7. So King Joash called for Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage of the Temple? Don’t take any more money from the people you serve, but hand over the money for the repair of the Temple.”
8. The priests agreed not to take any more money from the people and not to repair the Temple themselves.
9. Jehoiada the priest took a box and made a hole in the top of it. Then he put it by the altar, on the right side as the people came into the Temple of the Lord. The priests guarding the doorway put all the money brought to the Temple of the Lord into the box.
10. Each time the priests saw that the box was full of money, the king’s royal secretary and the high priest came. They counted the money that had been brought to the Temple of the Lord, and they put it into bags.
11. Next they weighed the money and gave it to the people in charge of the work on the Temple. With it they paid the carpenters and the builders who worked on the Temple of the Lord,
12. as well as the bricklayers and stonecutters. They also used the money to buy timber and cut stone to repair the damage of the Temple of the Lord. It paid for everything.
13. The money brought into the Temple of the Lord was not used to make silver cups, wick trimmers, bowls, trumpets, or gold or silver vessels.
14. They paid the money to the workers, who used it to repair the Temple of the Lord.
15. They did not demand to know how the money was spent, because the workers were honest.
16. The money from the penalty offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the Temple of the Lord, because it belonged to the priests.
17. About this time Hazael king of Aram attacked Gath and captured it. Then he went to attack Jerusalem.