14). This
arrangement by King Joash was a lasting one, and still subsisted
in Josiah's time (2Kings . . xxii. 3 seq.).
The arbitrary proceeding of Joash did not well suit the ideas of
an autonomous hierocracy. According to the Law the current money
dues fell to the priests; no king had the right to take them away
and dispose of them at his pleasure. How was it possible that
Jehoiada should waive his divine right and suffer such a
sacrilegious invasion of sacred privileges? how was it possible
that he should be blamed for his (at first) passive resistance of
the illegal invasion; how was it possible at all that the priest
in his own proper department should be called to account by the
king? Chronicles knows better than that. The wicked Athaliah had
wasted and plundered the temple; Joash determined to restore it,
and for this purpose to cause money to be collected throughout
all Israel by the agency of the Levites. But as these last were
in no hurry, he made a chest and set it outside in the doorway of
the sanctuary; there the people streamed past, and gentle and simple
with joyful heart cast in their gifts until the chest was full.
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