Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
2 Kings 12:9 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 9. 9But Jehoiada 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 cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech: “But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “A chest and counted transfers fund temple work.”
Read It With
- 2 Kings 12:9–16
Read 2 Kings 12:9 with 12:9–16. The selected wording supplies one opening in the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Jehoiada places a chest by the altar, officials count and bag money, supervisors pay workers, and guilt offerings remain priestly funds.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “A chest and counted transfers fund temple work,” 2 Kings 12:9 opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech through the wording “But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 2 Kings 12:4–8 establishes this prior movement: Joash directs designated funds to temple breaches, but by year twenty-three the repairs remain undone and priests surrender direct collection. 2 Kings 12:9–16 continues the same royal, prophetic, household, military, reform, or exile movement; that evidenced relationship, rather than database adjacency alone, explains its placement.
Read 2 Kings 12:9–16 together
Why these verses belong together: 2 Kings 12:9–16 forms one scene or regnal notice: Jehoiada places a chest by the altar, officials count and bag money, supervisors pay workers, and guilt offerings remain priestly funds.
Verse 9. 9 But Jehoiada 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 cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.
Verse 10. 10 And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the LORD.
Verse 11. 11 And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD,
Verse 12. 12 And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.
Verse 13. 13 Howbeit there were not made for the house of the LORD bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD:
Verse 14. 14 But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD.
Verse 15. 15 Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.
Verse 16. 16 The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests’.
Follow the Context
- Jehoiada places a chest by the altar, officials count and bag money, supervisors pay workers, and guilt offerings remain priestly funds.
- The unit closes by establishing the result or tension named in “A chest and counted transfers fund temple work” before the next narrated movement.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
2 Kings 12:9 does not permit the wording “But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set…” to be read apart from the selected verse's context. The trust statement does not authorize weak controls, opaque religious fundraising, or assuming modern leaders need no audits.
What Remains True
Religious reform and public worship remain answerable to truth, justice, affected people, complete covenant faithfulness, and consequences beyond a leader's lifetime. This unit tests that truth through the narrated movement: Jehoiada places a chest by the altar, officials count and bag money, supervisors pay workers, and guilt offerings remain priestly funds. In 2 Kings 12:9, the concrete line “But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set…” keeps that truth accountable to narrated evidence.
How It Can Shape Life
- The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set….” Evaluate reform by its actual practices, limits, coercion, treatment of people, and long-term fruit rather than slogans, scale, or a leader's reputation. This response follows from the unit's own sequence: Jehoiada places a chest by the altar, officials count and bag money, supervisors pay workers, and guilt offerings remain priestly funds.
Teach It Back
In 70–220 words, explain 2 Kings 12:9's role in 12:9–16. Paraphrase “But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set…,” identify one agent or affected person, state one material source or historical limit, and name one conclusion the context does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 2 Kings 12:9–16 — A chest and counted transfers fund temple workSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Kings and Chronicles arrange the repair details differently; the text praises worker integrity while still narrating counting, custody, and defined uses.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Kings 12:9–16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 12:9–16
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 645–646, translation and translator notes for 12:9–16
Open source ↗