2 Kings 12:3 tells us that King Jehoash, though he generally did what was right, did not remove the high places, the local shrines where people still offered sacrifices and burned incense outside the temple in Jerusalem. The verse is a historian’s note that reform was incomplete, because the people kept worshiping in places God had not chosen. The narrator of Kings, traditionally attributed to a compiler drawing on earlier court records, speaks about a king who began well and to a people whose habits had not yet caught up with the change.
However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
2 Kings 12:3 (WEB)
What 2 Kings 12:3 Means
The phrase “however the high places were not taken away” is a small turn in the story. Up to this point the text has praised Jehoash for doing what was right while the priest Jehoiada guided him. Now the writer adds a limit: the places of local worship remained standing. The high places were hilltop or open-air altars, many of them tied to older Canaanite practice, and the book of Kings repeatedly measures kings by whether they removed them.
The second sentence, about the people still sacrificing and burning incense, shows that the problem was not only the king’s policy but the everyday habits of ordinary worshipers. The verse does not promise that faithfulness will sweep away every corrupt practice in a single reign. It simply records what was true, and in doing so it prepares the reader for the financial and repair problems that the next verses describe.
The Context of 2 Kings 12:3
Second Kings belongs to the larger history that runs from Joshua through Kings, written to explain why Israel and Judah fell into exile. Its judgments are made by a steady yardstick: did a king lead the people toward exclusive worship of the LORD at the one temple in Jerusalem? Verses 1 and 2 give Jehoash a favorable report, so verse 3 functions as a qualifier that keeps the praise honest. The original audience, living with the memory of the exile, would have understood that good intentions could coexist with unfinished reform.
Just after verse 3, in verses 4 through 6, Jehoash turns to the temple itself and orders the collection of money for repairs. The reader can see the connection: the people had not given up their local altars, and the house of God was itself falling into disrepair because the priests had not carried out the work. The unresolved high places and the neglected temple belong to the same picture of a community that was not yet wholehearted.
Key Phrases in 2 Kings 12:3
2 Chronicles 24:2
Joash did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
(WEB)
This parallel account of Jehoash describes the same king doing right all the days of Jehoiada, which helps readers see the fuller picture of his reign. Reading it alongside 2 Kings 12:3 shows how the chronicler and the king’s historian both kept the early praise and the lingering problem in view.
1 Kings 15:14
But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with the LORD all his days.
(WEB)
This verse about King Asa notes that the high places were not removed, the same recurring failure seen in Jehoash’s reign. Placing the two side by side shows how often the book of Kings records partial reform as a pattern rather than an isolated lapse.
A Short Prayer From 2 Kings 12:3
Lord, you know the places in my life where I have turned toward you and still kept a private altar of my own. Show me where I have left things standing that you have asked me to set down. Give me the honesty to see the gaps in my faithfulness without giving up on the work you have started. Help me to bring my whole heart, my habits, and my resources into your service, so that the house you have given me to care for is kept in good repair. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
