i.e. It was not employed towards the reparation of the house, because, as it follows, it was the priests; it was given to them for their private use and maintenance. Quest. If this reason was weighty, how could the money of them that passed the account, or the money that every man was set at, be thus employed, as they were, 2 Kings 12:4, for these also may seem to have been the priests ? Answ. They were not appropriated to the priests, but for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, as is said of the former, Exodus 30:16; or, for the Lord, Leviticus 27:2,9,14,23.
Related Commentaries of 2 Kings 12:16
2 Kings 12:16
16 The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests'.