Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
2 Kings 22:3-7
Instructions Concerning The Restoration of the Temple (2 Kings 22:3).
In view of its connection with the Temple these instructions would have been entered in the royal annals (compare 2 Kings 12:4). The entering up in some detail of such information about temples was a regular feature of official annals, for temples and their maintenance were seen as being of great importance to the stability of the royal house. Indeed the kings saw themselves as reigning on behalf of the gods, and as responsible for their houses. The similarity of wording with 2 Kings 12:11 (where it is not, however, in the words of the king) can be explained in one of two ways. The first possibility is that Josiah, with the restoration in view, had read the earlier annals and based his words on them. The second is that the prophetic author himself based the wording in 2 Kings 12:11, concerning the earlier restoration, on the words of Josiah here. Either is possible.
The fact that sufficient silver had been gathered for the restoration, something which would have taken months if not years to do, indicates that the reforms had already been in progress for some time. That was why the silver had been collected. Furthermore there can really be no doubt that before proceeding with this repair work, the Temple itself would have been ‘cleansed' by the removal of major objectionable items such as the Asherah mentioned in 2 Kings 23:6. This would especially be so as by this time Ashur-bani-pal of Assyria had been dead for some years (his death occurring somewhere between 633 and 626 BC), and he had in fact not troubled Palestine in his later years, being taken up with both warfare elsewhere and antiquarian interests. Thus his death in itself would have signalled the possibility of removing the hated Assyrian gods from the Temple, even if that had not occurred previously, something which would have had the support of the majority of the people. That the reforms had commenced six years previously as the Chronicler states is therefore simply confirmation of what is already obvious (2 Chronicles 34:3). But it is not mentioned here because the author of Kings was not so much interested in when the reforms started as on concentrating on the details of the finding of the Book of the Law.
Analysis.
a And it came about in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of YHWH, saying, “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of YHWH, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people” (2 Kings 22:3)
b “And let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of YHWH, and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of YHWH, to repair the breaches of the house, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house” (2 Kings 22:5).
a However, there was no reckoning made with them of the silver which was delivered into their hand, for they dealt faithfully (2 Kings 22:7).
Note that in ‘a' the amount of ‘silver' was to be weighed up, and in the parallel no reckoning was to be made of it by the workers. Centrally in ‘b' it had to be given to the workmen for the carrying out of the restoration work.
‘And it came about in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of YHWH, saying,'
This would have been in about 622 BC, some years after the death of Ashur-bani-pal, and three years after Babylonia had finally freed themselves from the Assyrian yoke. Thus it came at a time of decidedly waning Assyrian power (in fact within ten years the Assyrian empire would be on the verge of extinction). The eighteenth year is mentioned, not because it was the date of the commencement of the reforms, but as the date when serious repair work began on the restoration of the Temple itself after years of preparation, work which resulted in the law book being discovered within the Temple structure, a discovery which would have caused huge excitement as the emergence of something coming from the distant past. It would give a new impetus to what was already going on.
Shaphan (‘rock badger') the scribe was Josiah's official go-between, and one of the highest officials in the land (compare 2 Kings 18:18); 2 Samuel 20:25; 1 Kings 4:3). He was called on by the king to convey his official instructions in respect of the actual repair work on the Temple. The Chronicler tells us that he was accompanied by the governor of the city and the recorder. The deputation was thus seen as of the highest importance.
“Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of YHWH, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people, and let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of YHWH, and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of YHWH, to repair the breaches of the house,'
The instructions were necessarily passed on to the leading priest at the Temple. The title ‘high priest' occurs in 2 Kings 12:10; Leviticus 21:10; Numbers 35:25; Numbers 35:28; Joshua 20:6. Such a status is also mentioned at Ugarit, and most nations had ‘high priests', so that Israel would have been an oddity not to have had one. Normally, however, in Israel/Judah he was called simply ‘the Priest', but here he was being given his formal official title in an important communication.
Hilkiah was being called on to weigh and ‘sum up' the ‘silver' (possibly by turning it into ingots. There were no official coins in those days) which had been gathered for the purpose of the repair work, and had been brought into the house of YHWH. The ‘keepers of the threshold' were high Temple officials (in terms of New Testament days ‘chief priests') who were responsible to ensure the sanctity of the Temple by excluding from it any unauthorised persons. Their post would make them ideal for the collecting of gifts to the Temple, and watching over them. Hilkiah, having assessed the value of the gifts, was then to call on the keepers of the threshhold to deliver the silver into the hands of the workmen who had oversight of the house of YHWH, in our terms the priestly architects and structural engineers. They in their turn were to arrange for the work to be done by organised priestly workmen set apart for the work and were to pay over the silver accordingly. This work would be performed by suitably trained priests. The aim was to ‘repair the breaches in the house', in other words to carry out needed building repairs to the decaying and neglected building.
‘To the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house.'
The silver was to be both paid to the specialist workmen, and to the merchants who would provide the timber and hewn stone for the repair of the house. The need for hewn stone (hewn away from the Temple area in accordance with measurements taken) emphasises the poor state at that time of the Temple structure. Compare here 2 Kings 12:11.
‘However, there was no reckoning made with them of the money which was delivered into their hand, for they dealt faithfully.'
The honesty of those involved was considered to be such that it was felt unnecessary to call for an account of how the silver was spent. Comparison with 2 Kings 12:15 suggests that this was regularly a recognised part of any such contract. To have taken up any other position would seemingly have been seen as insulting to the priest-workmen. Such an attitude was only really possible in times of ‘revival' when there was a new spirit of dedication around.