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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - 2 King 12:4 - 12:4
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All the money of the dedicated things - From all this account we find that the temple was in a very ruinous state; the walls were falling down, some had perhaps actually fallen, and there was no person so zealous for the pure worship of God, as to exert himself to shore up the falling temple!
The king himself seems to have been the first who noticed these dilapidations, and took measures for the necessary repairs. The repairs were made from the following sources:
1. The things which pious persons had dedicated to the service of God.
2. The free-will offerings of strangers who had visited Jerusalem: the money of every one that passeth.
3. The half-shekel which the males were obliged to pay from the age of twenty years (Exo 30:12) for the redemption of their souls, that is their lives, which is here called the money that every man is set at.
All these sources had ever been in some measure open, but instead of repairing the dilapidations in the Lord’s house, the priests and Levites had converted the income to their own use.