Treasure houses

Treasure houses were secure repositories for royal, temple, or state wealth in the ancient Near East. In the Old Testament, the Jerusalem temple had its own dedicated treasury, and both its sacred vessels and accumulated wealth were periodically raided by foreign kings — Shishak of Egypt (1 Kings 14:26), Jehoash of Israel (2 Kings 14:14), and eventually Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (Daniel 1:2), who carried the vessels to the house of his god in Babylon. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah record the reverse movement: Cyrus's decree authorized the return of these vessels from the Persian royal treasure house (Ezra 5:17; 7:20), and Nehemiah established dedicated storerooms for the temple treasury (Nehemiah 10:38; 13:12–13). The care given to temple treasure houses reflects the ancient understanding that the wellbeing of the sanctuary's wealth corresponded to the health of the covenant relationship between God and his people.