Temple repair outsourced

2 Kings 12:4-16 - Joash said to the priests, "Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the LORD -- the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, and let it be used to repair whatever damage is found in the temple."

But by the 23rd year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple. Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, "Why aren't you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple." The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.

Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the LORD. The priests who guarded the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the LORD. Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal secretary and the high priest came, counted the money that had been brought into the temple of the LORD and put it into bags. When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. With it they paid those who worked on the temple of the LORD -- the carpenters and builders, the masons and stonecutters. They purchased timber and dressed stone for the repair of the temple of the LORD, and met all the other expenses of restoring the temple.

The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the LORD; it was paid to the workmen, who used it to repair the temple. They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty. The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the temple of the LORD; it belonged to the priests.

I wonder in which year of his reign Joash first told the priests to repair the temple. I get the impression that they delayed any repair work for several years. I wonder why Joash (and his staff) assumed that the priests themselves would be capable of making the repairs. After all, they were just that -- priests, not carpenters, builders, masons, or stonecutters. It's not surprising to me that they finally decided to outsource the repairs to the professionals.

I wonder if the priests thought, "Hey, we just got a nice raise! If we play our cards right, we won't even have to do any more work than we did before."

I wonder if Joash ever tried to recover the money from the priests that had never been used for repairs as intended. And if not, why not?

Since it's specifically mentioned that no accounting was required of the workmen, that seems to imply that such an accounting was required in other situations. Seems an accounting maybe should have been conducted with the priests (of all people!) a few years earlier.