begat sons and daughters. 4And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to restore the house of the LORD. 5And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it not. 6And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the congregation [1]of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?
of a Jewish father to provide his son with a wife; Jehoiada standing in loco parentis does this for Joash.
4—14 (= 2 Kin. xii. 4—16). The Restoration of the Temple.
5. and the Levites] Not in Kings; cp. xxiii. 2 (note).
Go out unto the cities of Judah] According to Kings, the restoration fund was to consist of a poll-tax (paid at the Temple at the Great Feasts, Ex. xxiii. 14—17) and of free-will offerings paid in money, and nothing is said there about collecting money outside Jerusalem.
hastened it not] In Kings, "in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house." Such protracted neglect of the repairs of the Temple appears the more reprehensible (in Kings) since the money was paid at the Temple, and therefore was actually in the hands of the priests. At the same time, to the Chronicler, the royal command to use money from the poll-tax and free-will offerings for the purpose of repairs was an infringement of the priests' prerogatives. He therefore relieves the situation, partly by representing that the money was to be obtained by a special collection throughout the land, and also by softening the twenty-three years of inaction into "hastened it not."
6. of the Levites] See note on ver. 5.
the tax of Moses] i.e. the half-shekel due from each male for support of the sanctuary, according to Ex. xxx. 14—16, xxxviii. 25, 26.
the tent of the testimony] "The testimony" refers to the Ten Commandments, which contained the substance of God's testimony (protestation) to Israel. To illustrate the use of the phrase, note that the two tables of stone were called "tables of the testimony" (Ex. xxxi. 18, R.V.); the ark which contained them was called the "ark of the testimony" (Ex. xxv. 22); the veil which hung before the ark was the "veil of the testimony" (Lev. xxiv. 3); the tent which contained the ark was either the "tabernacle (Heb. mishkān) of the testimony" (Ex. xxxviii. 21, R.V.) or the "tent (Heb. ōhel) of the testimony" (Num. ix. 15). The
- ↑ Or, for Israel
