The restoration of the Temple comes after the cleansing of the land,
in Chronicles, and naturally in the order of events, for the casting
out of idols must always precede the building or repairing of the
Temple of God. Destructive work is very poor unless it is for the
purpose of clearing a space to build the Temple on. Happy the man or
the age which is able to do both! Josiah and Joash worked at restoring
the Temple in much the same fashion, but Josiah had a priesthood more
interested than Joash had.

But we may note one or two points in his restoration. He had put his
personal effort into the preparatory extirpation of idols, but he did
not need to do so now. He could work this time by deputy. And it is
noteworthy that he chose 'laymen' to carry out the restoration.
Perhaps he knew how Joash had been balked by the knavery of the
priests who were diligent in collecting money, but slow in spending it
on the Temple. At all events, he delegated the work to three
highly-placed officials, the secretary of state, the governor of
Jerusalem, and the official historian.

It appears that for some time a collection had been going on for
Temple repairs; probably it had been begun six years before, when the
'purging' of the land began. It had been carried on by the Levites,
and had been contributed to even by 'the remnant of Israel' in the
northern kingdom, who, in their forlorn weakness, had begun to feel
the drawings of ancient brotherhood and the tie of a common worship.
This fund was in the keeping of the high priest, and the three
commissioners were instructed to require it from him. Here 2 Kings is
clearer than our passage, and shows that what the three officials had
mainly to do was to get the money from Hilkiah, and to hand it over to