BOOK 12 OF 66 · HISTORY · KING JAMES BIBLE

2 Kings 12

2 Kings book home•Chapter 12 of 25•21 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

2 Kings 12 Overview

Joash begins reigning at seven and does right while Jehoiada instructs him, though the high places remain. He orders temple repairs, but the original collection system fails to produce adequate progress. A more direct system is established: money placed in a chest is counted and given to faithful workers. Later Hazael of Syria threatens Jerusalem, and Joash sends sacred and royal treasures to turn him away. Joash is eventually assassinated by his servants.

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Before you read 2 Kings 12

Coming from

Chapter 11 ended with Joash placed on the throne, covenant renewed, and Baal worship attacked.

In this chapter

The rescued king repairs the neglected temple, but later foreign pressure and violence reveal that his reign is not an uncomplicated success.

Leads into

Chapter 13 returns north to Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Syrian oppression, and Elisha’s final scenes.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The temple-repair narrative is practical: a failing system is acknowledged and changed. Kings compresses Joash’s later decline; 2 Chronicles 24 adds that after Jehoiada’s death he listens to corrupt princes, abandons the LORD, and orders Zechariah son of Jehoiada killed.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Good intentions require workable administration.

Truth 2

Faithful craftsmen are recognized as trustworthy with repair funds.

Truth 3

Joash’s early right direction is closely tied to Jehoiada’s instruction.

Truth 4

The reign ends under foreign pressure and assassination, not simple triumph.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Second Chronicles 24 supplies essential detail about Joash’s later apostasy.

Connection 2

Matthew 23:35 refers to Zacharias killed between temple and altar, often connected with the Chronicles account.

Connection 3

Second Kings 11 explains why restoring the temple mattered after Athaliah’s rule.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not read Joash’s early positive evaluation as proof he remained faithful to the end.

Keep this clear 2

The repair system is wise administration, not a fixed church-budgeting command.

Keep this clear 3

His assassination should not be used by itself to infer eternal destiny.

Read 2 Kings 12 watching for…

How Jehoiada is connected with Joash’s evaluation.

Why the first repair system changes.

How the chest system works.

What is said about the workers’ faithfulness.

What Joash gives Hazael.

How Joash dies.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-3Joash reigns and does right, though the high places remain 4-16Joash orders repairs to the temple, and the work is faithfully completed 17-18Hazael threatens Jerusalem, and Joash sends him temple and royal treasures 19-21Joash is assassinated, and Amaziah reigns

In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the LORD, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set at, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the LORD,

Let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance: and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found.

But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.

Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.

And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house.

But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.

And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the LORD.

And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD,

And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.

Howbeit there were not made for the house of the LORD bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD:

But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD.

Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.

The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests'.

Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.

And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla.

For Jozachar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

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2 Kings 12:7

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