Chronicles 24:3).

* Canon Rawlinson calls attention to the desirableness in this case of an early union, since all the

seed royal had been destroyed by Athaliah. He also suggests that cc the number two [wives] on

which he [Jehoiada] fixed implies a desire to combine regard for the succession with a

discouragement of excessive polygamy."

Of his two wives, one (Jehoaddan) is mentioned as a native of Jerusalem; and from the age of her

son, Amaziah, at his succession, we infer that he must have been born when his father, Joash, was

twenty-two years of age* (2 Chronicles 25:1).

* Joash died at the age of 47.

But the most notable act of the reign of Joash was the restoration of the Temple. The need for it

arose not so much from the age of the building, which had only been completed about a hundred

and thirty years before, as from the damage done to it by the family of Athaliah, and the forcible

appropriation for the service of Baalim of all that had been dedicated to the house of Jehovah (2

Chronicles 24:7). The initiative in the proposed restoration was taken by the king himself,

although it is impossible to determine in what year of his reign. According to the original plan, the

sum required for the work wa s to have been derived from "all the money of the consecrated;" that

is, all the sacred offerings "brought into the house of Jehovah; the expression, "current money,"*

meaning not coined money, which was not in use before the Exile, but silver weighed in certain

proportions, for current payment to the workmen.

* The interpretation of the expression, as referring to the annual Temple tribute of a half -shekel

(Exodus 30:13), is not only exegetically impossible, but there is, to say the least, no evidence t hat

the provision of Exodus 30:12, 13 was either intended, or at the time obtained, as a permanent law.

Exactly the same expression for "current money" occurs in Genesis 23:16.

The sacred text further explains that this consecrated money was to be derived from two sources.

from "the money of souls, after his estimation " - that is, the redemption money in case of vows, to

be fixed according to the provisions of Leviticus 27:2, etc. - and from voluntary offerings. These

sources of revenue the priests were t o "take to themselves, every man of his acquaintance" (2

Kings 12:5), and with them to "repair the breaches of the house." The Book of Chronicles explains

that this money was to be gathered by personal collection in all the cities of Judah. Considering

that these contributions were mainly of the nature of voluntary offerings, like those once gathered

for the Tabernacle (Exodus 35:21), such a mode of collection would appear the most suitable,

especially in a time of religious revival following after a widespread religious decay.

The king had bidden the priests and Levites "hasten the matter" (2 Chronicles 24:5). But when,

even in the twenty-third year of his reign, no satisfactory progress had been made with the needful

repairs of the Temple, the king, with the consent of the priesthood, proceeded to make such

alterations in the mode of collecting the money as virtually to place it in his own hands and those

of the high-priest. It is not necessary to suppose that there had been defalcations on the part of the

priesthood; indeed, the later arrangements are inconsistent with this idea. But we can quite

understand that, besides the natural reluctance to collect from friends, the priests might find such

calls interfering with the collection of their own revenues in the various districts; while the people

would feel little confidence or enthusiasm in what was at best an irregular and disorderly mode of

securing a great religious and national object. It was otherwise when the king and high-priest took

the matter in hand. A chest for receiving voluntary contributions was placed at the entrance into

the court of the priests, at the right side of the altar. A proclamation throughout the whole country,

announcing a mode of collection identical with that when Moses had re ared the Tabernacle in the

wilderness, caused universal joy, and brought thousands of willing contributors. All the other

arrangements were equally successful. When the chest was full, it was carried into the royal office,

and opened in presence of the kin g's scribe and the high-priest or his representative, when the