Chapter Eleven

1–3. The preservation of the house of David in the person of the sole survivor—young Joash. 4–12. The enthronement of the seven-year-old Joash. 13–16. The death of Athaliah. 17–21. The religious character of the early period of Joash’s reign.

2 Kings 11:1. Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose up and destroyed all the royal offspring. 2 Kings 11:2. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and secretly removed him from among the royal princes being put to death, along with his nurse, into the bedroom; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death. 2 Kings 11:3. And he remained hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years, while Athaliah reigned over the land. Athaliah (Hebrew: Atalia—according to one suggestion, “the Lord is great”), mother of Ahaziah, wife of Joram, the worthy daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (cf. 2 Kgs 8:26), after the death of Ahaziah (2 Kgs 9:27), does not hesitate, in pursuit of her ambitious desires for power, to completely destroy the reigning house of Judah (according to the common custom of Eastern usurpers). However, for the sake of the Lord’s covenantal promise to David—to leave a lamp on the throne (2 Sam 7:16; 1 Kgs 11:36; 2 Kgs 8:19)—by a miracle one was saved in one of the rooms of the temple; he was saved by his own aunt—Jehosheba (Hebrew: Jehosheva), who, according to (2 Chr 22:11), was the wife of the high priest Jehoiada. Thus, as Blessed Theodoret remarks (question 35), “the all-wise Lord who rules all things providentially arranged it so that the sacred tribe entered into union with the royal tribe, and the wise priest took in marriage Jehosheba, daughter of Joram, for the preservation of a spark of the royal line.”

2 Kings 11:4. In the seventh year, Jehoiada summoned the commanders of hundreds of the guards and the runners, and brought them to him in the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them and took an oath from them in the house of the Lord, and showed them the royal prince. 2 Kings 11:5. And he gave them the command, saying, “This is what you shall do: one third of you who come off duty on the Sabbath shall keep watch over the royal palace; 2 Kings 11:6. and one third shall be at the gate of Sur; and one third at the gate behind the runners; and you shall keep watch over the palace to prevent its violation; 2 Kings 11:7. and the two-thirds of you who are free on the Sabbath shall keep watch over the house of the Lord for the king; 2 Kings 11:8. and surround the king on every side, each with his weapon in hand; and whoever approaches the ranks is to be put to death. And be with the king when he goes out and when he comes in. 2 Kings 11:9. The commanders of hundreds did all that the priest Jehoiada commanded; and each took his men who were coming off duty on the Sabbath, with those coming on duty on the Sabbath, and came to the priest Jehoiada. 2 Kings 11:10. And the priest gave to the commanders of hundreds the spears and shields of King David which were in the house of the Lord. 2 Kings 11:11. And the runners, each with his weapon in hand, stood from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, by the altar and by the house, surrounding the king. 2 Kings 11:12. And he brought out the royal prince, and put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony, and they made him king and anointed him; and they clapped their hands and said, “Long live the king! After the six-year reign of the wicked and bloodthirsty Athaliah, the high priest Jehoiada (in (2 Kgs 11:15) he is called “the high priest”) orchestrates a change in government in the Judahite kingdom, which was facilitated, of course, by the ancient love of the people for the house of David, as well as by the authority of the high priestly power, which for the first time since the days of Solomon (chapters 1 Kgs 1-2) appears in political action. According to (2 Chr 23:2), Jehoiada had previously inclined five commanders in favor of the young prince Joash, who went throughout Judah and assembled in Jerusalem the Levites and the heads of the families. With these representatives of the people, Jehoiada establishes a sworn covenant of loyalty to the future king (whom he showed them at this time, verse 4), divides the Levites into three companies, assigns each a special post at the royal palace (verse 5) and temple (verse 7), which were probably connected by a covered passage (2 Kgs 11:19; cf. 1 Kgs 7:1-12). Among other things, at some gates—the gate of Sur (Vulgate: at the gate of Sur) or Jesod (2 Chr 23:6), according to the LXX: en te pule ton hodon, Slavonic: “at the doors of the way”—probably at the side gates of the temple leading to the royal palace. The main force of this militia consisted of “guards” and “runners,” Hebrew chari, racim (verses 4, 11, 19), LXX: Chorri and Rasim, according to Blessed Theodoret (question 36), shield-bearers and spear-bearers, probably identical with the known Celetians and Peletians (2 Sam 8:18; 1 Kgs 1:38). They were armed with the weapons stored in the temple, donated here by David and other kings (verse 10); “the Levites, forming a crescent, with the ends of their formation adjoining the temple, kept watch over the king, who was in the center; the armed regiment stood outside, preventing those who tried to enter” (Blessed Theodoret, question 37). Now Jehoiada could proceed to the main act—the enthronement of young Joash (verse 12), during which the royal crown (Hebrew: nezer) was placed on Joash, and he was given a certain eduth (in the LXX: martyrion, Vulgate: testimonium, Slavonic: “witness”), probably the Decalogue (called the “witness,” eduth in Exod 25:21; Exod 16:34), as the foundation of rule of a theocratic king according to (Deut 17:19) (the Russian translation “ornaments” would be accurate only if one accepts the emendation proposed by Wellhausen, Bull, Benzinger and others in verse 12: instead of eduth, to read ceadoth, as in (2 Sam 1:10), but the history of the text does not justify such an emendation); then the high priest anointed Joash as king (cf. 1 Kgs 1:39). The proclamation of the new king aroused the rejoicing of hand-clapping from the people (cf. Isa 55:12), probably gathered at the temple in large numbers because of some festival.

2 Kings 11:13. And when Athaliah heard the noise of the runners and of the people, she went to the people in the house of the Lord. 2 Kings 11:14. And she looked, and behold, the king was standing on the platform, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpets were beside the king; and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, “Treason! Treason! 2 Kings 11:15. And the priest Jehoiada commanded the commanders of hundreds who were in charge of the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks, and if anyone follows her, put him to death with the sword,” because the priest did not want her to be put to death in the house of the Lord. 2 Kings 11:16. And they made a way for her, and she went through the gate of the horses to the royal palace, and she was killed there. 2 Kings 11:17. And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the people of the Lord; and also between the king and the people. 2 Kings 11:18. And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and broke down his altars and his images, and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. And the priest appointed men to oversee the house of the Lord. Attracted by the unusual noise of popular acclaim, Athaliah, as a worshiper of Baal (verse 18) who had never been in the temple, now rushed to the temple, and here she saw an astonishing sight that presaged the end of her reign and her life; she was put to death (verse 16), according to Josephus, in the Kidron Valley (Antiquities of the Jews 9:7, 3; cf. Blessed Theodoret, question 38); “the gate of the horses to the royal palace” (verse 16) probably is the same as “the horse gate” (Jer 31:40; Neh 3:28) on the eastern side of the temple and the city. Having restored the throne of Judah to its rightful heir of the house of David, Jehoiada hastens to restore in Judah the religion of the Lord, trampled upon by the wickedness and paganism of Athaliah, Joram, and Ahaziah, renews the covenant of the people and the king with the Lord, so that the first should be the people of the Lord (verse 17, cf. Exod 19:1; Deut 4:20), and then regulates the relations between the people and the king. The consequence of the first covenant was the special zeal of the people for the Lord, which prompted him to destroy the temple of Baal (unknown who built it in Jerusalem; probably Athaliah even during Joram, cf. (2 Kgs 8:18)), eliminate all attributes of the cult of Baal, and kill the chief priest of Baal Mattan (verse 18). After this, Jehoiada could freely establish control (Hebrew: pekudoth, “supervision”) over the temple, that is, restore the order instituted by David (1 Chr 24:1) for the service in the temple of the sacred and Levitical families, an order that fell into disuse during the time of Joram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah; and at the same time, it was important to establish a definite staff of overseers of the temple to prevent in the future those encroachments on the temple’s property that had taken place during Athaliah (2 Chr 24:7).

2 Kings 11:19. And he took the captains, the guards, the runners, and all the people of the land; and they brought the king down from the house of the Lord, and came by the way of the gate of the guards to the royal palace; and he sat on the throne of the kings. 2 Kings 11:20. And all the people of the land were glad, and the city was quiet. And Athaliah had been put to death in the royal palace. The new king, after the death of Athaliah, was led now in a large and solemn procession from the mount of Moriah, from the temple, to Zion—to the royal palace, “through the gate of the runners” (cf. 2 Kgs 11:6), which apparently led from the temple to the palace.