn't get it. And they then took the money that the people would drop in the box and they began to repair the temple. And they gave it to the builders and the masons and so forth to begin to restore the temple building.

Now at this time, Hazael, who had taken and had captured the area where the Reubenites and the Gadites and the tribe of Manasseh were living, he now had moved his troops down into the area between Jerusalem and the coast, the city of Gath, which was a Philistine city. And he had taken the city of Gath and was now moving his Syrian army to besiege Jerusalem.

And Jehoash took all of the gold and the silver and all and he bought off Hazael. He gave him all of his money and said, "Hey look, we surrender and here's all of the money." So he paid him off and Hazael returned to the to Syria, but the temple was robbed of all of its treasures, the gold and silver vessels and all. They were taken by Hazael.

We come in verse nineteen to the death of Joash. He was killed by his servants who conspired against him, and his son Amaziah began to reign in his stead. "