2 Chronicles 24

Well, maybe not 40 years exactly. “Forty years” was a common way of saying “many years,” or “a long time.” The symbolic number shows up about 150 times in the Bible. It was probably intended to be taken no more literally than our modern saying “at the eleventh hour.” “Eleventh hour” means at the last moment, not 11 o’clock.

Zibiah likely died when Athaliah killed the royal family, but overlooked Joash who went in hiding when the assassinations began (2 Kings 11:1-3).

The Temple would have been roughly 150 years old by then. Solomon’s crew of workers, which included citizens drafted for duty against their will, finished the Jerusalem Temple in about 957 BC. Joash reigned from about 835-796 BC.

Moses ordered everyone, rich and poor, to pay half a shekel every year for maintenance of the tent worship center often called the Tabernacle. Shekels came in different kinds of metal and different weights. It’s unclear what kind of shekel the writer was describing, or how much it weighed. There was a heavy shekel that weighed about 11.5 grams or .4 ounces. That’s a little more than a 7-gram American quarter or an 8-gram Euro coin. This was sometimes called the King’s Shekel or the Royal Shekel. Some scholars say this was also the weight used in the Israelite worship center and later in the Jerusalem Temple. The lighter shekel weighed about 9.5 grams or .33 ounces. Some scholars say this was probably the shekel accepted at the worship center. The version of this story in 2 Kings 11 reports that Joash ordered money collected from other sources, including the Temple treasury.

Baal was a god of fertility in family, fields, and flocks. Canaanites, who were native to what is now Israel and Palestinian land, worshiped Baal. Joshua led the Jews in killing many Canaanites while the Jewish people reclaimed the land that the Bible says God promised to the descendants of Abraham. But Jews continued to worship Baal and other Middle Eastern gods off and on throughout Old Testament times.

Burnt offerings were the most common animal sacrifice. Worshipers burned the entire animal to atone for their sins. Jews taught that in God’s eyes, sin was a capital offense. Jewish law, however, says God allowed them to substitute the death of an animal for the death they deserved. “Blood is what brings a body to life. I’ve given you blood to use exclusively on the altar. It atones for your sin—it gets rid of your guilt so you can stay on good terms with the LORD. Blood is the price of your sin” (Leviticus 17:11). The writer of Hebrews says the blood of Jesus was the last sacrifice needed; it paid the price for the sins of all people for all time (Hebrews 10:10). Grain and wine offerings were an expression of gratitude for a harvest and for the way God takes care of the Israelites. People offered the grain in several ways: ground to fine flour, presented as baked, fried, cooked, or roasted with olive oil.

The City of David was the original part of town before Solomon expanded up the hill to add the Temple and palace complexes.

These poles may have been trees or poles meant to represent trees, as symbols of a Canaanite fertility goddess known as Asherah, goddess of motherhood. She was the love interest of Baal. He was chief god of the people who lived in Canaan, now known as Israel and Palestinian Territories. Sometime later, Israel’s Queen Jezebel tried to murder all God’s prophets and replace them with prophets and priests devoted to Baal and Asherah (1 Kings 18:4, 18-19). People worshiped this goddess with sacred poles described as repulsive and obscene. But we’re left to guess how the people used those poles in worship.

Literally, “at the turn of the year.” The new year on the Jewish calendar started in the month of Nisan, which fell between late March and early April. That’s when armies often launched a campaign, often planning to fight until early winter, if necessary (1 Chronicles 20:1; 2 Samuel 11:1).