Sunday Sermonette: The invention of accounting

First,  I need to say a bit about names, because it gets confusing. The boy Joash seems to has grown up to become King Jehoash of Judah, but sometimes he's still called King Joash. Meanwhile, the Israelites king called Jehoahaz, and on his death his son Jehoash becomes king. So there are two Jehoash's, one of whom is also Joash. Anyway . .  .

The Temple needs repair, so Joash orders the priests to earmark some of the fees and donations they receive for the purpose. But the priests didn't do it, evidently they spent the money on themselves. So the high priest installed a lock box, all the money went into it, and it was audited. Then the allotted portion was used to pay for the repairs. This seems like a fairly dull story but obviously it represents an important step forward in governance. Joash also uses his bank balance to bribe the king of Syria not to attack. Then, for reasons completely unknown, Joash's servants kill him. End of this story.

12 In the seventh year of Jehu Jeho′ash began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zib′iah of Beer-sheba. ² And Jeho′ash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, because Jehoi′ada the priest instructed him. ³ Nevertheless the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and burn incense on the high places.

⁴ Jeho′ash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things which is brought into the house of the Lord, the money for which each man is assessed—the money from the assessment of persons—and the money which a man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the Lord, ⁵ let the priests take, each from his acquaintance; and let them repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered.” ⁶ But by the twenty-third year of King Jeho′ash the priests had made no repairs on the house. ⁷ Therefore King Jeho′ash summoned Jehoi′ada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but hand it over for the repair of the house.” ⁸ So the priests agreed that they should take no more money from the people, and that they should not repair the house.

⁹ Then Jehoi′ada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the Lord; and the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord. ¹⁰ And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s secretary and the high priest came up and they counted and tied up in bags the money that was found in the house of the Lord. ¹¹ Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked upon the house of the Lord, ¹² and to the masons and the stonecutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for making repairs on the house of the Lord, and for any outlay upon the repairs of the house. ¹³ But there were not made for the house of the Lord basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold, or of silver, from the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, ¹⁴ for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the house of the Lord with it. ¹⁵ And they did not ask an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly. ¹⁶ The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord; it belonged to the priests.

Hazael Threatens Jerusalem

¹⁷ At that time Haz′ael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it. But when Haz′ael set his face to go up against Jerusalem, ¹⁸ Jeho′ash king of Judah took all the votive gifts that Jehosh′aphat and Jeho′ram and Ahazi′ah, his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own votive gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent these to Haz′ael king of Syria. Then Haz′ael went away from Jerusalem.

Death of Joash

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Jo′ash, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰ His servants arose and made a conspiracy, and slew Jo′ash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. ²¹ It was Jo′zacar the son of Shim′eath and Jeho′zabad the son of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amazi′ah his son reigned in his stead.