The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests’.
The record belongs to Joash, the true king of Judah who had been hidden until he was old enough to be proclaimed king after Athaliah was slain, in a continuing history in which Judah at times had good kings while the kings of Israel were weak or altogether bad. The repair of the house of God in Jerusalem took place in the twenty-third year of Joash's reign, after he had grown to manhood in the king's office. The repair money was the half shekel commanded through Moses to be collected annually from every man twenty years old and upward for the service of the tabernacle and later for the temple, and it was separate from the trespass money and sin money, which belonged to the priests.
Collection of this tax had been neglected because of the backslidden condition of the people, making gathering it a difficult and disagreeable task, and Jehoiada delayed in gathering it because he was now an old man depending on his assistants to perform the duties of the priesthood. The liberality of the people in giving and the faithfulness and honesty of the overseers and workmen, who needed no accounting of the money, showed thorough repentance and earnest return to Jehovah. Joash was another young king who, about two centuries before Josiah, repaired the house of God in a similar way with money collected for the work.
The record belongs to Joash, the true king of Judah who had been hidden until he was old enough to be proclaimed king after Athaliah was slain, in a continuing history in which Judah at times had good kings while the kings of Israel were weak or altogether bad. The repair of the house of God in Jerusalem took place in the twenty-third year of Joash's reign, after he had grown to manhood in the king's office. The repair money was the half shekel commanded through Moses to be collected annually from every man twenty years old and upward for the service of the tabernacle and later for the temple, and it was separate from the trespass money and sin money, which belonged to the priests.
Collection of this tax had been neglected because of the backslidden condition of the people, making gathering it a difficult and disagreeable task, and Jehoiada delayed in gathering it because he was now an old man depending on his assistants to perform the duties of the priesthood. The liberality of the people in giving and the faithfulness and honesty of the overseers and workmen, who needed no accounting of the money, showed thorough repentance and earnest return to Jehovah. Joash was another young king who, about two centuries before Josiah, repaired the house of God in a similar way with money collected for the work.