2 Kings 12:6
But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.
2 Kings 12:6 belongs to the group 2 Kings 12-14, set within the longer history running from 1 Kings 22 through 2 Kings 20. It belongs to a period of nearly 300 years running from Joram king of Israel through Jehu and his dynasty to Hoshea and the end of Israel by Assyria, and in Judah from Ahaziah and Athaliah through Joash, Amaziah, Azariah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah and Jehoahaz. That period includes the death of Elisha under Jehoash in 796 B.C. and the prophesying of Hosea, Jonah and Amos, and in Judah of Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah and Nahum. It shows a spotted record in which Judah always prospered under righteous faithful rulers and brought calamity on rulers and people by turning from God to gross idolatry.
The verse belongs to the repairing of Solomon's temple by Jehoash at the instigation of Jehoiada after neglect. The neglect and repair show that the history of Solomon's temple is the history of the religious experience of the children of Israel, who neglected the temple when they departed from the Lord. The temple's damaged condition had not been repaired by the twenty-third year of Jehoash because Athaliah had robbed the temple of its ornaments, decorations, and wealth to furnish Baal's house, leaving the house of the Lord in need of restoration. By the twenty-third year of Jehoash's reign the priests still had not repaired the damaged walls and parts of the temple, despite being given money for the work.
The repairs had been neglected for at least twenty-three years, and evidently for some years before Jehoash became king. The priests had been allowed to collect money for their support and had received enough that they should have used some of it to maintain the temple. Jehoash gave his reproof when he had grown to manhood in the king's office, when he was thirty years old and able to exert greater influence. The failure rested with Jehoiada, who was now an old man and depended on his assistants for performing the duties of the priesthood.
The work waited because the annual half shekel commanded through Moses from every man twenty years old and upward for the service of the tabernacle and later the temple had been neglected. The backslidden condition of the people made it a difficult and disagreeable task to get them to pay it. The account is of young King Joash repairing the house of God about two centuries before Josiah in a similar way by having money collected for the work, so that Josiah's repairing of the house after six years of cleansing the land follows the pattern of Joash. The repairs required money to be raised first, and the account instructs God's people to gather the needed resources before carrying out the work, rather than borrowing.