Temple Repairs Planned

4 Jehoash said to the priests, “All of the money for the sacred things that is brought to the temple of Yahweh, the money taxed at its proper value for each person[fn] and all of the money which comes upon the heart of a man to bring to the temple of Yahweh, 5 let the priests take for themselves, each from his treasurers, and let them repair the breach of the temple for every place where damage is found.”

6 It happened in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash that the priests had not repaired the damage in the temple. 7 So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the priests, and he said to them, “Why are you not repairing the damage in the temple? Now, you shall not take money from your treasurers for the damage in the temple. You must provide it.” 8 So the priests agreed not to take money from the people and not to repair the damage to the temple.

9 Then Jehoiada the priest took a certain chest and bored a hole in its lid, and he put it beside the altar to the right as a man enters into the temple of Yahweh; then the priests who were keepers of the threshold would put there all of the money brought into the temple. 10 It happened that when they saw a great deal of money in the chest, the secretary of the king and the high priest would come up, put the money in bags, then count the money found in the temple of Yahweh. 11 They placed the money, which was weighed out, into the hands of the workers who were appointed over the temple of Yahweh, and they paid it to the skilled craftsmen of wood and to the builders working on the temple of Yahweh 12 and to the masons and the stonecutters, to buy timber and stones for hewing, in order to repair the damage of the temple of Yahweh, and for all who went to the temple to repair it. 13 Only, for the temple of Yahweh, there were not any silver basins, snuffers, bowls for drinking wine, trumpets, or any vessel of gold or silver from the money being brought to the temple of Yahweh. 14 For they gave that to all the workers, and they repaired the temple[fn] of Yahweh with it. 15 They did not have to settle accounts with the men into whose hands they placed the money to give to the workers, for they were dealing honestly. 16 The money of the guilt offering and the money of the sin offering was not brought into the temple[fn] of Yahweh, but were each for the priests.