5. and the Levites] Not in Kings; compare xxiii. 2 (note).
Go out unto the cities of Judah] According to Kings, the restoration fund was to consist of a poll-tax (paid at the Temple at the Great Feasts, Exodus xxiii. 14–17) and of free-will offerings paid in money, and nothing is said there about collecting money outside Jerusalem.
hastened it not] In Kings, “in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.” Such protracted neglect of the repairs of the Temple appears the more reprehensible (in Kings) since the money was paid at the Temple, and therefore was actually in the hands of the priests. At the same time, to the Chronicler, the royal command to use money from the poll-tax and free-will offerings for the purpose of repairs was an infringement of the priests’ prerogatives. He therefore relieves the situation, partly by representing that the money was to be obtained by a special collection throughout the land, and also by softening the twenty-three years of inaction into “hastened it not.”
⁶And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax of Moses the servant of the Lord, and of the congregation of[¹] Israel, for the tent of the testimony?
[¹] Or, for Israel.
6. of the Levites] See note on verse 5.
the tax of Moses] i.e. the half-shekel due from each male for support of the sanctuary, according to Exodus xxx. 14–16, xxxviii. 25, 26.
the tent of the testimony] “The testimony” refers to the Ten Commandments, which contained the substance of God’s testimony (protestation) to Israel. To illustrate the use of the phrase, note that the two tables of stone were called “tables of the testimony” (Exodus xxxi. 18, Revised Version); the ark which contained them was called the “ark of the testimony” (Exodus xxv. 22); the veil which hung before the ark was the “veil of the testimony” (Leviticus xxiv. 3); the tent which contained the ark was either the “tabernacle (Hebrew mishkān) of the testimony” (Exodus xxxviii. 21, Revised Version) or the “tent (Hebrew ōhel) of the testimony” (Numbers ix. 15). The tabernacle, with all its contents, was to be a standing protest to Israel that Jehovah was with His people according to covenant, and that every breach of the covenant would call forth punishment. Compare Deuteronomy iv. 25, 26, viii. 19, etc.
⁷For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow upon the Baalim. ⁸So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of the Lord.
7. the sons of Athaliah] To be understood figuratively, “the adherents of Athaliah.” So “a son of the apothecaries” (Nehemiah iii. 8; compare Authorized Version with Revised Version) is “a member of the apothecaries’ guild” and “the sons of the prophets” (2 Kings ii. 15, etc.) are “the adherents (or ‘scholars’) of the prophets.”