- 19-
His change after that is only too clearly evidenced by the murder of Zechariah, the son of
Jehoiada, an event which has not been seriously called in question even by negative
critics.
On the whole, it cannot be doubted that the great defect of the character and reign of
Joash was a fatal weakness, such as that of his ancestor Ahab, probably due to want of
stable, personal religious convictions. Under the guiding influence of Jehoiada, he "did
that which was right;" yet even so he tolerated the worship of the people at the "high
places." In view of his character, we must regard it as a specially wise act on the part of
the high-priest to concern himself about the alliances* of the young king, a circumstance
which is specially noted in the Book of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 24:3).
- Canon Rawlinson calls attention to the desirableness in this case of an early union,
since all the seed royal had been destroyed by Athaliah. He also suggests that cc the
number two [wives] on which he [Jehoiada] fixed implies a desire to combine regard for
the succession with a discouragement of excessive polygamy."
Of his two wives, one (Jehoaddan) is mentioned as a native of Jerusalem; and from the
age of her son, Amaziah, at his succession, we infer that he must have been born when
his father, Joash, was twenty-two years of age* (2 Chronicles 25:1).
- Joash died at the age of 47.
But the most notable act of the reign of Joash was the restoration of the Temple. The need
for it arose not so much from the age of the building, which had only been completed
about a hundred and thirty years before, as from the damage done to it by the family of
Athaliah, and the forcible appropriation for the service of Baalim of all that had been
dedicated to the house of Jehovah (2 Chronicles 24:7). The initiative in the proposed
restoration was taken by the king himself, although it is impossible to determine in what
year of his reign. According to the original plan, the sum required for the work was to
have been derived from "all the money of the consecrated;" that is, all the sacred
offerings "brought into the house of Jehovah; the expression, "current money,"* meaning
not coined money, which was not in use before the Exile, but silver weighed in certain
proportions, for current payment to the workmen.
- The interpretation of the expression, as referring to the annual Temple tribute of a half-
shekel (Exodus 30:13), is not only exegetically impossible, but there is, to say the least,
no evidence that the provision of Exodus 30:12, 13 was either intended, or at the time
obtained, as a permanent law. Exactly the same expression for "current money" occurs in
Genesis 23:16.
The sacred text further explains that this consecrated money was to be derived from two
sources. from "the money of souls, after his estimation " - that is, the redemption money
(^)