CHAPTER 11

(878 B.C.)

ATHALIAH, AHABS DAUGHTER, DESTROYS THE ROYAL SEED

¹And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. (Once more, we see the terrible effects of Jehoshaphats sin in attempting to align himself with idolatrous Israel.

This woman, Athaliah, was the only woman who ruled as a queen in Judah. She was the granddaughter of Omri [II Chron. 22:2], and the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. The marriage between Jehoram, king of Judah, and Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel, was part of Satans grand design to introduce idolatry into Judah so that Athaliah might do for Judah what Jezebel did for Israel.

Jehoshaphat began this sordid situation by marrying his son to the idolatrous daughter of Israels worst rulers, Ahab and Jezebel. Whatever were Jehoshaphats ideas, Satan used them to work his devious design, which was to destroy the seed of the woman, making it impossible for the Messiah to be born into the world.)

JOASH IS SAVED

²But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the kings sons which were killed; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not killed. (Jehosheba, wife of Jehoiada the High Priest, was sister to the late king and, therefore, aunt to the infant Joash. She must have been a woman of nerve and ability. It was a courageous act on her part to enter such a slaughterhouse. It may be assumed that she did so to look with grief and horror upon her murdered nephews and cousins. The infant Joash lay among them, apparently dead; she found him still living, stole him, and hid him.)

³And he was with her hid in the House of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land (over Judah; she thought she had killed all the lineage of David, but such was not the case).

JEHOIADA, THE PRIEST, OVERTHROWS ATHALIAH; JOASH ANOINTED KING

⁴And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the House of the LORD, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the House of the LORD, and showed them the kings son (after waiting, impatiently, we may be sure, for six long years, and seeing the young prince grow from an infant to a boy of seven years of age, Jehoiada deemed that the time was now come, to act).

⁵And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that you shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the kings house (the object was to secure the palace, but not to prevent the queen from leaving it);

⁶And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall you keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down.

⁷And two parts of all you who go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the House of the LORD about the king (these Jehoiada commanded to enter the Temple and protect the young king).

⁸And you shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he who comes within the ranges, let him be killed: and be you with the king as he goes out and as he comes in.

⁹And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the Priest commanded: and they took every man his men who were to come in on the sabbath, with them who should go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the Priest.

¹⁰And to the captains over hundreds did the Priest give king Davids spears and shields, that were in the Temple of the LORD.

¹¹And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the Temple to the left corner of the Temple, along by the Altar and the Temple (the Altar of Burnt Offering, which stood in the great court, a little way from the porch right in front of it).

¹²And he brought forth the kings son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the Testimony (either a copy of the Ten Commandments, or else a copy of the entirety of the Law of Moses, by which the young king should govern and mete out justice to the people); and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king (literally, Long live the king!).

ATHALIAH IS SLAIN

¹³And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the Temple of the LORD (it would seem that she was still unsuspicious of danger, and brought no guards with her or any large body of attendants).

¹⁴And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as 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 rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason (there was treason all right, but it had been committed by this evil queen).

¹⁵But Jehoiada the Priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him who follows her kill with the sword. For the Priest had said, Let her not be killed in the House of the LORD (Jehoiada had previously given an order that her execution should take place outside the Temple).

¹⁶And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the kings house: and there was she killed.

REVIVAL UNDER JEHOIADA

¹⁷And Jehoiada made a Covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORDs people; between the king also and the people (the meaning is that the High Priest renewed the Old Covenant understood to exist between king and people on the one hand, and God on the other; that they would be faithful to God, and God to them that they would maintain His worship and that He would continue His Protection [Ex. 19:5-8; 24:3-8; 34:10-28]).

¹⁸And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images broke they in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the Priest (Jehoiada) appointed officers over the House of the LORD (Jehoiada re-established the regular courses and the worship).

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 gate of the guard to the kings house. And he sat on the throne of the kings (not till he had placed Joash on the royal throne of his ancestors, in the great throne-room of the palace, was Jehoiada content with the work of the day).

²⁰And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they killed Athaliah with the sword beside the kings house (the intention of the writer is to connect the period of tranquility with the removal of Athaliah and, therefore, to point her out as the cause of Judahs great difficulties).

²¹Seven years old was Jehoash (Joash) when he began to reign.