1Jehoash, saved by Jehosheba his aunt from the general massacre of the royal family of Judah by Athaliah, is concealed six years in the house of the Lord. 4In the seventh year Jehoiada the high priest, having taken measures for his security, bringeth him forth, and crowneth him. 13Athaliah pressing forward into the temple is seized and slain. 17Jehoiada restoreth the worship of God, abolisheth that of Baal, and fixeth the king on his throne to the great joy of the people.
1AND when 1Athaliah thea mother of 2Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed 3all the seed royal.
1 Who was Ahab’s daughter, the wife of Joram, and mother of Ahaziah, (as the following words declare) whom Jehu had slain, 2 Kings 8:18; 9:27.
a 2 Chron. 22:10.
2 See 2 Kings 9:27.
3 Hebr. all the seed of the kingdom, that is, all the princes of the blood, unto whom the succession of the crown might come. Understand this of Athaliah’s intent and purpose, not of the full and perfect act: for one escaped, as the following verse shows.
2But 4Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took 5Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and 6they hid him, 7even him and his nurse, in 8the bedchamber 9from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.
4 Hebr. Jehoschebah. Other, Jehoshabeath, 2 Chron. 22:11, where it is also mentioned that she was the wife of Jehoiada the high priest: but it is perceived that she was born of another wife of Joram than of the idolatrous Athaliah.
5 Hebr. Joasch. Other, Jehoasch; 2 Kings 12:2.
6 Namely, Jehoiada and Jehosheba.
7 In 2 Chron. 22:11 it states: and put him and his nurse, etc.
8 Hebr. a chamber of beds: that is, in one of the chambers which were built unto the temple, wherein were beds of the priests, on which they slept, when in their turns they were to wait upon the service of God. See Jer. 35:2.
9 Hebr. before the face of Athaliah.
3And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.
4¶And the seventhb year 10Jehoiada sent and fetched the 11rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD, and 12made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD, and shewed them the king's son.
b 2 Chron. 23:1.
10 Hebr. Jehojadah, the son of Azariah, the son of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, the high priest, and distinguished from Jehoiada the father of Benaiah, who lived in David’s time, 2 Sam. 8:18.
11 These were five in number, and are named 2 Chron. 23:1. They seem to have been priests, as may be gathered from verses 5, 7, 9.
12 Namely, to slay Athaliah, to place Joash in the kingdom, to root out idolatry, and to restore the pure worship of God.
5And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of 13you that 14enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the 15king’s house;
13 Meaning: priests, and Levites, 2 Chron. 23:4.
14 Namely, into the temple. The priests and the Levites were divided into 24 orders, 1 Chronicles 24, according to which division they entered every week by turns into the temple, to attend to the worship of God, according to the appointed order, which is called entering in, namely, into the temple, to keep the watch. Other, enter in the week.
15 That is, at the chamber in the temple, where the young king was hid.
6And a third part shall be at the gate of 16Sur; and a third part at the 17gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not 18broken down.
16 This was the gate towards the east, and was the largest gate of the temple, therefore it is also called the higher gate, 2 Kings 15:35, also the gate of the foundation, 2 Chron. 23:5, also the new gate, Jer. 26:10, because it was renewed by king Jotham, 2 Chron. 27:3.
17 This gate was in the south, toward the court of the priests, which (as some perceive) was otherwise called Sippim, that is, the threshold-gate, 2 Chron. 23:4.
18 Or, against pulling, or, taking away, that is, ye shall so keep the temple, that nothing of it be broken, and that the king be not taken from thence by force, and carried away.
7And two 19parts of all you that 20go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the LORD about the king.
19 Hebr. hands.
20 Understand those who went forth out of the temple homeward, having for that week performed their office in their turn, for, on every Sabbath new ones were to succeed in their place.
8And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh 21within the ranges,c let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in.
21 Or, between the files, which are placed in rank and order, that is, into your guard, when you shall advance, or be about the king to safeguard him.
c ranks of soldiers
9And thed captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.
d 2 Chron. 23:8.
10And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king 22David’s spears and shields, that were in the temple of the LORD.
22 That is, which David had taken from his enemies, and perhaps had dedicated them to the Lord in the tabernacle for a memorial; as he had done the sword of Goliath, 1 Sam. 21:9, and the shields of the Syrians, 2 Sam. 8:7, which afterward seem to have been brought into the temple by Solomon, 1 Kings 7:51.
11And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the 23right corner of the temple to the 24left corner of the temple, along by 25the altar and 26the temple.
23 That is, the south side.
24 That is, the north side.
25 Namely, of burnt offerings; which was by the east gate of the temple.
26 That is, the temple, which stood westward from the altar.
12And 27he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the 28testimony; and they made him king, and 29anointed him; and they 30clapped their hands, and said, God save the king.
27 Namely, Jehoiada.
28 Which he gave him in his hand and it was the book of the law, wherein God testifies how he ought to demean himself in his government. See Deut. 17:18.
29 Those who succeeded their fathers in the kingdom according to the usual manner, they (as some perceive) were not anointed, but only those, who after some change in the government or above the ordinary law or through fear of future trouble, were crowned king, as Saul, 1 Sam. 10:1; David, 1 Sam. 16:13; Solomon, 1 Kings 1:34; Jehu 2 Kings 9:6; Jehoahaz 2 Kings 23:30, and Joash here, who succeeded his father, after that Athaliah had violently and tyrannically usurped to herself the kingdom.
30 For a sign and manifestation of joy; thus is the clapping of the hands taken, Psalm 98:8; Ezek. 25:6. Elsewhere for a sign of sorrow, Ezek. 6:11.
13¶And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the LORD.
14And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a 31pillar, 32as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah 33rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason.
31 Or, scaffold; that is, upon the royal scaffold, which Solomon had made of brass, and stood in the people’s court against a pillar. See 2 Kings 23:3; 2 Chron. 6:13.
32 That is, according to the manner of proceedings; or, as the king was wont to stand by that pillar, when he came into the temple to serve God or to speak unto the people. Compare 2 Kings 23:3.
33 A sign of regret, grief and great trouble of spirit. See Gen. 37 on verse 29.
15But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without 34the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD.
34 See on verse 8.
16And 35they laid hands on her; and she went 36by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house: and there was she slain.
35 Other, they appointed a side-guard over her, or they gave, or made room for her, namely, to go out of the temple. Hebr. they set hands, or sides, or spaces, or places for her.
36 Namely, by the way of David’s city-gate, which was so called, and stood northward; from where they went to Ephraim’s gate. See 2 Kings 14:13. Some think that this gate had the name of the entering in of the horses, because they could conveniently ride on horseback through that way to the king’s house.
17¶Ande Jehoiada made 37a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be 38the LORD’S people; between the king also and the people.
e 2 Chron. 23:16.
37 Namely, first, an ecclesiastical covenant between God and the king with the people, concerning the establishment and the maintenance of the pure and true worship of God; second, also a political or civil covenant, concerning the king’s office toward his people in his government, and the peoples’ duty toward the king in civil obedience.
38 That is, that they would know the Lord to be the only true God, and serve Him according to His Word, renouncing all idolatry and false worship; which declaration is ratified and confirmed by and with their succeeding performance, verse 18.
18And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest 39appointed officers over the house of the LORD.
39 Or, restored; because the purity of worship was much decayed by the perverseness of the time. See further and more particularly hereof, 2 Chron. 23:18, 19.
19And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and came by the way of the 40gate of the guard to the king's house. And 41he sat on the throne of the kings.
40 Called otherwise the high gate, 2 Chron. 23:20. See the annotation there.
41 See 1 Kings 1 on verse 46.
20And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword 42beside the king's house.
42 Other, in.
2143Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign.
43 From this it may be gathered that Joash was but a year old, when Athaliah sought to kill him, and he was hid with his nurse in the temple, for there he was kept six years, verse 3.