2 Kings 12:4

12:4 Jehoash said to the priests, “I place at your disposal ¹  all the consecrated silver that has been brought to the Lord’s temple, including the silver collected from the census tax, ²  the silver received from those who have made vows, ³  and all the silver that people have voluntarily contributed to the Lord’s temple. ⁴ 

2 Kings 12:8-11

12:8 The priests agreed ⁵  not to collect silver from the people and relieved themselves of personal responsibility for the temple repairs. ⁶ 

12:9 Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid. He placed it on the right side of the altar near the entrance of ⁷  the Lord’s temple. The priests who guarded the entrance would put into it all the silver brought to the Lord’s temple. 12:10 When they saw the chest was full of silver, the royal secretary ⁸  and the high priest counted the silver that had been brought to the Lord’s temple and bagged it up. ⁹  12:11 They would then hand over ¹⁰  the silver that had been weighed to the construction foremen ¹¹  assigned to the Lord’s temple. They hired carpenters and builders to work on the Lord’s temple,

[12:4]  ¹ tn The words “I place at your disposal” are added in the translation for clarification.

[12:4]  ² tn Heb “the silver of passing over a man.” The precise meaning of the phrase is debated, but עָבַר (’avar), “pass over,” probably refers here to counting, suggesting the reference is to a census conducted for taxation purposes. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.

[12:4]  ³ tn Heb “the silver of persons, his valuation.” The precise meaning of the phrase is uncertain, but parallels in Lev 27 suggest that personal vows are referred to here. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 137.

[12:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “all the silver which goes up on the heart of a man to bring to the house of the Lord.”

[12:8]  ⁵ tn Outside of this passage the verb אוּת (’ut) appears only in Gen 34:15-22.

[12:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “and not to repair the damages to the temple.” This does not mean that the priests were no longer interested in repairing the temple. As the following context makes clear, the priests decided to hire skilled workers to repair the damage to the temple, rather than trying to make the repairs themselves.

[12:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “on the right side of the altar as a man enters.”

[12:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “the king’s scribe.”

[12:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “went up and tied [it] and counted the silver that was found in the house of the Lord.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to make better sense in English, since it seems more logical to count the money before bagging it (cf. NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[12:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “would give.”

[12:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “doers of the work.”