Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 11:1
And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.
Ch. 2Ki 11:1-3. Athaliah, having slain all the seed royal of Judah, except Joash, usurps the throne for six years (2Ch 22:10-12)
1. And [R.V. Now ] when Athaliah ] Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and became the wife of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat.
she arose and destroyed ] The verb here rendered ‘arose’ is often joined with another verb to give the notion of ‘setting earnestly about’ any business. Thus in Exo 32:1 it is used ‘ Up make us gods’, and in 1Ki 14:2 ‘ Arise and disguise thyself’, also 1Ch 22:19 ‘ Arise therefore and build ye the sanctuary’. See too Gen 37:35 ‘And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him’.
all the seed royal ] i.e. All those that remained after the destruction wrought by Jehu on the brethren of Ahaziah (see above 2Ki 10:4). Judah, as well as Israel, seems at this date to have had no lack of families in the royal houses. Those whom Athaliah slew were of course the male members of the royal family.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Athaliah, as wife of Joram and mother of Ahaziah, had guided both the internal and the external policy of the Jewish kingdom; she had procured the establishmeut of the worship of Baal in Judaea 2Ki 8:18, 2Ki 8:27, and had maintained a close alliance with the sister kingdom 2Ki 8:29; 2Ki 10:13. The revolution effected by Jehu touched her nearly. It struck away from her the support of her relatives; it isolated her religious system, severing the communication with Phoenicia; and the death of Ahaziah deprived her of her legal status in Judaea, which was that of queen-mother (the 1Ki 15:13 note), and trausferred that position to the chief wife of her deceased son. Athaliah, instead of yielding to the storm, or merely standing on the defensive, resolved to become the assailant, and strike before any plans could be formed against her. In the absence of her son, hers was probably the chief anthority at Jerusalem. She used it to command the immediate destruction of all the family of David, already thinned by previous massacres 2Ki 10:14; 2Ch 21:4, 2Ch 21:17, and then seized the throne.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ki 11:1-21
And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead.
The history of Athaliah
The blackest names in the long roll of the worlds infamy are those of kings and queens, and amongst them Athaliah is not the least abhorrent. In this womans life, as here sketched, we have–
I. Hereditary depravity. We find in this woman, Athaliah, the infernal tendencies of her father and her mother, Ahab and Jezebel. Though they had been swept as monsters from the earth, their hellish spirit lived and worked in this their daughter. We have an immortality in others, as well as in ourselves. In this fact we are reminded–
1. That the moral qualities of parents may become physical tendencies in the children. The man who voluntarily contracts habits of falsehood, dishonesty, profanity, incontinence, drunkenness, and general intemperance, transmits these to his children as physical tendencies.
2. That the evil moral qualities of parents, reappearing in their children in the form of physical tendencies, is no complete justification for the childrens wickedness. This is clear
(1) From the fact that God has endowed all with sufficient force to control all physical tendencies.
(2) From the personal consciousness of every sinner.
(3) From the Divine Word as found in the Scriptures. Whatsoever good thing any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. The fact of hereditary depravity reminds us–
3. That the way to raise the human race is to improve their moral qualities. In this womans life we see–
II. Outwitted wickedness. No doubt this woman, who thought she had destroyed all the seed royal, considered she had made her way to the throne clear and secure. For six long years she had no conception that one had escaped her bloody purpose. Now it was revealed to her, and her disappointment maddens her with vengeance, and excites the desperate cry, Treason, treason! It is ever so. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. History abounds with the examples of the bafflement of wrong. The conduct of Josephs brethren, Ahithophel, Sanballat, Haman, and the Jewish Sanhedrim in relation to Christ, are instances. Craftiness uses lies as concealment and defence, but the eternal law of Providence makes them snares. In this womans life we see–
III. Just retribution. Those who plot the destruction of others often fall themselves. Here is
(1) A terrible retribution.
(2) A prompt retribution. It came on her there before she passed into the other world. Retribution is going on now and here. There is
(3) A retribution administered by wicked men. God punishes the wicked by the wicked. The whole history of the world is an illustration of this. Truly the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever Yea he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. (David Thomas, D. D.)
Malign succession
A wicked mother left behind her a wicked daughter. What else could be expected but that the demoniac Jezebel should be reflected and repeated, so far as character and conduct were concerned, in her daughter Athaliah? How very often such a malign succession is seen! Henry VIII. was terribly given to executing any of his subjects who opposed him. His elder daughter, Queen Mary, led the awful persecution against Protestants in which so many martyrs were burned, including Bishops Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, and Archbishop Cranmer. Had she had a gentler father her disposition might have been more merciful. (Christian Commonwealth.)
Athaliah
Observe a very strong peculiarity in human nature, as shown in the conduct of Athaliah. She went into the temple and saw the young Joash with a crown upon his head, and she shrieked out, Treason, treason! Poor innocent Athaliah! Who would not pity so gentle a dove, with a breast of feathers and a cruel dart rankling in it. Sweet woman, gentle loving creature, injured queen–her hands were perfectly clean; she was the victim of a cruel stratagem; she was outwitted by heads longer than hers; she, poor unsuspecting soul, had been brought into this condition, and all she could do was to cry in injured helplessness, Treason, treason! How moral we become under some circumstances! How very righteous we stand up to be under certain provocations! Who could but pity poor Athaliah, who had nursed her grandchildren with a wolfs care? We do this very self-same thing very often in our own lives. Where is the man who does not suppose that he has a right to do wrong? But let other people do wrong, and then hear him. Given a religious sect of any name whatsoever, that has the domination of any neighbourhood, and the probability is that that religious sect will use its supremacy somewhat mischievously in certain circumstances. It will not let anybody who opposes its tenets have an acre of ground in that neighbourhood, nor will it allow any sect that opposes its principles to build a church there. No, it takes a righteous view of the circumstances; it will not trifle with its responsibilities; it can allow no encroachment; it is charged with the spirit of stewardship, and must be faithful to its sacred obligations. So it cants and whines, whatever its name be: if it be the name we bear religiously so much the worse. We speak of no particular sect, or of any sect that may be placed in such peculiar circumstances as to claim the domination and supremacy in any neighbourhood. Now let any member of that sect leave that particular locality and go to live under a different set of circumstances, and apply for a furlong of ground, or for a house that he may occupy as tenant; then let it be found that his religious convictions are a bar to his entrance upon the enjoyment of local properties and liberties, he will call Persecution, persecution! How well it befits his lips. The very man who in one district persecuted to the death those who opposed him removes to another locality where a screw is applied to his own joints, and he cries out, Persecution–persecution! It is Athaliahs old trick, and will have Athaliahs poor reward. See how the cry of the wicked is unheeded. She was a woman, and by so much had a claim upon the sympathy of the strong. No mans heart went out towards her in loyal reverence. With what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged. With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. As I have done, said a sufferer of old, to others, so the Lord hath requited me. Though hand join in hand, yet the wicked shall not go unpunished. If you are treating any of your family, your wife or husband or child, with base cruelty, it will surely come home to you some other day. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XI
Athaliah destroys all that remain of the seed royal of Judah, 1.
Jehosheba hides Joash the son of Ahaziah, and he remains hidden
in the house of the Lord six years; and Athaliah reigns over the
land, 2, 3.
Jehoiada, the high priest, calls the nobles privately together
into the temple, shows them the kings son, takes an oath of
them, arms them, places guards around the temple, and around
the young king’s person; they anoint and proclaim him, 4-12.
Athaliah is alarmed, comes into the temple, is seized, carried
forth, and slain, 13-16.
Jehoiada causes the people to enter into a covenant with the
Lord; they destroy Baal’s house, priest, and images, 17, 18.
Joash is brought to the king’s house, reigns, and all the land
rejoices, 19-21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XI
Verse 1. Athaliah] This woman was the daughter of Ahab, and grand-daughter of Omri, and wife of Joram king of Judah, and mother of Ahaziah.
Destroyed all the seed royal.] All that she could lay her hands on whom Jehu had left; in order that she might get undisturbed possession of the kingdom.
How dreadful is the lust of reigning! it destroys all the charities of life; and turns fathers, mothers, brothers, and children, into the most ferocious savages! Who, that has it in his power, makes any conscience
“To swim to sovereign rule through seas of blood?”
In what a dreadful state is that land that is exposed to political revolutions, and where the succession to the throne is not most positively settled by the clearest and most decisive law! Reader, beware of revolutions; there have been some useful ones, but they are in general the heaviest curse of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. All of the royal family left after those slaughters, 2Ch 21:2,4; 22:1; 2Ki 10:13,14, except one, as the next verse limits and explains it. This she did, partly, out of rage at the extirpation of her family, resolving that Davids family should not outlive liers; partly, from ambition and desire of rule, for which many persons have destroyed their nearest relations; partly, from the zeal which she had for idolatry, and the worship of Baal, which she intended to establish, to which she knew the house of David were implacable enemies; and partly, in her own defence, that she might secure herself from Jehus fury, who was commanded by God, and resolved in himself, utterly to destroy all the branches of Ahabs family, whereof she was one, 2Ki 8:18,26; for had she not done this, she suspected that either the king or people of Judah would have delivered her up to Jehu upon his demand. Possibly those whom she slew were Jorams children by another wife; of which See Poole “2Ki 1:2“. And this was the fruit of Jehoshaphats marrying his son to a daughter of that idolatrous and wicked house of Ahab, even the extirpation of all his posterity but one. And this dreadful judgment God permitted, and inflicted upon him and his, to show how much he abhors all such sinful and unequal affinities.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Athaliah(See on 2Ch22:2). She had possessed great influence over her son, who, byher counsels, had ruled in the spirit of the house of Ahab.
destroyed all the seedroyalall connected with the royal family who might have urgeda claim to the throne, and who had escaped the murderous hands ofJehu (2Ch 21:2-4; 2Ch 22:1;2Ki 10:13; 2Ki 10:14).This massacre she was incited to perpetratepartly from adetermination not to let David’s family outlive hers; partly as ameasure of self-defense to secure herself against the violence ofJehu, who was bent on destroying the whole of Ahab’s posterity towhich she belonged (2Ki8:18-26); but chiefly from personal ambition to rule, and adesire to establish the worship of Baal. Such was the sad fruit ofthe unequal alliance between the son of the pious Jehoshaphat and adaughter of the idolatrous and wicked house of Ahab.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when Athaiah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead,…. Who was the daughter of Ahab, and granddaughter of Omri 2Ki 8:18, she arose,
and destroyed all the seed royal; that were left, for many had been slain already; the sons of Jehoshaphat, the brothers of Joram, were slain by him, 2Ch 21:4 and all Joram’s sons, excepting Ahaziah, were slain by the Arabians, 2Ch 22:1, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah were slain by Jehu, 2Ki 11:8, these therefore seem to be the children of Ahaziah, the grandchildren of this brutish woman, whom she massacred out of her ambition of rule and government, which perhaps she was intrusted with while her son went to visit Joram king of Israel; other reasons are by some assigned, but this seems to be the chief. For the same reason Laodice, who had six sons by Ariarathes king of the Cappadocians, poisoned five of them; the youngest escaping her hands, was murdered by the people x, as this woman also was.
x Justin. e Trogo, l. 37. c. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Government of Athaliah (cf. 2Ch 22:10-12). After the death of Ahaziah of Judah, his mother Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (see at 2Ki 8:18 and 2Ki 8:26), seized upon the government, by putting to death all the king’s descendants with the exception of Joash, a son of Ahaziah of only a year old, who had been secretly carried off from the midst of the royal children, who were put to death, by Jehosheba, his father’s sister, the wife of the high priest Jehoiada, and was first of all hidden with his nurse in the bed-chamber, and afterwards kept concealed from Athaliah for six years in the high priest’s house. The before is no doubt original, the subject, Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah, being placed at the head absolutely, and a circumstantial clause introduced with : “Athaliah, when she saw that, etc., rose up.” , all the royal seed, i.e., all the sons and relations of Ahaziah, who could put in any claim to succeed to the throne. At the same time there were hardly any other direct descendants of the royal family in existence beside the sons of Ahaziah, since the elder brothers of Ahaziah had been carried away by the Arabs and put to death, and the rest of the closer blood-relations of the male sex had been slain by Jehu (see at 2Ki 10:13). – Jehosheba ( , in the Chronicles ), the wife of the high priest Jehoiada ( 2Ch 22:11), was a daughter of king Joram and a sister of Ahaziah, but she was most likely not a daughter of Athaliah, as this worshipper of Baal would hardly have allowed her own daughter to marry the high priest, but had been born to Joram by a wife of the second rank. ( Chethb), generally a substantive, mortes (Jer 16:4; Eze 28:8), here an adjective: slain or set apart for death. The Keri is the participle Hophal, as in 2Ch 22:11. is to be taken in connection with : she stole him (took him away secretly) from the rest of the king’s sons, who were about to be put to death, into the chamber of the beds, i.e., not the children’s bed-room, but a room in the palace where the beds (mattresses and counterpanes) were kept, for which in the East there is a special room that is not used as a dwelling-room (see Chardin in Harm. Beobb. iii. p. 357). This was the place in which at first it was easiest to conceal the child and its nurse. , “they (Jehosheba and the nurse) concealed him,” is not to be altered into after the Chronicles, as Thenius maintains. The masculine is used in the place of the feminine, as is frequently the case. Afterwards he was concealed with her (with Jehosheba) in the house of Jehovah, i.e., in the home of the high-priest in one of the buildings of the court of the temple.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Death of Athaliah. | B. C. 878. |
1 And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3 And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.
God had assured David of the continuance of his family, which is called his ordaining a lamp for his anointed; and this cannot but appear a great thing, now that we have read of the utter extirpation of so many royal families, one after another. Now here we have David’s promised lamp almost extinguished and yet wonderfully preserved.
I. It was almost extinguished by the barbarous malice of Athaliah, the queen-mother, who, when she heard that her son Ahaziah was slain by Jehu, arose and destroyed all the seed-royal (v. 1), all that she knew to be akin to the crown. Her husband Jehoram had slain all his brethren the sons of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xxi. 4. The Arabians had slain all Jehoram’s sons except Ahaziah, 2 Chron. xxii. 1. Jehu had slain all their sons (2 Chron. xxii. 8) and Ahaziah himself. Surely never was royal blood so profusely shed. Happy the men of inferior birth, who live below envy and emulation! But, as if all this were but a small matter, Athaliah destroyed all that were left of the seed-royal. It was strange that one of the tender sex could be so barbarous, that one who had been herself a king’s daughter, a king’s wife, and a king’s mother, could be so barbarous to a royal family, and a family into which she was herself ingrafted; but she did it, 1. From a spirit of ambition. She thirsted after rule, and thought she could not get to it any other way. That none might reign with her, she slew even the infants and sucklings that might have reigned after her. For fear of a competitor, not any must be reserved for a successor. 2. From a spirit of revenge and rage against God. The house of Ahab being utterly destroyed, and her son Ahaziah among the rest, because he was akin to it, she resolved, as it were, by way of reprisal, to destroy the house of David, and cut off his line, in defiance of God’s promise to perpetuate it–a foolish attempt and fruitless, for who can disannul what God hath purposed? Grandmothers have been thought more fond of their grandchildren than they were of their own; yet Ahaziah’s own mother is the wilful murderer of Ahaziah own sons, and in their infancy too, when she was obliged, above any other, to nurse them and take care of them. Well might she be called Athaliah, that wicked woman (2 Chron. xxiv. 7), Jezebel’s own daughter; yet herein God was righteous, and visited the iniquity of Joram and Ahaziah, those degenerate branches of David’s house, upon their children.
II. It was wonderfully preserved by the pious care of one of Joram’s daughters (who was wife to Jehoiada the priest), who stole away one of the king’s sons, Joash by name, and hid him, 2Ki 11:2; 2Ki 11:3. This was a brand plucked out of the fire; what number were slain we are not told, but, it seems, this being a child in the nurse’s arms was not missed, or not enquired after, or at least no found. The person that delivered him was his own aunt, the daughter of wicked Joram; for God will raise up protectors for those whom he will have protected. The place of his safety was the house of the Lord, one of the chambers belonging to the temple, a place Athaliah seldom troubled. His aunt, by bringing him hither, put him under God’s special protection, and so hid him by faith, as Moses was hidden. Now were David’s words made good to one of his seed (Ps. xxvii. 5), In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. With good reason did this Joash, when he grew up, set himself to repair the house of the Lord, for it had been a sanctuary to him. Now was the promise made to David bound up in one life, and yet it did not fail. Thus to the son of David will God, according to his promise, secure a spiritual seed, which, though sometimes reduced to a small number, brought very low, and seemingly lost, will be perpetuated to the end of time, hidden sometimes and unseen, but hidden in God’s pavilion and unhurt. It was a special providence that Joram, though a king, a wicked king, married his daughter to Jehoiada a priest, a godly priest. Some perhaps thought it a disparagement to the royal family to marry a daughter to a clergyman, but it proved a happy marriage, and the saving of the royal family from ruin; for Jehoiada’s interest in the temple gave her an opportunity to preserve the child, and her interest in the royal family gave him an opportunity to set him on the throne. See the wisdom and care of Providence, and how it prepares for what it designs; and see what blessings those lay up in store for their families that marry their children to those that are wise and good.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Second Kings -Chapter 11 AND Second Chronicles – Chapters 22, 23
Murderous Athaliah Commentary on 2Ki 11:1-3 AND 2Ch 22:10-12
1. And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him fratn among the king’s sons which were slain; end they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber form Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.
10. But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah. 1t. But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahazlah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeeth, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoisda the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not 12. And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.
Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab, the wicked king of Israel. She had married Jehoram, the wicked son of good King Jehoshaphat of Judah. This appears to have been a part of the treaty of affinity which Jehoshaphat unwisely made with Ahab (2Ch 18:1; 2Ch 19:1,). It is assumed that Athaliah was also the daughter of Jezebel, since it is never said that Ahab had other wives besides that wicked woman. Her deeds certainly are capable of a daughter of Jezebel.
When the news reached Athaliah in Jerusalem that her son had been killed by Jehu in Samaria she took steps to make herself ruler in Judah and obviously to set up a base of Baal worship there. She proceeded to murder all the sons of the kings. Some of these surely must have been her grandchildren, as the one who escaped (through no intent of hers) was. Her attempt to usurp the throne of David was directly contrary to God’s covenant with David (2Sa 7:15-16). God’s will can never be overthrown by man (Psa 37:28).
Athaliah was so selfish and unconcerned for her family that she seemingly did not realize there remained yet one of the princes alive. He was a small baby, the son of Ahaziah whom Jehu slew, who with his nurse was stolen away and hidden in the temple. This was accomplished by Jehosheba, the sister of Ahaziah and the baby’s aunt. She had married the high priest, Jehoiada, so that it was clearly by the prescient knowledge and providence of God to maintain His oath to David. She kept Joash hidden in her bedchamber inside the temple for six years. Meanwhile Athaliah maintained her evil rule of the kingdom of Judah.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE USURPATION OF ATHALIAH IN JUDAH
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
2Ki. 11:1. Athaliah destroyed all the seed royalShe herself usurped the throne; and, to ensure her hold, slew all rival claimants. Jehu had already destroyed forty-two brethren or relations of Ahaziah (2Ki. 10:13).
2Ki. 11:2. Jehosheba, &c.Her father was king Jehoram, but her mother was not the queen Athaliah; she and her sister Ahaziah were daughters by another wife of Jehoram. Took Joash and hid him in the bedchamberi.e., not the sleeping apartment, but the storeroom in which bedding was kept, for so means. No one would be supposed to occupy that storeroom.
2Ki. 11:3. Hid in the house of the LordAfter a temporary hiding in the storeroom, he was removed into one of the temple chambers, and thus placed in greatest security under Jehoiada, the high priests care.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki. 11:1-3
THE DESPERATION OF REVENGE
I. Is mingled with an ungovernable ambition.As soon as Athaliah heard of the death of her son Ahaziah, and of the sanguinary policy pursued by Jehu, she determined to be revenged, and she set about the work with all the ferocity and unrelenting hardihood that characterised her mother Jezebel. Her imperious Zidonian nature and love of power were gratified, as well as her thirst for revenge. Through the path of vengeance she saw her way to a throne. A savage nature is always a suspicious one, and Athaliah saw that to make her power secure, her work of revenge must be thorough and complete. Revenge is a mean, paltry feeling, and cannot be cherished long, except in connection with selfish and ambitious schemes.
II. Hesitates not to adopt the cruellest measures to attain its object.She arose and destroyed all the seed-royal (2Ki. 11:1). This insatiable ogress, this she-vampire, was so utterly insensible to all natural affection, or had become so consummate a mistress in the art of dissembling and stifling emotion, that, without a tear or a sob, she massacred her own grandchildren. She revelled in bloodshed, and rejoiced to wade through slaughter to a throne. It was an evidence of her great capabilities and domineering influence, or of the utter moral degeneracy of Judah, that she, a foreigner and an idolater, should be allowed to reach supreme authority, and by such unnaturally cruel methods. Ambition, rendered desperate by revenge, is reckless as to the means used to achieve its purpose.
III. Is unconsciously frustrated when its plans seem most completely carried out (2Ki. 11:2). Joash, the infant son of Ahaziah, was snatched from the general massacre, and hid in a room used for stowing away beds. Little did Athaliah dream that that helpless infant was to be the instrument of her fall. Revenge is ever a mistaken policy. The ancient poet tells us that Nemesis was transformed by Jupiter into a goose, to point out the folly of revenge. Suppose a mad dog bites me, argues Feltham in his Resolves, shall I be mad, and bite that dog again? If I kill him, it is not so much to help myself, as to keep others from harm. My interest is to seek a present remedy, while, pursuing the cur, I may at once both lose my wit and my cure. If a wasp sting me, I pursue not the winged insect through the air, but straight apply to draw the venom forth. The right of vengeance belongs to God alone. To take the matter into our own hands we usurp His authority and insult His righteous Majesty. In seeking to rectify a wrong, we inflict a greater, and bring ruin and confusion upon ourselves. While we throw a petty vengeance on the head of our offending brother, we boldly pull the Almightys on our own.
IV. Cannot give permanency to its triumphs. He was hid six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land (2Ki. 11:3). Only six years, and thenthe swift-footed Nemesisthe bitterest of the immortalsovertook the imperial murderess. Six years of tyrannising power, of regal display, of cringing adulation on the part of her professed supporters, and thena sudden and ignominious downfall. Six years of patient waiting, of vigilant watching, of careful preparation on the part of those who had to redress the wrong, and thenthe blow fell with crushing and decisive effect. Was it worth while to commit such horrible crimes for such brief, illusive, and equivocal results? It does not pay to sin. The triumph snatched by the red hand of crime withered in the grasp. The sceptre is transformed into an avenging sword, the crown into a wreath of torture, and the throne into a tomb.
LESSONS:
1. An ambitious spirit has great temptations to do wrong.
2. Revenge is blind to the consequences of its Acts 3. It is God-like to forgive rather than retaliate, to suffer wrong than resent it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki. 11:1-3. Queen Athaliah.
1. Her wicked plans. Idolatrous and fond of power, like her mother Jezebel, she takesthe royal authority into her own hands, in self-will and contrary to right, and murders all the male seed, in order to put an end for ever to the house of David. We see here whither ambition and love of rule may lead men.
2. The frustration of her plans. No one can tread down him whom God sustains. Thus, Pharaoh would have been glad to destroy Israel; Saul would have slain David; Herod the child Jesus. They could not accomplish it. They only injured themselves and perished, as Athaliah did.Wurt. Summ.
We have reached the eve of a great revolution and counter revolution, which alone of all the events in the history of the kingdom of Judah possesses the dramatic interest belonging to so many other parts of the sacred story, and which is told with a vividness of detail, implying its lasting significance, and contrasting remarkably with the scanty outlines of the earlier reigns. The friendly policy of the two royal houses had culminated in the marriage of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, with Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab. In her, the fierce determined energy which ran through the Phnician princes and princesses of that generationJezebel, Dido, Pygmalionwas fully developed. Already in her husbands reign the worship of Baal was restored; and when the tidings reached Jerusalem of the overthrow of her fathers house, of the dreadful end of her mother, and of the fall of her ancestral religion in Samaria, instead of daunting her resolute spirit, it moved her to a still grander effort. It was a critical moment for the house of David. Once from a struggle within the royal household itself, a second time from an invasion of Arabs, a third time from the revolution in the massacres of Jehus accession, the dynasty had been thinned and thinned till all the outlying branches of those vast polygamous households had been reduced to the single family of Ahaziah. Ahaziah himself had perished with his uncle on the plain of Esdraelon, and now, when Athaliah saw that Ahaziah was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. The whole race of David seemed to be swept away. In the general massacre of the princes one boy, still a babe in arms, had been rescued by Jehosheba. He was known as the kings son. The light of David was burnt down to its socket, but there it still flickered. The stem of Jesse was cut down to the very roots; one tender shoot was all that remained On him rested the whole hope of carrying on the lineage of David.Stanley.
2Ki. 11:1. When the corpse of her son was brought to Jerusalemwhen she heard how horribly her mother and how treacherously her brother had been slainthat her sons kindred had been cut off at the pit of the shearing house, and that the worshippers of Baal had been immolated in SamariaAthaliah caught the strong contagion of blood-thirstiness from the report of these doings. She saw herself a stranger in a strange land, an alien by birth and by religion, without common sympathies between herself and the people among whom she occupied so high a place, and without support from the remaining members of the family to which she had become allied. All the strong ones were gone. What hindered that she should herself seize the dropped reigns of government, and guide the fierce steeds of ruin which threatened to whirl her to destruction? What had she to expect from the spirit which had gone abroad, and from the ulterior designs of Jehu, unless she entered upon a bold course of reaction which might insure both her safety and her greatness! There have been those who deemed themselves compelled to leap into a throne to save themselves from utter ruin; and we would fain believe this was the case with Athaliah.Kitto.
Such another imperious woman was Semiramis, Queen of Assyria; Irene, empress of Constantinople and mother of Constantinus Copronymus, whose eyes she put out to make him incapable of the empire, that she might reign alone (vide Gibbons Roman Empire, ch. 47); and Brumchildis, queen of France, who is said to have been the death of ten princes of the blood, and was herself afterwards put to a cruel death. But the likest in cruelty to Athaliah was Laodice, the wife of Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, who, her husband being dead, seized upon the government, raged cruelly against both nobility and commons, whom she caused to be murdered; poisoned six of her own sons that she might keep the kingdom more securely; only one little one escaped her fury, whom the people at last advanced to the crown, and slew her.Trapp.
Jehoshaphats marriage of his son with a daughter of the house of Ahab, although he brought it about in a good intention, produced the result that Athaliah ruled over Judah, and brought the dynasty of David to the brink of ruin. So many a quiet, humble, God-fearing family has been brought into calamities, affecting both body and soul, by a thoughtless marriage. The hope that those who are brought up by godless parents will themselves reform and turn to the fear of God has very slight foundation.Lange.
2Ki. 11:2-3. Stolen from death. Grandmothers are more lenient with their childrens children than they were with their own. At forty years of age, if discipline be necessary, chastisement is used; but at seventy, the grandmother, looking upon the misbehaviour of the grandchild, is apologetic, and disposed to substitute confectionary for whip. There is nothing more beautiful than this mellowing of old age toward childhood. But here, we have a contrast. It is old Athaliah, the queenly murderess. She ought to have been honourable. Her father was a king; her husband was a king; her son was a king. And yet we find her plotting for the extermination of the entire royal family, including her own grandchildren. But while the ivory floors of the palace run with carnage, and the whole land is under the shadow of a great horror, a fleet-footed woman, a clergymans wife, Jehosheba by name, stealthily approaches the imperial nursery, seizes upon the grandchild that had somehow as yet escaped massacre, wraps it up tenderly but in haste flies down the palace stairs, her heart in her throat lest she be discovered in this Christian abduction. With this youthful prize she presses into the room of the ancient temple, the church of olden time, unwraps the young king, and puts him down, sound asleep as he is, and unconscious of the peril that has been threatened; and there for six years he is secreted in that church apartment. Meanwhile old Athaliah smacks her lips with satisfaction, and thinks that all the royal family are dead.
I. The first thought is that the extermination of righteousness in an impossibility. When a woman is good, she is apt to be very good; and when she is bad, she is apt to be very bad, and this Athaliah was one of the latter sort. She would exterminate the last scion of the house of David, through whom Jesus was to come. She folds her hands, and says: The work is doneis completely done. Is it? In the swaddling-clothes of that church apartment are wrapped the cause of God and the cause of good government. That is the scion of the house of David; it is Joash, the religious reformer; it is Joash, the friend of God; it is Joash, the demolisher of Baalitish idolatry. Rock him tenderly; nurse him gently. Athaliah, you may kill all the other children, but you cannot kill him. Eternal defences are thrown all around him, and this clergymans wife, Jehosheba, will snatch him up, will hide him for six years, and at the end of that time he will come forth for your dethronement and obliteration. Just as poor a botch does the world always make of extinguishing righteousness. Just at the time when they thought they had slain all the royal family of Jesus, some Joash would spring up and take the throne of power. Infidelity says: Ill just exterminate the Bible, and the Scriptures were thrown into the street for the mob to trample on, and they were piled up in the public squares and set on fire, and mountains of indignant contempt were hurled on them, and learned universities decreed the Bible out of existence. If there should come a time of persecution in which all the known Bibles of the earth should be destroyedall these lamps of life that blaze in our pulpits and in our families extinguishedin the very day that infidelity and sin should be holding jubilee over the universal extinction, there shall be a secreted copy of the Bible; and this Joash of eternal literature would come out and come up and take the throne, and the Athaliah of infidelity and persecution would fly out of the back door of the palace, and drop her miserable carcase under the hoofs of the horses of the kings stables. You cannot exterminate Christianity. You cannot kill Joash.
II. The second thought is: That there are opportunities in which we may save royal life. You know that profane history is replete with stories of strangled monarchs and of young princes who have been put out of the way. Here is the story of a young king saved. Jehosheba, you hold in your arms the cause of God and good government. Fail, and he is slain; succeed, and you turn the tide of the worlds history in the right direction. It seems as if between that young king and his assassins there is nothing but the frail arm of a woman. But why should we spend our time in praising this bravery of expedition, when God asks the same thing of you and me? All around us are the imperilled children of a great king. They are born of Almighty parentage, and will come to a throne or a crown if permitted. But sin, the old Athaliah, goes forth to the massacre. There are sleeping in your cradles by night, there are playing in your nurseries by day, imperial souls waiting for dominion, and whichever side the cradle they get out will decide the destiny of empires. For each one of those children sin and holiness contendAthaliah on the one side, Jehosheba on the other. Jehosheba knew right well that unless that day the young king was rescued, he would never be rescued at all. The reason we dont reclaim all our children from worldliness is because we begin too late. Parents wait until their children lie before they teach them the value of truth. They wait until their children swear before they teach them the importance of righteous conversation. They wait until their children are all wrapped up in this world before they tell them of a better world. May God arm us all for this work of snatching royal souls from death to coronation. Can you imagine any sublimer work than this soul saving?
III. The third thought is: That the church of God is a good hiding place. Would God that we were all as wise as Jehosheba, and knew that the church of God is the best hiding-place. Perhaps our parents took us there in early days; they snatched us away from the world and bid us behind the baptismal font, and amid the bibles and the psalm books. Oh, glorious enclosure! How few of us appreciate the fact that the church of God is a hiding-place! There are many people who put the church at so low a mark that they begrudge it everything, even the few dollars they give towards it. They make no sacrifice. If your children are to come up to lives of virtue and happiness, they will come up under the shadow of the church. If the church does not get them, the world will. Ah! when you pass awayand it will not be long before you doit will be a satisfaction to see your children in Christian society. You want to have them sitting at the holy sacraments. You want them mingling in Christian associations. You would like to have them die in the sacred precincts! Oh! church of God, gate of heaven, let me go through it! All other institutions are going to fail. Jay Cookes banking institution went down, Duncan, Sherman, and Co. went down, and all earthly institutions will perish; but the church of God, its foundation is the Rock of Ages, its charter is for everlasting years, its keys are held by the universal proprietor, its dividend is heaven, its president is God. God grant that all this audience, the youngest, the eldest, the worst, the best, may find their safe and glorious hiding-place, where Joash found it, in the temple.(Talmage in C. W. P.)
O God! how worthy of wonder are thy just and merciful dispensations, in that thou sufferest the seed of good Jehoshaphat to be destroyed by her hand in whose affinity he offended, and yet savest one branch of this stock of Jehoshaphat for the sake of so faithful a progenitor!Bp. Hall.
2Ki. 11:2. The great agents of the worlds reformation.
1. Are prepared in secret.
2. May depend upon a single life.
3. Cannot be destroyed by the hatred and cruelty of the wicked.
4. Will inevitably come to the front
The perils of a good movement.
1. May appear to be extinct when its reviving force is but in hiding.
2. Its hopes may be suspended on a frail infant life.
3. It is opposed with unrelenting cruelty.
4. It is unexpectedly befriended in its greatest extremity.
We have an instance in Jehosheba how, even in the midst of godlessness in a family, any one who will, can make an exception. Jehosheba stole him. That was not stealing the child, but saving him. What can a woman do better and nobler than to save an infant from danger of soul and body, and take him under her protection for the sake of God and his promises?Lange.
2Ki. 11:3. As mother of the king she had great power, high influence, and many dependants, which rendered her, in default of a king and of a capable heir to the throne, the most powerful person in the land. She was thus enabled to accomplish all her objects; and Judah beheld the strange sight of a woman, and that woman a foreigner, seated upon the throne of David. Under such auspices, idolatry became rampant in Judah. It would seem that nothing had been gained by the expression of idolatry in Israel; the same thing existed still, the place only having been changed, just as the piece of wood which disappears for a moment under the water comes up again a little way off. No doubt, the cause of the Baal-worship was strengthened by large accessions of fugitives who stole away from Israel.Kitto.
When the godless appear to have succeeded in the attainment of their objects, and believe that they have conquered, the very moment of their victory is the unperceived commencement of their ruin. The cross of Christ was the victory of His enemies, but this very victory was what brought about their total defeat.Krummacher.
Mischief sometimes fails of those appointments wherein it thinks to have made the surest work. God laughs in Heaven at the plots of tyrants, and befools them in their deepest projects. He had said to DavidOf the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy seat. In vain shall earth and hell conspire to frustrate it.Bp. Hall.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
II. TURMOIL IN JUDAH 11:1-12:21
In 2Ki. 11:1 the history of Judah is taken up where it left off at the end of chapter 8. The forty-five years covered in chapters 1112 are. characterized for the most part by political turmoil. The brief and turbulent reign of Athaliah (2Ki. 11:1-20) was followed by the lengthy but disappointing reign of Joash (2Ki. 11:21 2Ki. 12:21).
A. THE REIGN OF ATHALIAH IN JUDAH 11:120
The revolution of 841 B.C. is crucial in the history of Judah as well as of Israel. King Ahaziah and forty-two members of the royal house were slain by the zealot Jehu. This set the stage for a usurper to take over the throne of David in Jerusalem. Chapter 11 tells of (1) the usurpation of Athaliah (2Ki. 11:1-3); (2) the coronation of Joash (2Ki. 11:4-12); (3) the death of Athaliah (2Ki. 11:13-16); and (4) the enthronement of another descendant of David (2Ki. 11:17-20).
1. THE USURPATION OF ATHALIAH (2Ki. 11:1-3)
TRANSLATION
(1) When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose, and destroyed all the royal seed. (2) But Jehosheba the daughter of King Jehoram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from the midst of the sons of the king which were being slain; he and his nurse were hidden in the chamber of mattresses from Athaliah, and he was not slain. (3) And he was with her hidden in the house of the LORD for six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land.
COMMENTS
Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, was married to Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah. It was her son Ahaziah who was killed by Jehu. This woman inherited much of her mothers evil character. Through her influence, King Jehoram had introduced the worship of the Tyrian Baal into Judah (2Ki. 8:18; 2Ch. 21:5; 2Ch. 21:11). When Ahaziah was slain, the powerful position of Athaliah as queen mother was jeopardized. The regular line of succession would require that one of her grandsons, the eldest son of Ahaziah, would now be enthroned, and this would mean that the position of queen mother would pass on to the widow of Ahaziah. For this reason Athaliah ordered all the members of the house of David put to death.[567] This would include Ahaziahs sons, Athaliahs own grandsons, and probably other descendants of David belonging to branches of the house other than that of Rehoboam (2Ki. 11:1). Athaliahs design to wipe out completely the house of David was frustrated by the determined efforts of Jehosheba, the sister of Ahaziah.[568] From the royal nursery she stole away the youngest son of Ahaziah, the infant Joash. The prince and his nurse were safely hidden away in the chamber of mattresses, i.e., the room where the mattresses and blankets were stored, where they escaped the attention of Athaliahs executioners (2Ki. 11:2). After a few days of concealment there, Jehosheba found an opportunity to transfer the child to one of the numerous chambers in the Temple where he was to remain for six years. Jehosheba was married to Jehoiada the high priest (2Ch. 22:11), and hence would have ready access to the Temple precincts. For six years Athaliah ruled the land of Judah (2Ki. 11:3). During that period, Baalism was temporarily triumphant. The Temple of the Lord was allowed to fall into decay (2Ki. 12:5), and a temple of Baal was erected in Jerusalem to rival and supersede it (2Ki. 11:18). The usurper was held in check to some extent by the Yahwistic party. She apparently was afraid openly to challenge the position of Jehoiada, and he was left in charge of the Temple with its treasures and armories (2Ki. 11:10). She allowed the Temple services to continue (2Ch. 23:4-7), and permitted the priests and Levites to serve in their regular courses (2Ch. 23:8). Nonetheless, the zealous Yahwists and royalists chafed under the arrogant and oppressive rule of the Jezebel of Judah.
[567] The royal house had already been greatly depleted by Jehorams murder of his brothers (2Ch. 21:4), by Arab marauders (2Ch. 21:17) and Jehus murder of the brethren of Ahaziah (2Ki. 10:14).
[568] While she was the sister of Ahaziah, she probably was not the daughter of Athaliah. According to Josephus, she was the daughter of Joram by a secondary wife, not Athaliah, and therefore actually a half-sister of Ahaziah (Ant. IX, 7 1,).
2. THE CORONATION OF JOASH (2Ki. 11:4-12)
TRANSLATION
(4) And in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent and took the cap. tains over hundreds of the Carites, and the guard, and brought them unto him into the house of the LORD; and he made a covenant with them, and made them swear in the house of the LORD, and then he showed them the son of the king. (5) And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing which you shall do: A third part of you that enter on the sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the kings house; (6) and a third part shall be at the gate Sur, and a third part at the gate behind the guard. So shall you keep the watch of the house and be a barrier.[569] (7) And two parts of you, all who go out on the Sabbath, even they shall keep watch of the house of God about the king. (8) And you shall compass about the king every man with his weapons in his hand, and the one who comes within the ranks, let him be slain. Be with the king as he goes out and comes in. (9) And the captains of the hundreds did according to all which Jehoiada the priest commanded them; and they took each man his men who were to come in on the Sabbath with those who should go out on the Sabbath, and they came unto Jehoiada the priest. (10) And the priest gave to the captains of the hundreds the spears and shields which belonged to David which were in the house of the LORD. (11) And the guards stood each man with his weapons in his hand from the right side of the house unto the left side of the house, by the altar and the sanctuary, round about the king. (12) And he brought out the son of the king, and put upon him the crown and the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, May the king live!
[569] The translation of the last word in this verse is uncertain since it occurs nowhere else. The Septuagint omits it altogether.
COMMENTS
After waiting impatiently 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 had come to make the effort to restore the throne to the line of David. Of course it was necessary for him to make careful arrangements beforehand. His first step was to summon to the Temple the five captains (2Ch. 23:1) of the royal guard for a secret interview. The Carites, here mentioned for the first time, are generally believed to be identical with the Cherethites of earlier times (cf. 2Sa. 8:18; 1Ki. 1:38), foreign mercenary troops responsible for guarding the person of the king. These men reluctantly had entered the service of Athaliah under the notion that the house of David was extinct. But by long standing tradition, the Carites were strongly attached to David and his seed. Jehoiada made these men take an oath of support to the cause of the young king; then they were introduced into his presence (2Ki. 11:4).
The account of these events in Chronicles makes it clear that a considerable interval of time separates the events of 2Ki. 11:5 from those of 2Ki. 11:4. The immediate arrangement made between Jehoiada and the captains was that they should visit the cities of Judah and gather a strong force of Levites, priests, and other representative men. That force was brought to Jerusalem and placed at the disposal of Jehoiada, under an oath similar to that which the captains had taken. Jehoiada then waited, completed his arrangements, and finally gave two chargesone to the captains which is given here (2Ki. 11:5-8), and the other to the force collected from the cities, which is given in Chronicles (2Ch. 23:4-7). All of this was carried out in such a way that the suspicions of Athaliah were not aroused.
The royal bodyguard consisted of five divisions, each probably of a hundred men, and each commanded by its own captain (2Ch. 23:1). It was usual on the sabbath for three divisions out of the five to be on guard around the royal palace complex, and for the other two to be engaged outside, keeping order in the city and around the Temple. For the public coronation of Joash, Jehoiada deployed the royal guard as follows: one company was assigned to the palaceits courts, halls and antechambers; a second was stationed at the palace entrance called Sur; and the third company was placed at the gate of the guard, which seems to have been towards the east, where the palace fronted the Temple. The object of this deployment was to prevent the queen from leaving the palace until all was in readiness (2Ki. 11:5-6).
Jehoiada commanded the remaining companies of guards to enter the Temple and protect the young king (2Ki. 11:7). According to Chronicles (2Ch. 23:7) the large force recruited from the cities of Judah was also to be in the Temple to assist in the protection of the young monarch. The guard was to take up a position in front of and behind the king, and they were to extend their ranks across the Temple court from one wall to the other. Anyone who tried to penetrate those ranks was to be slain. Whatever movements were made by the king during the coronation ceremonies were to be carefully guarded (2Ki. 11:8). On the appointed day, all of the captains carried out the exact instructions which Jehoiada had given them (2Ki. 11:9). To those guards Jehoiada issued shields and spears which David many years earlier had captured in battle and had deposited in the Temple (2Ki. 11:10). Nothing could have been more appropriate than for the restoration of the Davidic house to be effected with the aid of weapons which belonged to David himself. Armed with these weapons the guards took up their positions in ranks stretching from one side of the Temple court to the other, both before and behind the king, in the area immediately in front of the altar of burnt offerings and the porch of the Temple (2Ki. 11:11).
When all was ready, Jehoiada brought forth the young king and placed the crown upon his head. The crown was probably a band of gold, either plain, or set with jewels. At the same time the high priest laid on the head of Joash a copy of the Law of Moses, or some significant portion thereof.[570] This was a symbolic act designed to demonstrate that the king must rule in subjection to and in accordance with the Word of God. So far as can be determined, this ceremony was a new feature of Israelite coronations. Then the priests (cf. 2Ch. 23:11) anointed the young prince with oil and declared him to be king. The people present expressed their appreciation and approval by clapping their hands and shouting, May the king live! (2Ki. 11:12).
[570] The decalogue is often called the testimony. See Exo. 16:34; Exo. 25:16; Exo. 25:21 etc.
3. THE DEATH OF ATHALIAH (2Ki. 11:13-16)
TRANSLATION
(13) And Athaliah heard the sound of the guards and the people; and she came unto the people In the house of the LORD. (14) And she saw, and behold the king was standing upon the platform as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced and blew trumpets; and Athaliah tore her garments, and cried, Treason! Treason! (15) And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds, officers of the army, and he said unto them, conduct her out between your ranks, and the one who goes after her, slay with the sword; for the priest said, Let her not be slam in the house of the LORD. (16) And they formed two lines on either side of her, and she went by the way which horses came into the kings house, and she was slam there.
COMMENTS
When Athaliah heard the noise accompanying the coronation she was naturally suspicious. Though it was not her custom to enter the Temple of Yahweh, on this occasion she hurried across the short distance from the palace to the house of God to learn the cause of the commotion. It does not appear that she brought any guards or attendants, but it is possible that both were with her (2Ki. 11:13). Entering the courtyard, she was astonished to see young Joash standing upon the special platform which, it would appear, the king occupied when he attended Temple services. Beside him were the captains of the guard and royal trumpeters. People of the city had heard rumors of what was to transpire that day, and had come prepared with trumpets to join in the festivities.
In a single glance Athaliah assessed the scene and realized that the fatal hour had come. In utter dismay she ripped her royal robes and shouted Treason! Jehoiada then ordered the soldiers to close ranks about the queen and conduct her out of the courtyard. This order probably was intended to protect the queen from violence at the hands of the people within the Temple precincts, and at the same time to discourage those who might be inclined to attempt to rescue her. Anyone who made any attempt on her behalf was to be slain; but the queen herself was not to be slain in the Temple (2Ki. 11:15). The soldiers escorted Athaliah from the Temple, and when the party reached the gate which gave access to the royal stables, she was slain (2Ki. 11:16). The location of this gate is unknown.
4. THE ENTHRONEMENT OF JO ASH (2Ki. 11:17-20)
TRANSLATION
(17) And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they would be the people of the LORD; also between the king and the people. (18) And all the people of the land came to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altar and his images they smashed thoroughly, and Mattan the priest of Baal they slew before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD. (19) And he took the captains of hundreds, and the Carites, and the guards, and all the people of the land, and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD; and they came by the way of the gate of the guards to the house of the king, and he sat on the throne of the kings. (20) And all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet when they had slain Athaliah with the sword at the house of the king.
COMMENTS
In Jehoiadas view, three things needed to be done immediately after the death of Athaliah. First, some solemn covenants needed to be madethe old covenant between king and people on the one hand, and with God on the other. The apostasy of Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah was regarded as having put an end to the old covenant, and therefore it was now remade or renewed. This covenant pledged the people to maintain the worship of the Lord. A second covenant was then made between the king and his subjects. This covenant probably bound the king to govern the people according to the Law, and the people to remain faithful to the king (2Ki. 11:17).
The second post-coronation act, probably suggested by Jehoiada, was the destruction of the Baal temple which had been erected during the six years Athaliah had ruled the land. The people who had come to Jerusalem from various cities of the land marched to the house of Baal and razed it. The altars and images of Baal were smashed, and the priest of Baal slain.
The third action taken by Jehoiada after the coronation was the appointment of officers over the house of the Lord (2Ki. 11:18). The Chronicler amplifies this action of Jehoiada (2Ch. 23:18-19). The officers included priests and Levites who would officiate in the sacrificial services ordained by Moses and who would provide the elaborate musical accompaniment ordained by David. Porters were also set at the gates of the Temple to prohibit any who were ceremonially unclean from entering those sacred precincts. During Athaliahs reign, Temple services had been curtailed, breaches had been broken in the outer walls, and neither the priests nor the porters had served in their regular order. Apparently there had been no morning or evening sacrifice and no antiphonal psalm-singing during that period. Jehoiada re-established the regular courses of officers and the worship.
The final activity on that busy coronation day was the removal of Joash from the Temple, and his installation in the palace of his ancestors. The high priest formed a procession from the five captains and their menthe Carites and the guardsand the people, which escorted the young king to the royal palace. The gate of the guard (cf. 2Ki. 11:6) must have been the main entrance to the palace on its eastern side. The long day ended when Joash was finally seated on the throne of the kings of Judah (2Ki. 11:19). The whole land was content with the revolution which had taken place. No opposition showed itself. Tranquility settled over the capital once Athaliah was removed from the scene (2Ki. 11:20).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XI.
ATHALIAH USURPS THE THRONE OF JUDAH, BUT IS DEPOSED AND SLAIN, AND HER GRANDSON JOASH CROWNED, THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE HIGH PRIEST JEHOIADA. (Comp. 2Ch. 22:10; 2Ch. 23:21.)
(1) And when Athaliah . . . saw.Rather, Now Athaliah . . . had seen. (The and, which the common Hebrew text inserts before the verb, is merely a mistaken repetition of the last letter of Ahaziah. Many MSS. omit it.)
As to Athaliah and her evil influence on her husband Jehoram, see 2Ki. 8:18; 2Ki. 8:26-27. By her ambition and her cruelty she now shows herself a worthy daughter of Jezebel.
Her son.Ahaziah (2Ki. 9:27). The history of the Judan monarchy is resumed from that point.
Destroyed all the seed royal.The seed of the kingdom (see margin) means all who might set up claims to the succession. Ahaziahs brothers had been slain by the Arabs (2Ch. 21:17); and his kinsmen by Jehu (2Ki. 10:14). Those whom Athaliah slew would be for the most part Ahaziahs own sons, though other relatives are not excluded by the term.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
ATHALIAH’S USURPATION, 2Ki 11:1-3.
1. Destroyed all the seed royal The ferocious Athaliah, a worthy daughter of the bloody Jezebel, acted at Jerusalem as queen mother, (see 1Ki 15:10 ; 1Ki 15:13, notes,) and probably exercised her royal functions during her son’s absence in Jezreel. As soon as she heard of Ahaziah’s death she resolved to usurp his throne, and, in perfect accordance with her own savage character, and the notions of the time as to making a throne secure, she secured the death, as she supposed, of all her grandchildren, and all the royal family who might claim a title to the throne. Her great authority and influence, as queen mother, explains the apparent ease with which she seems to have accomplished her purpose.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1). The Usurping Of The Throne By Athaliah And The Preservation And Eventual Crowning Of The Davidic Heir Resulting In Her Execution ( 2Ki 11:1-16 ).
Analysis.
a
b But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedchamber, and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain (2Ki 11:2).
c And he was with her hidden in the house of YHWH six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land (2Ki 11:3).
d And in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the commanders over hundreds of the Carites (or ‘the executioners’) and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of YHWH, and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of YHWH, and showed them the king’s son (2Ki 11:4).
e And he commanded them, saying, “This is the thing that you will do. A third part of you, who come in on the sabbath, will be keepers of the watch of the king’s house, and a third part will be at the gate Sur, and a third part at the gate behind the guard. So will you keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier” (2Ki 11:5-6).
f “And the two companies of you, even all who go forth on the sabbath, will keep the watch of the house of YHWH about the king. And you shall surround the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand, and he who comes within the ranks, let him be slain. And be you with the king when he goes out, and when he comes in” (2Ki 11:7-8).
e And the commanders over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the sabbath, with those who were to go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest (2Ki 11:9).
d And the priest delivered to the commanders over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David’s, which were in the house of YHWH. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, by the king and round about him (2Ki 11:10-11).
c Then he brought out the king’s son, 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.” And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the house of YHWH, and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the manner was, and the captains and the rams’ horns by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew rams’ horns. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, “Treason! treason!” (2Ki 11:12-14).
b And Jehoiada the priest commanded the commanders of hundreds who were set over the host, and said to them, “Have her forth between the ranks, and him who follows her slay with the sword.” For the priest said, “Let her not be slain in the house of YHWH” (2Ki 11:15).
a So they made way for her, and she went by the way of the horses’ entry to the king’s house, and there she was slain (2Ki 11:16).
Note that in ‘a’ Athaliah destroyed all the seed royal, apart from one, and in the parallel she herself was slain. In ‘b’ Joash was hidden so that he was not slain, and in the parallel Athaliah was to be slain. but not in the house of YHWH. In ‘c’ the king’s son was hidden and Athaliah ruled over the land, and in the parallel the king’s son was revealed and Athaliah tore her clothes and cried ‘treason’. In ‘d’ the king’s son was shown to the reliable king’s bodyguard, and in the parallel the king’s son was protected by the bodyguard in order to be shown to the people. In ‘e’ Jehoiada gave his instructions to the bodyguard, and in the parallel those instructions were carried out. Centrally in ‘f’ the king’s son was to be protected at all times.
2Ki 11:1
‘Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal seed.’
When Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, Ahaziah’s mother, learned that Ahaziah had been slain by Jehu, she determined to usurp the throne of Judah, and set about destroying all the seed royal. Had she succeeded the house of David would have been no more. It is clear from this that she had her own band of loyal supporters in Judah, many of whom would have come with her from Israel, certainly sufficient to subdue all opposition with no rival contender appearing to challenge her. As the queen mother she held a respected position, and there appeared to be no one who could claim to oppose her.
Athaliah was a worshipper of Baal and had set up a Temple of Baal in Jerusalem. Her usurpation of the throne was thus a momentous occasion for Judah, for it continued and extended the influence of Ahaziah who had promoted Baal worship (2Ki 8:27). With the house of David having apparently ceased things were looking black for Yahwism. That she was not, however popular comes out in the sequel. Her most fervent opponents would be the priests and Levites of YHWH and the landed gentry of Judah who had been largely unaffected by the trend towards Baalism in Jerusalem and other ‘Canaanite’ cities.
The prophetic author’s derisory view of Athaliah is brought out by the fact that she has no opening or closing formula applied to her. She is seen as a blip in the succession rather than as an integral part of it. She was, of course, not of the house of David.
2Ki 11:2
‘But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedchamber, and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.’
What, however, she was not aware of was that Ahaziah’s sister, Jehosheba, a daughter of the deceased king Jehoram of Judah, had been able to steal away Ahaziah’s infant son Joash, and along with his nurse, hide him in a bedchamber in the palace, with the result that he was not slain. He was then subsequently secretly transferred to the Temple precincts where he was watched over by Jehoiada the Priest (High Priest). From 2Ch 22:11 we learn that Jehosheba was in fact the wife of Jehoiada. Through her YHWH had watched over the house of David and had ensured its continuation as He had promised (2 Samuel 7).
2Ki 11:3
‘And he was with her hidden in the house of YHWH six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land.’
The fact that Jehosheba was Jehoiada’s wife explains why she was able to remain in the Temple precincts without arousing suspicion, and why she was able to keep the growing son of Ahaziah hidden there, presumably in the High Priest’s residence, or, as Josephus hazarded, in a store room of the Temple. He was kept there for six years, along with his nurse, and meanwhile Athaliah reigned over the land. But she was clearly not popular, being seen as a foreign usurper and a Baalite, and being able to continue her reign only as a result of her own armed supporters and in view of the fact that she had had the status of queen mother, with no Davidic contender for the throne visible. The fact that she was so easily overthrown brings out her underlying unpopularity, especially once a son of David appeared.
2Ki 11:4
‘And in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the commanders over hundreds of the Carites (or ‘piercers, executioners’) and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of YHWH, and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of YHWH, and showed them the king’s son.’
In the seventh year after the coup, Joash being seven years old (2Ki 11:21), Jehoiada felt that it was time to act. Calling to him those commanders whom he knew to be loyal Davidides and Yahwists, probably therefore those over the temple guards (who would be Levites and could be relied on), he took an oath of secrecy from them and then showed them the king’s son in the Temple. Their ready acceptance might suggest that when the king’s sons were born they were marked with an identifying tattoo, which was shown to them. Alternately the testimony of the nurse and of Jehosheba, supported by the reputation of Jehoiada, may have been accepted. The ‘hundreds’ (military units) of the Carites (or ‘executioners’) have been seen as:
1) Foreign mercenaries from Caria in south west Asia Minor.
2) Descendants of David’s men who had come with him from Ziklag and may have been known as Cherethites (compare1Sa 30:14), by now abbreviated to Carites (compare2Sa 20:23).
3) Elite units of Levites known as the ‘piercers’ or ‘executioners’ (cari from cwr), in contrast to the ordinary guards, their main duty being to carry out the death sentences of the Temple court, which would be fairly numerous given man’s sinfulness.
‘The guard’ were presumably the Temple guard who would all be Levites. The royal bodyguard would hardly be of such a nature as all to be trustworthy in such a delicate situation. The Temple guard would have numbered well over a thousand if we consider the fact that Solomon made three hundred shields to be borne by those on duty (1Ki 10:17). When they were in use there would be those who were off duty, and even then not all on duty would have been among those who bore the shields as there would still be other guard duty to do.
2Ki 11:5-6
‘And he commanded them, saying, “This is the thing that you will do. A third part of you, who come in on the sabbath, will be keepers of the watch of the king’s house, and a third part will be at the gate Sur, and a third part at the gate behind the guard. So will you keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier.”
We are only given the bare bones of the plot, but we can be sure that it had been meticulously planned. It was probably timed to take place during a regular feast when crowds of people gathering to the Temple would not cause comment, and was clearly at the time of the changing of the Temple guard when movements in and out by armed guards would be expected. Others, however, who were not of the Temple guard going on and off duty, (the latter being able to move in and out armed as they commenced or finished duty), had to enter the Temple without weapons and be supplied with weapons in the Temple area (2Ki 11:10), because for them to enter the Temple armed would have been seen as suspicious.
The instructions in this verse were for the incoming Temple guards. These were those who came into the Temple on the Sabbath in order to begin their period of duty, clearly in this case more than usual because of what was anticipated (proved by the fact that they made up three companies), but not sufficiently more to arouse suspicions (no one would be counting but the numbers would have to be kept within bounds). Of these one third were to guard the house where the king was residing, one third were to guard the gate Sur, and one third were to be at the gate of the keepers. Their joint responsibility was to watch over the house where the king was in residence, and to be ready for any armed opponents who might try to enter the Temple by the gates mentioned in order to attack the king.
‘The gate Sur.’ Many suggestions have been made concerning the meaning of ‘Sur’ but all are guesses and unreliable. We must take this as simply one of the names used of the gate in question.
2Ki 11:7
‘And the two companies of you, even all who go forth on the sabbath, will keep the watch of the house of YHWH about the king.”
Meanwhile those who were preparing to go ‘off duty’ would not actually do so, but would act as further guards in the Temple so as directly to protect the king. Of these guards, (whose numbers had not been deliberately increased because they had been on duty all week), there were only two companies, composed of the alternating guard duties.
2Ki 11:8
“And you shall surround the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand, and he who comes within the ranks, let him be slain. And be you with the king when he goes out, and when he comes in.”
When the king was brought out for his coronation their responsibility would be to surround the king with their weapons at the ready and to ensure that any who sought to break their ranks would be killed instantly. They would go with him into the Temple, and out again once the proceedings were over, guarding him at all times. There could be no slip up. His life as a Davidide was paramount.
Others see ‘the ranks’ as referring to the ranks of pillars in the colonnades of the Temple.
2Ki 11:9
‘And the commanders over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the sabbath, with those who were to go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.’
The commanders over these military units did precisely as Jehoiada had commanded, both those who were over the guards who were coming on duty, and those who were over those going off duty.
2Ki 11:10
‘And the priest delivered to the commanders over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David’s, which were in the house of YHWH.’
It would appear from this that Temple guards who were not of those going on and off duty were also introduced into the Temple, probably along with other selected loyal troops, but as ordinary unarmed citizens so as not to arouse suspicion. As a result they had to be provided with arms after entering the Temple and this was accomplished by calling on the spears and shields which had been King David’s and which were clearly stored there. These would be special shields and spears which had originally been sanctified for use within the actual Temple and were kept in the Temple store. They would have been used in the sanctuary in the time of David and Solomon, while the Temple was being built, although later being partly replaced by the golden ceremonial shields of Solomon. When Solomon replaced them with his shields of gold the old sanctified spears and shields were presumably stored away in the Temple, because being ‘sanctified’ they had to remain in the Temple area. And even when the shields of gold (later replaced by shields of bronze) were used spears would presumably be required. These ancient shields and spears now proved useful on this occasion. We have no grounds for denying that such had been supplied by David to Solomon in readiness for the building of the Temple, in the same way as he supplied much else.
The word for ‘spear’ is in the singular but connected with shields is probably to be seen as a composite term signifying all the spears (it is plural in 2Ch 23:9). Others see it as David’s spear of authority (compare how Saul constantly carried a spear of authority), in other words that Jehoiada was giving them authority from David to act. This then being connected with ‘shields’ denoted all the Davidic weapons.
2Ki 11:11
‘And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, by the king and round about him.’
The result was that there were armed guards everywhere, assembled without the least suspicion, and all stood ready with their weapons in their hands, both to the right side of the Temple and to the left side of the Temple, and along by the altar and the sanctuary, and at the king’s side and around the king himself as he was brought out.
2Ki 11:12
‘Then he brought out the king’s son, 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.” ’
Then the event took place that most present could only have dreamed of. A genuine heir of the house of David was ‘brought out’, and was crowned in accordance with the customs prevailing in Judah;
The crown was placed on his head.
The testimony (probably Exo 20:2-17 in written form, a copy of what was on the tablets stored in the Ark of the Testimony – 1Ki 8:9) was placed in his hand, or symbolically placed upon him.
He was anointed by the Priest. Compare 1Sa 10:1; 2Sa 2:4; 2Sa 5:3; 2Sa 19:10 ; 1Ki 1:39; .
Finally he was acclaimed by all present with the cry, ‘May the king live (long)’. Compare 1Sa 10:24; 1Ki 1:39.The lack of opposition may have had much to do with the impressive array of armed guards, but it also betokened the fact that rather than being dismayed the ‘common people’ present, who to some extent may have been carefully ‘selected’, were delighted.
Note the centrality of the Testimony, which represented the whole Law of Moses, the reading and observance of which was the duty of the king (Deu 17:18-19). The Ark of the Covenant of YHWH, which contained ‘the ten words’ written on stone, was also called ‘the Ark of the Testimony’ (Exo 25:16-22; Exo 26:33-34; Exo 30:6; Exo 30:26; Exo 31:7; Exo 39:35; Exo 40:3; Exo 40:5; Exo 40:20-21; Num 4:5; Num 7:89; Joshus 2Ki 4:16). 1Ki 8:9 confirms that the covenant tablets were there in the time of Solomon.
2Ki 11:13-14
‘And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the house of YHWH, and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the manner was, and the commanders and the rams’ horns by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew rams’ horns. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, “Treason! treason!” ’
On hearing the cries of acclamation in the Temple Athaliah was concerned to discover the cause of it, and came from the palace into the Temple, no doubt accompanied by armed attendants. She must have been totally without suspicion to arrive in the way that she did, and must equally have been totally taken aback when she discovered there a boy wearing a crown, standing by the coronation pillar (or the recognised ‘king’s pillar’. Compare ‘the station of the king’ in the temple of Amun in Egypt), and being hailed by the commanders of the guard and all the people present, with loud cries of acclamation and the blowing of rams’ horns. And surrounded by a large number of armed men. Indeed she was so taken aback that she tore her clothes and cried out in alarm, ‘treason, treason’. She was furious. She had felt safe to come there because she had known the Temple guard were there, and she just could not believe that the whole of the Temple guard had turned against her. After all they had always treated her with the greatest of respect. (Had she realised the true position earlier she could have withdrawn quietly and waited until she could round up her own loyal supporters and call out the royal bodyguard, but she had acted on impulse and presumably could not believe that this was happening to her until it was too late).
Some see two sources intermingled, one of which emphasised the guard and the other the people, but the grounds for the distinction in this case are very flimsy. The movement is naturally from ‘the guard’ who were watching over the king until he was crowned, to ‘the people’ who had acclaimed his coronation. The commanders are prominent throughout.
2Ki 11:15
‘And Jehoiada the priest commanded the commanders of hundreds who were set over the host, and said to them, “Have her forth between the ranks, and him who follows her slay with the sword.” For the priest said, “Let her not be slain in the house of YHWH.” ’
Then Jehoiada commanded the commanders of hundreds who were over the host of guards gathered there (or the commanders of hundreds who had been given responsibility for crowd control and were therefore seen as ‘over the host’) to expel her from the Temple between the ranks of guards, and once she was outside the Temple area to slay her, because it was not fitting that blood be shed in this way in the house of YHWH. She was to be slain with the sword because, while worthy of death and a murderess and usurper, she was of royal blood and had not committed offences for which she should be stoned.
2Ki 11:16
‘So they made way for her, and she went by the way of the horses’ entry to the king’s house, and there she was slain.’
So the ranks opened up for her and she was led out by way of the horses’ entrance to the king’s house, and there she was executed. (This entrance was in contrast to ‘the gate of the guard to the king’s house’ in 2Ki 11:19 which was the way by which the king would enter the palace complex). The execution may not necessarily have taken place immediately, although it would be vital for it to be accomplished before her supporters could rally round. It may have awaited the cessation of the coronation celebrations so as not to mar the event. On the other hand, the danger of news slipping out and causing a counter-movement would have rendered it necessary as soon as possible.
The horse gate was at the rear of the palace (2Ki 23:11; Jer 31:40; Neh 3:28). That she had to use this gate indicated that she was no longer seen as queen. It may therefore be that she was slain in the palace stables.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Reign In Judah Of Athaliah The Usurper c. 841-835 BC, Or The Remarkable Preservation And Restoration Of The Davidic Heir And The Refutation Of The Worship Of The Foreign Baal ( 2Ki 11:1-21 ).
On hearing of the death of Ahaziah, king of Judah, at the hands of Jehu, and the overthrowing of the dynasty of Omri in Israel, Ahaziah’s mother Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab and the influential ‘queen mother’, seized the throne of Judah and sought to destroy all the seed royal, seeking to salvage something for the house of Ahab. The result appeared to be that the house of David was about to be exterminated, and it was all due to their association with the house of Ahab. The fact that according to the Chronicler her son had previously slain all his brothers, along with a number of prominent aristocrats, once his reign was established (2Ch 21:4), presumably because of opposition to his support for Baal, brings out how evil that house really was. They would brook no opposition in their determination to establish the worship of Baal.
But YHWH had not forgotten His promises to David (2 Samuel 7) and Ahaziah’s half-sister Jehosheba (presumably by another wife of Jehoram) hid one of Ahaziah’s infant sons, Joash, so that he survived the massacre, after which he was kept in hiding for many years in the Temple, until the time came for his revealing to Judah. Then when the appropriate time came Jehoiada, the faithful Priest who, with Jehosheba his wife had watched over him, presented him before the commanders of the Temple guards whom he knew that he could rely on, taking from them suitable oaths of secrecy and loyalty.
The result was that, after carefully putting in place certain safeguards, Joash was crowned, anointed and acclaimed in the Temple by both the guards and a gathering of the people. The noise of the acclamation was such that it brought the unsuspecting Athaliah hurrying to the scene, presumably accompanied by a number of attendants, and when she realised what was happening she cried out ‘treason’. But she had little popular support, and with her own main bodyguard and supporters (as worshippers of Baal) presumably largely elsewhere she was at the mercy of the Temple guards. She was therefore led out of the Temple and slain. Her rebellion was at an end. This was then followed by the renewal of the covenants of YHWH and the destruction of the sanctuary of Baal.
We should note that we do not strictly have a record of the reign of Athaliah. She is seen rather as a brief and unpleasant interlude leading up to the restoration of the Davidic monarchy and of the covenants of YHWH, and the account of her reign simply deals with her failure to extirpate the house of David, and her death.
The passage divides into two subsections:
1) The Usurping Of The Throne By Athaliah And The Preservation And Eventual Crowning Of The Davidic Heir Resulting In Her Execution (2Ki 11:1-16).
2) The Renewing Of The Covenants of YHWH, The Destruction Of The Sanctuary Of Baal, And The Final Official Enthronement Of The Davidic Heir (2Ki 11:17-21).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Ki 11:1-21 The Reign of Queen Athaliah Over Judah (841-835 B.C.) 2Ki 11:1-21 records the story of the reign of the wicked queen Athaliah over Judah.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Jehoash Becomes King
v. 1. And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, v. 2. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash (or Jehoash), the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain, v. 3. And he was with her, v. 4. And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, v. 5. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do: A third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house, v. 6. and a third part shall be at the gate of Sur, v. 7. And two parts of all you that go forth on the Sabbath, v. 8. And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he that cometh within the ranges, v. 9. And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that 3ehoiada, the priest, commanded. And they took every man his men that were to come in on the Sabbath, v. 10. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give King David’s spears and shields that were in the Temple of the Lord, v. 11. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, v. 12. And he brought forth the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
2Ki 11:1-21
REVOLUTION IN JUDAH, FOLLOWING THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN ISRAEL. REIGN OF ATHALIAH OVER JUDAH. CONSPIRACY OF JEHOIADA, AND DEATH OF ATHALIAH.
2Ki 11:1-3
On learning the death of Ahaziah (2Ki 9:27), Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, the queen-mother, murders all her grandchildren (except the youngest, Joash, who is secreted by his aunt, Jehosheba) and seizes the kingdom. No resistance is made to her, and she retains the sole authority for six years. The worship of Baal, introduced by Jehoram into Judah, and supported by Ahaziah (2Ki 8:27), is maintained by her (2Ki 11:18).
2Ki 11:1
And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead. (On Athaliah, see the comment upon 2Ki 8:18.) She was married to Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, probably in the lifetime of his father, to cement the alliance concluded between Ahab and Jehoshaphat against the Syrians (1Ki 22:2-4). She inherited much of her mother Jezebel’s character, obtained an unlimited ascendancy over her husband, Jehoram, and kept her son Ahaziah in leading-strings. It was unquestionably through her influence that Jehoram was prevailed upon to introduce the Baal-worship into Judah (2Ki 8:18; 2Ch 2:5, 2Ch 2:11), and Ahaziah prevailed upon to maintain it (2Ki 8:27; 2Ch 22:3, “He also Talked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly“). On the death of Ahaziah, she found her position seriously imperiled. The crown would have passed naturally to one of her grandchildren, the eldest of the sons of Ahaziah. She would have lost her position of gebirah, or queen mother, which would have passed to the widow of Ahaziah, the mother of the new sovereign. If she did not at once lose all influence, at any rate a counter-influence to hers would have been established; and this might well have been that of the high priest, who was closely connected by marriage with the royal family. Under these circumstances, she took the bold resolution described in the next clause. She arose and destroyed the seed royal. She issued her orders, and had all the members of the house of David on whom she could lay her hands put to death. The royal house had already been greatly depleted by Jehoram’s murder of his brothers (2Ch 21:4), by Arab marauders (2Ch 21:17), and by Jehu’s murder of the “brethren of Ahaziah” (2Ki 10:14); but it is clear that Ahaziah had left several sons behind him, and some of his “brethren” had also, in all probability, left issue. There may also have been many other descendants of David in Judah, belonging to other branches of the house than that of Rehoboam. Athaliah, no doubt, endeavored to make a clean sweep, and get rid of them all.
2Ki 11:2
But Jehosheba (“Jehoshabeath,” Chronicles; “Josabethe,” Josephus). The daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziahhalf-sister, according to Josephus (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 2Ki 9:7. 1), the daughter of Joram by a secondary wife, not by Athaliahtook Jonah the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain. As aunt of the royal children, Jehosheba would have free entrance into the palace, and liberty to visit all the apartments. She did not dare openly to oppose Athallah’s will, but contrived secretly to save one of the intended victims, the smallest of them, an infant of a year old ( , Josephus). His tender age, probably, moved her compassion, and induced her to select him from the rest. And they hid him: even him and his nurse. The order in the Hebrew is, “even him and his nurse, and they hid him,” which clears the sense. Jehosheba stole away Joash and his nurse, and they, i.e. Jehosheba and the nurse together, hid him between them. In the bedchamber; rather, in the chamber of mattressesa room in the palace where mattresses, and perhaps coverlets, were stored. Chardin notes that there is usually retch a room m an Oriental palace, which is only used as a store-chamber, and not as a dwelling-room. From Athaliah, so that he was not slain. Athaliah’s servants may not have been very anxious to carry out her cruel orders to the uttermost, and may have made no very careful search.
2Ki 11:3
And he was with herhe, i.e. Joash, was with her, i.e. Jehosheba, his aunthid in the house of the Lord; i.e. the temple. We learn from Chronicles (2Ch 22:11) that Jehosheba was married to Jehoiada, the high priest, and would thus have ready access to the temple. We must suppose that, after a few days’ concealment in the “chamber of mattresses,” Jehosheba found an opportunity of transferring him, with his nurse, to a chamber in the temple, where he was thenceforward nourished and brought up. There were various chambers in the temple used for secular purposes, as we learn from 1Ki 6:5-8 and Neh 13:5-9. Six years (comp. Neh 13:21 and 2Ch 24:1). And Athaliah did reign over the land. It is difficult to realize all that this implies. It cannot mean less than that for six years Baalism was triumphant in Judahthe temple was allowed to fall into decay (2Ki 12:5)a temple to Baal was erected in Jerusalem itself, to supersede the temple of Jehovah (2Ki 11:18), and a high priest appointed to be a rival to the successor of Aaron. Whether persecution was indulged in, as under Jehoram (2Ch 21:11), is uncertain; but the servants of Jehovah were at any rate under a cloud, slighted, contemned, held as of small account. Perhaps we may conclude, from the position occupied by Jehoiada, and from the powers which he was able to exercise when he determined on revolt (Neh 13:4; 2Ch 23:1, 2Ch 23:2), that Athaliah, during her six years’ reign, was to some extent held in check by a Jehovistic party, which she knew to exist, and which she did not dare openly to defy. Thus she left Jehoiada (apparently) in possession of the temple, of its treasures and its armory (Neh 13:10); she allowed the temple service to continue (2Ch 23:4-7); she permitted the priests and the Levites to serve in their regular “courses” (2Ch 23:8); she let the fortress of the eastern cityfor the temple was always a fortressremain in her enemies’ hands. Still, the time was evidently one “of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy” the oppressed worshippers of Jehovah were greatly discontented; and the nation generally was ripe for a counter-revolution, so soon as the signal was given by an authority whom they could trust.
2Ki 11:4-16
Conspiracy of Jehoiada. 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 come to venture on an effort. It was necessary for him to make his arrangements beforehand with great care. His first step was to sound the captains of the royal guard. To these men, five in number (2Ch 23:1), he sent secretly, and in-wired them to confer with him in the temple on important business. Finding them well disposed to adopt his views, he revealed to them the fact that Joash had escaped the massacre of Ahaziah’s sons, and was still living, even allowing them to see him. The result of the interview was that they put themselves at Jehoiada’s disposal, and agreed to take their orders from him (2Ki 11:4). Jehoiada then proceeded to his second step. Either distrusting the body-guard which the captains commanded, or regarding it as insufficient in numbers, he gave them orders to visit the various cities of Judea, and collect from them a strong force of Levites and other trusty persons, and bring them to Jerusalem (2Ch 23:2), where he would give them their orders. This was done successfully, and, as it would seem, without in any way rousing the suspicions of Athaliah. A day was fixed for proclaiming Joash king; the guard and the Levites were skillfully disposed about the temple and the palace; the king was brought up, crowned, anointed, and saluted as monarch, with noisy acclamations (2Ki 11:12). The noise was heard in the palace, and Athaliah went forth, with a few attendants, to inquire the reason of it. Following the sound, she came to the temple, and entered it, when she saw what was going on, and cried out, “Treason! Treason!” By Jehoiada’s order the guards seized her, conducted her out of the temple, and slew her (2Ki 11:13-16).
2Ki 11:4
And the seventh yearliterally, and in the seventh year; i.e. in the course of itJehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard; rather, the captains over hundreds (or, centurions) of the Carites and the guard (see the Revised Version). The “Carites,” here first named, are generally regarded as identical with the Cherethites of earlier times (2Sa 8:18; 1Ki 1:38; 1Ch 18:17). They were undoubtedly a particular portion of the royal guard, and may, perhaps, as many suppose, have been “Caftan” mercenaries, though we have no other evidence that the Carians had adopted the mercenary life so early as the time of Athaliah. Still, as their devotion to it had passed into a proverb when Archilochus wrote, it is quite possible that they had begun the practice a century or two earlier. When Jehoiada is said to have “sent and fetched” the centurions, we must understand that he secretly invited them, and that they consented to come. He could not possibly have any authority over them, so as to require their attendance. The names of the five centurions, together with their fathers’ names, were put on record by the writer of Chronicles (2Ch 23:1), whose account of the revolution is in many respects fuller than that in Kings. And brought them to him into the house of the Lordas the safest place for an interview which had to be kept secret from the queenand made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord. We can easily understand that the soldiers, who had been willing to serve Athaliah under the notion that the house of David was extinct, might waver in their allegiance so soon as they heard that a scion of the old royal stock survived, and could be produced at a moment’s notice. Their traditions would attach them to David and his seed, not to the house of Ahab. And showed them the king’s son. Having bound the centurions by a solemn covenant to the cause of the young king, Jehoiada introduced them into his presence. He had, no doubt, previously sworn them to secrecy.
2Ki 11:5
And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do. It is evident, from 2 Chronicles and from Josephus, that a considerable interval of time separates the events of verse 5 from those of verse 4. The immediate arrangement made between Jehoiada and the centurions was that they should “go throughout the whole land” (Josephus, ‘Ant. Jud.,’ 9.7. 2), visit “all the cities of Judah” (2Ch 23:2), and gather out of them a strong force of Levites and priests (Josephus), together with a certain number of other representative Israelites, which force they should bring with them to Jerusalem, and place at his disposal. To accomplish this must have taken some weeks. When the force had arrived, Jehoiada summoned it to meet him in the courts of the temple, and swore it to a similar covenant to that which he had made with the centurions. He then bided his time, completed his arrangements, utilized the store of arms laid up in the temple armory (verse 10), and finally gave two chargesone to the centurions, which is given here (verses 5-8), and the other to the force collected from the cities of Judah, which is given in Chronicles (2Ch 23:4-7). The orders given to the two forces were very similar, but not identical. A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath. The royal body-guard consisted of five divisions, each probably of a hundred men, and each commanded by its own captain (2Ch 23:1). It was usual on the sabbath for three divisions out of the five to mount guard at the royal palace, while two were engaged outside, keeping order in the city, and especially at the temple. We do not know the ordinary disposition of the guard, either inside or outside the palace. On this occasion Jehoiada commanded that the palace-guard should be disposed as follows: one division at the palace proper, in the courts and halls and antechambers; a second at one of the issues from the palace, known as “the gate of Sur;” and a third at an issue called “the gate of the guard,” which was certainly towards the east, where the palace fronted the temple. The object was to secure the palace, but not to prevent the queen from leaving it. Shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house; i.e. of the royal palace.
2Ki 11:6
And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur. The “gate of Sur” is not elsewhere mentioned. It seems to be called in Chronicles (2Ch 23:5) “the gate of the foundation” ( ) instead of “the gate of Sur” ( ), as herethe one reading having evidently arisen out of the other by a corruption. We must understand one of the palace gates, but which of them is uncertain. And a third part at the gate behind the guard; called in 2Ki 11:19 “the gate of the guard,” and shown there to have been on the cast side of the palace, where it faced the temple, and abutted on the Tyropoeon. So shall ye keep the watch of the housei.e; of the “king’s house,” or palace, which is contrasted with the “house of the Lord” of the next versethat it be not broken down. This rendering is scarcely accepted at the present time by any writers. Ewald renders, “according to custom;” Keil, “for defense;” Furst, “alternately;” our Revisers, “and be a barrier.” The Hebrew word used occurs nowhere else, and it seems impossible to determine its sense. The LXX. simply omit it.
2Ki 11:7
And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath. Three-fifths of the guard having been disposed of about the palace, there remained only two-fifths, or two “companies” (margin of Authorized Version). These Jehoiada commanded to enter the temple and protect the young king. Even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king. According to Chronicles (2Ch 23:7), the great body of the Levites gathered from the cities of Judah was also to be in the temple, and to assist in the protection of the monarch.
2Ki 11:8
And ye shall compass the king round about; every man with his weapons in his hand. The guard was to take up a position, partly in front of the king, and partly behind him; interposing themselves between his person and any danger, and at the same time extending themselves across the entire court of the temple (2Ki 11:11) from one wall to the other. They were, of course, to have their weapons in their hands, ready for use. And he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain; rather, within the ranks. The order was that if any one entered the temple, and attempted to break through the ranks of the guard, either in front of the king or behind him, he should instantly be put to death. No attempt of the kind was made; and so the order re-rosined a dead letter. And be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in; accompany him, i.e. in all his movementslet him never for a moment stray outside your rankscontinue to surround him whithersoever he goes. Boys are restless, and curiosity would lead the young prince to move from place to place in order to see what was going on.
2Ki 11:9
And the captains over the hundredsi.e; the five centurions of the guard, Azariah the son of Jeroham, Azariah the son of Obed, Ishmael, Maaseiah, and Eli-shaphatdid according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded. The secular arm placed itself entirely at the disposal of the spirituality, and was content for once to be subordinate. 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. The position of Jehoiada as high priest (“the priest” always means “high priest”) had not been previously mentioned, probably because it was presumed to be known. The Chronicler, writing much later, gives Jehoiada the title on the first occasion that he mentions him (2Ch 22:11). When it is said that “all the captains took their men and came to Jehoiada,” the intention is to mark their exact obedience to the orders given them. Strictly speaking, only two out of the five actually appeared before Jehoiada on the day of the execution of his project, two divisions only having been summoned to come to the temple (verse 7). The other three took up the positions assigned them in and about the royal palace.
2Ki 11:10
And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give King David’s spears and shields, that were in the temple of the Lord. We hear of David carrying with him to Jerusalem the “shields of gold,” i.e. shields ornamented with gold, which he took from the servants of Hadadezer (2Sa 8:7); but otherwise we are not told of his establishing an armory. Solomon made six hundred shields of solid gold, and laid them up in the house of the forest of Lebanon (1Ki 10:17); but these were carried off by Sheshonk, when he invaded Judaea in the reign of Rehoboam (1Ki 14:26). Rehoboam, in their place, made three hundred brazen shields (1Ki 14:27), which, however, were deposited in the guard-chamber of the royal palace. Of spears collected by David, and laid up in the temple, we know nothing beyond the present passage. There can be little doubt that the weapons were brought forth from their receptacle with the view (as Ewald says) of “consecrating the work of the restoration of the Davidic house with the sacred arms of the great founder himself”not, however, with arms that he had worn, but with some which he had collected and laid up.
2Ki 11:11
And 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. “Corner” is a wrong word used in this connection. The Hebrew is literally, “shoulder,” and must mean here, not “corner,” but “side” (so our Revisers). The guard was drawn up right across the temple court from wall to wall, probably in several ranks, both before and behind the king (see 2Ki 11:8). Along by the altar. The “altar” intended is, of course, the altar of burnt offering, which stood in the great court, a little way from the porch, right in front of it; not the altar of incense, which was inside the sanctuary. No one, it must be remembered, was ever allowed to enter inside the sanctuary but the priests and officiating Levites (see 2Ch 23:6). And the temple. “The temple” is here the sanctuary, as in the passage of Chronicles just quoted. The guard occupied a position at the upper end of the court, immediately in front of the altar and the temple porch.
2Ki 11:12
And hei.e. Jehoiadabrought forth the king’s sonproduced him, i.e; from the chamber or chambers where he had been concealed hitherto. (On the temple chambers, see Neh 13:4-9.) And put the crown upon him. That the Israelite kings actually wore crowns appears from 2Sa 1:10 and 1Ch 20:2. The crown was probably a band of gold, either plain or set with jewels (Zec 9:16), fastened behind with a riband. It receives here the same name that is given to the high priest’s diadem in Exo 29:6 and Exo 39:30. And gave him the testimony. The words “gave him” are not in the original, and are superfluous. What is meant plainly is that the high priest laid on the young king’s head a copy of the Law, or of some essential portion of it, perhaps the Decalogue, which is often called “the testimony” (Exo 16:34; Exo 25:16, Exo 25:21, etc.). The object apparently was to show that the king was to rule by law, not arbitrarilythat he was to be, as Dean Stanley says, “not above, but beneath, the law of his country”. The ceremony seems to have been a new one, and is indicative of the gradual curtailment of the regal power under the later monarchy. And they made him king, and anointed him. A change is made from the singular to the plural, because, as we learn from 2Ch 23:11, “Jehoiada and his sons anointed him.” We have had no mention of the anointing of a new monarch in Judah since the time of Solomon (1Ki 1:39). It may, however, have been the usual practice. And theyi.e. the peopleall who were presentclapped their handsan ordinary sign of joy (see Psa 47:1; Psa 98:8; Isa 4:1-6 :12; Nah 3:19, etc.)and said, God save the king! literally, long live the king!.
2Ki 11:13
And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people. The “and,” which is omitted in the present Hebrew text, may be supplied by a very slight alteration. We have only to read for an emendation rendered almost certain by the fact that the plural in does not belong to the date of the writer of Kings. She came to the people into the temple of the Lord. It was not her habit to enter the temple on the sabbath, or on any ether day; but, hearing the noise, she hurried across from the palace to learn its cause. It would seem that she was still unsuspicious of danger, and brought no guards with her, nor any large body of attendants.
2Ki 11:14
And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar; rather, on the pillar, or on the raised platform. The king’s proper place in the temple seems to have been a raised standing-place (, from , to stand) in front of the entrance to the sanctuary, which made him very conspicuous. As the manner wasi.e. as was the usual practice when kings visited the templeand the princesi.e. the centurions or captains of the guardand the trumpeters by the kingthe officials whose business it was to blow the trumpet at a coronation (see 2Sa 15:10; 1Ki 1:39; 1Ki 9:13)and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets; i.e. the people who had been admitted into the great court to witness the coronation. Some rumor of what was about to occur had got abroad, and many of the people had provided themselves with trumpets. As Dean Stanley puts it, “The temple court was crowded with spectators, and they too took part in the celebration, and themselves prolonged the trumpet-blast, blended with the musical instruments of the temple service.” And Athaliah rent her clothes. Athaliah took in all with a single glance. She “saw that the fatal hour was come” (Stanley). With a strong hand she rent her royal robes, partly in horror, partly in despair; for the single glance which she had cast around was sufficient to show her that all was lost. And cried, Treason! Treason! or, conspiracy! conspiracy! The cry was scarcely an appeal for help, as Josephus makes it (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 9.7. 3), but rather an instinctive utterance, without distinct aim or object, wrung from her under the circumstances. It fell dead on the assembly.
2Ki 11:15
But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captainsliterally, princesof the hundreds, the officers of the hostthe commanders, i.e; of the small “army” assembled in the temple courtand said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges; rather, have her forth, or conduct her out between your ranks. The object was probably to preserve her from suffering violence at the hands of any of the people within the temple precincts, which Jehoiada desired to preserve free from pollution. And him that followeth her kill with the sword; i.e. if any come after her out of the temple, to attempt a rescue, slay them with the sword. The order, given aloud, was sufficient to deter persons from making the attempt. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord. Jehoiada had previously given an order that her execution should take place outside the temple.
2Ki 11:16
And they laid hands on her. So the LXX. ( ), the Vulgate, Luther, and others; but most moderns understand that they formed in two lines, one on either side of her, and so let her pass out of the temple and proceed towards the palace untouchedthe divinity that hedged a queen preventing them from molesting her until the time came for her execution (see the Revised Version). And she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king’s house. Josephus makes Athaliah pass out of the temple by the east gate, and descend into the Kedron valley. He says she was put to death “at the gate of the king’s mules,” but does not mark the locality. The gate intended can scarcely be the “horse gate” of Neh 3:28, which was in the eastern wall, and north of the temple. It was probably a gate on the western side of the Tyropoeon valley, giving entrance to the stables of the palace. And there was she slain; “with the sword” (Neh 3:20). A single blow from one of the guardsmen probably sufficed.
2Ki 11:17-21
Further doings of Jehoiada. The king being at present a mere puppet in his hands, Jehoiada had to determine the next steps which were necessary to be taken. These, in his judgment, were three.
1. A solemn covenant must be made between the king and the people; and another between the king, the people, and Godthe latter pledging the king and people to maintain the worship of Jehovah, and never again to apostatize; the former pledging the king to govern according to law, and the people to remain faithful to him.
2. The temple of Baal, erected in Jerusalem at the instance of Athaliah, must be destroyed.
3. The king must be removed from the temple and installed in the palace of his ancestors. A brief account of these proceedings concludes the present chapter.
2Ki 11:17
And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people. In the original it is “made the covenant;” and 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 themthat they would maintain his worship, and that he would continue his protection (see Exo 19:5-8; Exo 24:3-8; Exo 34:10-28). The apostasy of Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah was regarded as having put an end to the old covenant, and therefore it was solemnly remade or renewed. That they should be the Lord’s people (comp. Exo 19:5; Deu 4:20; Deu 9:29; Deu 32:9, etc.); between the king also and the people. The terms of this covenant are nowhere distinctly stated, but we can only suppose them to have expressed in words the intention of that novel act, the imposition of “the testimony” upon the head of the king at the time of his coronation (see the comment upon 2Ki 11:12).
2Ki 11:18
And all the people of the landi.e. all those who had come up to Jerusalem from the various cities of Judah to help Jehoiada (see 2Ch 23:2)went into the house of Baal. According to Josephus, “the house of Baal” hero mentioned was built by Jehoram and Athaliah in the reign of the former (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 9.7. 4), But, if this was the case, it is rather strange that the writer of Chronicles, who enumerates so many of the evil acts of Jehoram (2Ch 21:4, 2Ch 21:6, 2Ch 21:11), does not mention it. The present narrative shows that the temple was in, or very near, Jerusalem; but there is nothing to fix the site of it. And brake it downJosephus says they “razed it to the ground” ()his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly. It was common among the heathen to have several altars in one temple, and not uncommon to have several images even of the same god, especially if he was a god worshipped under different forms, as Baal was (whence the word “Baalim”). The Baalim of this temple are mentioned by the writer of Chronicles (see 2Ch 24:7). And slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The name “Mattan” recalls that of the last King of Judah, which was originally Mattaniah, equivalent to “gift of Jehovah” (2Ki 24:17). Mattan would be simply “gift.” We may presume that, though only called “priest,” he was the high priest. And the priesti.e. Jehoiadaappointed officers over the house of the Lord. The parallel passage of Chronicles (2Ch 23:18, 2Ch 23:19) explains this statement. We are there told that “Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord by the hand of the priests the Levites to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as it was ordained by David. And he set the porters at the gates of the house of the Lord, that none which was unclean in anything should enter in.” During Athaliah’s reign the temple service had ceased; breaches had been broken in the outer walls; and neither the priests nor the porters had served in their regular order; there had been no morning or evening sacrifice, and no antiphonal psalm-singing. Jehoiada re-established the regular courses and the worship.
2Ki 11:19
And he took the rulersliterally, princesover hundredsi.e. the five centurions of 2Ch 23:2and the captainsrather, and the Carites (see the comment on 2Ch 23:4)and the guardi.e. the “runners,” the other division of the guardand all the people of the landthose who had flocked to his standard either originally (2Ch 23:2) or sinceand they brought down the king from the house of the Lord. They escorted Joash from the temple to the palace, first bringing him down into the valley of the Tyropoeon, and then conducting him up the opposite, or western hill, on which the palace stood. And came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. The “gate of the guard” is probably that called in 2Ch 23:6 “the gate behind the guard.” We may presume that it was the main entrance to the palace on the eastern side. 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.
2Ki 11:20
And all the people of the land rejoiced. “All the people of the land” has here, perhaps, a wider signification than in 2Ki 11:18 and 2Ki 11:19. The whole land was content with the revolution that had taken place. No opposition showed itself. Ewald has no ground for his statement that the heathenizing party was strong in Jerusalem, and that the worshippers of Jehovah “had for a long time to keep watch in the temple, to prevent surprise by the heathenizing party”. He has mistaken the intention of the last clause of 2Ki 11:18. If anything is clear from the entire narrative of the early reign of Joash (2Ki 11:3-21; 2Ki 12:1-16; 2Ch 23:1-21; 2Ch 24:1-14), it is that there was no heathenizing party in Jerusalem, or none that dared to show itself, until after the death of the high priest Jehoiada, which was later than the twenty-third year of Joash. And the cityi.e. Jerusalemwas in quiet: and they slewit might he translated, when they had slainAthaliah with the sword beside the king’s 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 disturbance previously.
2Ki 11:21
Seven years old was Jehoashor, Joashwhen he began to reign. The clause would be better placed at the beginning of the next chapter.
HOMILETICS
2Ki 11:1-3 and 2Ki 11:14-16
Athaliah and Jezebel, the wicked daughter and the wicked mother.
It has often been noted that, while women are, as a general rule, better than men, in the cases where they enter upon evil courses their wickedness exceeds that of their male associates. The character of Lady Macbeth is true to nature. Wicked women are more thorough-going than wicked men, more bloody, more daring, more unscrupulous. In Athatiah we have a sort of repetition of Jezebela second picture on the same linesthe picture of a fierce, ambitious, utterly unscrupulous woman, occupying much the same station as her mother, equally powerful, equally unsparing, and equally remorseless. Both women are represented as
I. DEVOTEES OF THE SAME SENSUOUS AND IMMORAL CULT. Jezebel introduces the Baal and Ashtoreth worship into Israel; Athaliah into Judah. Each defiles the capital of her adopted country with a temple to Baala temple where images of Baal are set up, altars erected to him, and sacrifices offered to him. Each brings with her into her new home the Baal priesthood, and installs it in power.
II. OPEN ANTAGONISTS OF JEHOVAH. Jezebel persecutes the Jehovistic prophets, slaying as many as she can, and threatening the life even of Elijah (1Ki 18:4; 1Ki 19:2). Athaliah stops the temple-worship at Jerusalem, has breaches made in the temple walls, and gives to Baal the offerings which properly belong to Jehovah (2Ch 24:7).
III. MURDERESSES. Jezebel, of Naboth (1Ki 21:8-14) and of the Jehovistic prophets (1Ki 18:4); Athaliah, of “all the seed royal of the house of Judah” (2Ch 22:10).
IV. EAGER TO GRASP AND WIELD SOVEREIGN POWER. Jezebel governs Ahab (1Ki 21:25), uses his signet (1Ki 21:8), orders executions (1Ki 18:4; 1Ki 21:10), and the like. Athaliah governs Jehoram (2Ki 8:18) and Ahaziah (2Ch 22:3), and then seizes the royal power, and actually rules Judaea (2Ki 11:3). Athaliah is, on the whole, the bolder of the two, and the more unscrupulous; since to destroy the entire seed royal, including several of her own grandchildren, was a more atrocious and unnatural deed than any committed by Jezebel; and the actual assumption of the royal name and power, in spite of her sex, was a more audacious proceeding than any on which her mother ventured. But her audacity verged on rashness, which cannot be said of Jezebel She brought her fate upon herself; Jezebel succumbed to an inevitable stroke of adverse fortune. There was weakness in Athaliah’s half-measures after she became queen, in her suffering Jehoiada to retain so much liberty and so much power, and still greater weakness in her unsuspiciousness. We cannot imagine Jezebel, if she had ever been actual queen, allowing herself to be put down in the way that Athaliah was. She would at least have made a fight for her life, instead of walking straight into a trap, which was what Athaliah did. Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat is an old saying. Athaliah’s folly at the last can only be accounted for by an infatuation, which may have been a Divine judgment on her.
2Ki 11:4-19
Jehoiada an example of a faithful and wise high priest under trying circumstances. The history of the Jewish kingdom from the time of Saul to the Captivity furnishes but few examples of remarkable high priests. Zadok and Abiathar were personages of some importance in the time of David, and left behind them a name for zeal and fidelity; but otherwise no man of eminence had arisen among the high priests until Jehoiada. This may be partly accounted for by the fact that the high priesthood was hereditary, not elective; but still more by the nature of the office, which was not such as to bring its holder into historical prominence in quiet times. Jehoiada’s opportunity for distinction arose from the difficult circumstances in which he was placed. Holding the office of high priest when the throne was usurped and religion outraged by Athaliah, it devolved on him to rescue Church and state alike from peril, and to counter-work the wicked schemes of an enemy alike bold and unscrupulous. He could not prevent the destruction of the royal stock by Athaliah, which was a crime so unnatural that none could have anticipated it; but he did what he could. At the peril of his life he saved one prince, concealed him from prying eyes, protected him, bred him up secretly, and did not allow his existence to be even suspected. In faith and patience he waited till the infant had become a boy of an age to interest people, and till Athaliah had lest the affections of all classes of her subjects. He then organized a counter-revolution to the one effected by Athaliah, with the greatest prudence, caution, and sagacity. It would have been easy to gather partisans and raise a revolt; but Jehoiada shrank from the horrors of a civil war, and from the risk of losing his precious charge by a stray shot or a chance sword-thrust. He therefore set to work to detach Athaliah’s supporters from her cause by the peaceful method of persuasion. First he gained over the captains of her guard, then through them the rank-and-file, finally the “chief fathers” of Israel in the various cities (2Ch 23:2). Doubting the sufficiency of this force, he farther summoned to his aid a large body of Levites. And all this he did so secretly as to create no alarm, to arouse no suspicion. When the time for action came, he made his arrangements with the most consummate skill. He could not, indeed, have foreseen that Athaliah would so play into his hand, as she did, by coming within the temple walls with few or no attendants; but he had taken his measures in such a way as to make failure impossible, and to reduce to a minimum the probability of tumult or armed resistance. It was an indication of extraordinary prudence and political wisdom to be able to effect a complete revolution, both in Church and state, at the cost of two lives, both of them clearly forfeit by the Law of Moses. Up to this time, Jehoiada’s wisdom had been chiefly conspicuous. Henceforth it is his fidelity that draws our admiration. Aiming at nothing for himself, his first thought is for the honor of God, and therefore he renews the Mosaic covenant; his next for the welfare of his country, and therefore he makes king and people mutually swear to each other; has third for the honor of true religion, and therefore he destroys the temple of Baal, and inaugurates afresh the Jehovistic service. As Bahr says, “If ever a man stood pure and blameless in the midst of such a bold, difficult, and far-reaching enterprise, then Jehoiada, the ideal Israelitish priest, did so here.” The after-life of Jehoiada is less remarkable (2Ki 12:2-16; 2Ch 24:2-14), but not unworthy of his earlier reputation.
2Ki 11:15-17
God’s judgments not infrequently fall in this life, though sometimes they are deferred to the life beyond the grave.
The Athaliahs and Mattans of history seldom come to a good end. Though the wicked man be often seen in prosperity, though he “flourishes as a green bay tree,” yet it is not often that he continues flourishing to the close of his days, or dies in comfort, peace, and happiness. The psalmist was satisfied when he saw “the end’ of the man whose long-continued prosperity had vexed and grieved him (Psa 73:2-22). Heathen wisdom bade men “never to pronounce any one happy before his death,” since in human life changes were of continual occurrence, and the higher a man’s exaltation above his fellows at a given time, the lower was likely to be his depression and degradation at another. The rationale of the matter seems to be
I. GOD HAS ATTACHED PENALTIES TO VICE IN THE WAY OF NATURAL CONSEQUENCE, WHICH TAKE EFFECT IF TIME BE ALLOWED. Tyrants lay up for themselves a constantly increasing amount of hatred and resentment, which naturally bursts forth and sweeps them away after a while; e.g. Hipparchus, Tarquin, Dionysius, Caligula, Nero. Drunkards, gluttons, and profligate persons destroy their health. Reckless spendthrifts reduce themselves to poverty and want. Unfaithfulness strips men of their friends, and leaves them weak and defenseless against their adversaries. The prosperity of the wicked is naturally but for a timegive them the full term of human life, and, before they die, their sin will, to a certainty, find them out, and they will cease to prosper.
II. GOD DOES, ON OCCASION, VISIT HIGH–PLACED, PROSPEROUS SINNERS WITH SUDDEN, SIGNAL PUNISHMENTS DEALT BY HIS OWN HAND. Scripture gives us a certain number of examples, as those of the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Saul, Jezebel, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod Agrippa, and the like, whose afflictions are distinctly declared to have been sent upon them by God himself in the way of punishment. While, no doubt, great caution is necessary in applying the principle thus indicated to other persons in history, and especially to living persons, we need not shrink from some application of it. God speaks to us in history, not only in his Word. When selfish usurpers, who have deluged whole continents in blood, and sacrificed tens or hundreds of thousands of lives to gratify their ambition, are cast down from their thrones, and die in exile or banishment, it is almost impossible not to see his hand in the occurrences, executing judgment. When an Arius, bent on the disruption of the Church, and seemingly at the point of triumph, expires silently in the night, or a Galerius, the most cruel of persecutors, perishes in most horrible agonies, there is no want of charity or of reverence in once more recognizing his finger interposed to save has Church or to avenge his martyred ones. “Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment” (1Ti 5:24); and, when the judgment falls, it would be willful blindness on our part not to recognize it. We must be cautious, and remember that those on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, were not sinners above the other dwellers in Jerusalem (Luk 13:4); but, if it was God’s vengeance that destroyed the cities of the plain, and that visited Nadab and Abihu, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Sihon and Og, Balaam, Adonizedek and his brother kings, Eglon, Sisera, Zebah, Zalmunna, Abimelech, Agag, Doeg, Shimei, Jezebel, Haman, Ananias, Sapphira, Herod Agrippa, Elymas, so we may be sure that it has fallen on hundreds of others whose names do not occur in Scripture, coming suddenly upon them, and cutting them off in their iniquities, generally when neither they nor others were in the least expecting it. God is still, as he has ever been, “the great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in work; his eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer 32:18, Jer 32:19). Either m this life or in the life to come he will execute vengeance upon evil-doers. Well for them if it is in this life, and if they so escape the dreadful lot of those “to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jud 2Ki 1:13).
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN
2Ki 11:1-16
The preservation and coronation of Joash.
This is a touching story of hymen wickedness and of God’s overruling and preserving power. Three principal personages come before us here, from each of whom something may be learned.
I. ATHALIAH AND HER WORK. Athaliah‘s life-work was a Work of destruction. She did much harm. She did no good. A daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (sometimes called a daughter of Omri, whose granddaughter she was), she had inherited all the evil propensities of her parents. She destroyed her own husband, Jehoram King of Judah. We read of him that “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord” (2Ch 21:6). She destroyed also her son Ahaziah. We read of him that “he also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly. Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab; for they were his counselors after the death of his father to his destruction“ (2Ch 21:3, 2Ch 21:4). And now she completes her destructive career by putting to death her grandchildren, the seed royal of the kingdom. There are many women like Athaliah, whose life-work is a work of destruction. What harm one wicked woman can do! Some corrupt the morals of others. Some, by their evil-speaking and slander, do what they can to destroy the reputation and good name of their neighbors. The Jezebels and Athaliahs of Scripture story have their parallels in the Queen Marys, the Pompadours, the Medicis, and the Maintenons of more modern times.
II. JEHOSHEBA AND HER WORK. Jehosheba‘s work was a work of preservation. She too was a king’s daughter. But she had not been corrupted by the wickedness of the court. She was the wife of Jehoiada the priesta good wife of a good man. She rescued Joash from Athaliah’s massacre, and kept him hid in the priests’ apartments in the temple. There he was hid for six years, until the time that, as a boy-king, he was called to the throne. If there are Athaliahs in the world still, there are also Jehoshebas. If there are women of cruelty, there are also women of sympathetic and. compassionate spirit. If there are women who are corrupters of others, how many there are who by their own pure life and conduct have been the preservers of public purity and morality! If one wicked woman can do much harm, one pure-minded Christian woman can do a vast amount of good. What an amount of quiet beneficence is being carried on by Christian women throughout the world at the present day! What a vast number of ladies who visit and minister to the poor! What a vast number of ladies who, in hospitals and in private houses, devote themselves to the noble work of nursing the sick I How many are engaged in instructing the young in our Sunday schools! How many have gone forth as missionaries to heathen lands! Woman’s work in the Christian Church, and in the cause of charity and philanthropy, seems to be increasing every year.
III. JEHOIADA AND HIS WORK. Jehoiada’s work was of a twofold nature. His work was both destroying and preserving. He destroyed idolatry. He put an end to Athaliah’s reign and life. He did not believe in the policy of non-resistance. He believed in doing his utmost to overthrow even the power of the reigning queen, when that power was wickedly obtained, and exercised in an evil way, dishonoring to God and injurious to the interests of the nation. Like many another reformer, he incurred the charge of disloyalty and treason. But there are many things that need to be destroyed. And who can overestimate the harm done by a wicked ruler? But Jehoiada was no mere revolutionist. He did not rebel against Athaliah for revolution’s sake. He did not put an end to her reign because of his antipathy to governments. He would have agreed with St. Paul that “the powers that be are ordained of God.” He set up another king in her place, and, in place of the idolatry which she had sanctioned, he set up the worship of the true God. We see in the whole narrative the overruling providence of God. Athaliah thought she would make her power secure by her holocaust of young princes. But man proposes, and God disposes. We see also the use of human instrumentality. God works by means. He used Jehosheba to preserve the young life which in the end was the means, in Jehoiada’s hand, of overthrowing the wicked power of Athaliah.C.H.I.
2Ki 11:17-21
The covenant and its results.
Jehoiada was faithful to God. All that he had hitherto done was but the work of a pioneer, preparing the way for the restoration of God’s worship and God’s Law in the land. We have here
I. THE COVENANT MADE. Very early in the history of God’s people we find them entering into covenants with him. When Jacob had that comforting vision at Bethel, he entered into a covenant. “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” The pillar he set up was the witness of the covenant. When God gave the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel, they entered into a covenant that they would keep them and do them. That covenant they publicly renewed and ratified many times in their subsequent history. They renewed it shortly before the death of Moses. They renewed it shortly before the death of Joshua, and on that occasion Joshua set up a great stone to be a witness of what they had done. On the occasion before us they renew it under the influence of Jehoiada. “And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord’s people; between the king also and the people.” They renewed it also in the reign of Josiah, and under Ezra and Nehemiah after the return from the Captivity. In all these cases we find three important features, common to them all. In each case the duty of making the covenant was enjoined upon the people by eminent men of Godprophets, priests, and kings. In each case it was a public covenant, entered into by all the people. And in each case, when the covenant was renewed, it was accompanied by moral and spiritual revival and reformation. Have we not in the New Testament the same duty pointed out and practiced, though not indeed under the same name? It was a public covenant with the Lord when on the Day of Pentecost the three thousand souls were baptized. When Paul praises the Churches of Macedonia for that “they first gave their own selves to the Lord;” when he calls his readers to present themselves a living sacrifice unto God; to remember that they are not their own, but are bought with a price; to come out from among the godless and be separate;all these are just different ways of reminding them that as Christians they have entered into a covenant with God. Passing over the dark ages which came upon the Christian Church, we find that when the Bible truths began to shed their light once more in the surrounding darkness, the early Reformers found it necessary to baud themselves together in a solemn covenant with God and with one another. By this means they kept before them their great purpose. By this means they stimulated and strengthened and encouraged one another. By this means they lifted up a testimony against surrounding error. Such a covenant was publicly agreed to by the Protestant princes and states of Germany, and also by the Huguenots of France. But the best-known and most memorable covenants are those of Scotland. John Knox laid the foundation of the Reformation in Scotland, but the covenants built it up and strengthened it. The first of these was called the National Covenant, first drawn up in the year 1580. It was signed by the king, nobles, and persons of all ranksthe king being James VI. of Scotland, afterwards James I. of England. By this memorable document the whole people of Scotland pledged themselves to renounce and resist all the errors of popery, and to maintain the truth as it is in Jesus. It was this covenant which was afterwards renewed in the Greyfriar’s Churchyard at Edinburgh, when, among the immense multitude who signed it, many opened their veins and wrote their names with their own blood. The other was the Solemn League and Covenant, entered into between the two parliaments of England and Scotland, also for resistance to popery, and the maintenance of pure religion throughout the land. These things suggest to us that, in times of prevailing wickedness or of prevailing error, it is the duty of God’s people to make public avowal of their faith in Christ and allegiance to him. It is a duty pointed out both in the Old Testament and in the New, and confirmed by the experience of God’s Church both in Scripture times and in more recent days. If ever there was a time when it was the duty of Christ’s people publicly and unitedly to confess him, that time is the present. Wickedness abounds. The love of many waxes cold. Many of Christ’s professing people seem utterly indifferent to the claims of their Master and his cause. False doctrines are taught; and under the show of religion there is a growing conformity to the world. A faithful, strong, united testimony for Christ is urgently needed. How, then, are we to carry out this duty of making a public covenant with God? There is one way which is available to us all, and that is the Lord’s Supper. It is an act of commemoration, communion, and consecration. In partaking of the Lord’s Supper we enter into a covenant with God. It is a public covenant. The eyes of the world are upon us. They see us make a profession to be Christ’s. Do they see that our practice corresponds with our profession? Each communion ought to be a personal covenant with God on the part of each individual believer. It ought to be a public covenant with God on the part of families. It ought to be a public covenant with God on the part of congregations.
II. THE COVENANT KEPT. Jehoiada and the people had entered into a covenant or engagement that they would be the Lord’s. And they kept their promise. The first way in which they showed it was by breaking in pieces the idols and their altars, which were so abundant in the land. So, if we take Christ’s vows upon us at his table, let us show that we mean what we profess. Let us show that we are on the Lord’s side. “Better not to vow, than to vow and not pay.” Let us begin with our own hearts. Are there no idols there that need to be thrown down, no besetting sins that need to be put away, no evil passions that need to be crucified? “If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only” (1Sa 7:3).
III. THE BLESSINGS OF THE COVENANT. “And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet.” God kept them in perfect peace, because their minds were stayed on him. They kept their part of the covenant. God kept his. We find in Scripture that God promises special blessings to those who enter into a covenant with him. Before he gave the Law on Mount Sinai, he said to the children of Israel, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.” Then again God says, “Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty.” We also find that more than once these promises were fulfilled. In the days of Asa, when the people of Judah made a covenant with God, we read that “it was a time of great rejoicing, for they had sought the Lord with all their heart, and he was found of them; and the Lord gave them rest round about.” So in the days of Josiah, When they made the covenant and put away the strange gods, we read, “Surely there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah.” It was the same in more recent times. The covenanters, whose motto was “For Christ’s crown and covenant,” and who shed their blood in defense of Christ’s authority, were a great means of preserving pure and undefiled religion in Scotland. Let us all, then, faithfully witness for him by our lives. “Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten’ (Jer 1:5).C.H.I.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
2Ki 11:1-21
The history of Athaliah.
“And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead,” etc. Among the blackest names in the long roll of the world’s infamy are those of kings and queens, and amongst them Athaliah is not the least abhorrent and revolting. She was the daughter of Ahab King of Israel, and of Jezebel, his notorious wife. She married Joram (or Jehoram) King of Judah. She was the mother of Ahaziah, and advised him in his wickedness. After Jehu had slain him, she resolved to put an end to all the children of her husband by his former wives, and then mount the throne of Judah herself. But the half-sister of Ahaziah, Jehosheba, secured Joash, one of the children and heir to the throne, and secreted him with his nurse for six long years. In the seventh year the young prince was brought forth and placed on the throne. Crowds of people assembled to witness the ceremony, and Athaliah, hearing the shouts of the crowd, hastened to the temple, utterly unsuspicious even of the existence of the young king. When, however, she caught a sight of the young king and heard the hurrahs of the crowd, she felt that her atrocious plans had been frustrated, and in her savage humiliation rent her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!” But her hour was over; she was too late to rally a party in favor of her own interest, and by the command of the priest she was instantly removed and violently destroyed. In this woman’s life, as here sketched, we have hereditary depravity, outwitted wickedness, and just retribution.
I. HEREDITARY DEPRAVITY. We find in this woman, Athaliah, the infernal tendencies of her father and her mother, Ahab and Jezebel. Though they had been swept as monsters from the earth, and were now lying in the grave, their hellish spirit lived and worked in this their daughter. It is, alas! often so. We have an immortality in others, as well as in ourselves. The men of long-forgotten generations still live in the present. Even the moral pulse of Adam throbs in all. By this fact we are reminded:
1. That the moral qualities of parents may become physical tendencies in their children. The man who voluntarily (and all moral qualities are voluntary productions) contracts habits of falsehood, dishonesty, profanity, incontinence, drunkenness, and general intemperance, transmits these to his children as physical tendencies. This is marvelous, but patent to every observer of society and student of history. Who cannot refer to both men and women who have received an unappeasable craving for strong drinks by the drunken habits contracted by their parents?
2. That the evil moral qualities of parents, reappearing in their children in the form of physical tendencies, is no complete justification for the children‘s wickedness. This is clear:
(1) From the fact that God has endowed all with sufficient force to control all physical tendencies. Most men have sufficient mental faculties to quench the strongest physical passion.
(2) From the personal consciousness of every sinner. When the conscience is quickened, the greatest liar, debauchee, drunkard, thief, becomes filled with compunctions for the crimes committed. Every sigh of remorse on account of sin is a testimony to the power of the human mind to control the passions.
(3) From the Divine Word as found in the Scriptures. “Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.” “He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.”
3. That the way to raise the human race is to improve their moral qualities. Indoctrinate men’s souls with truth, benevolence, piety, chastity, purity, etc; and you help on the race to its millennium. And in no other way. The gospel is the instrument for this.
II. OUTWITTED WICKEDNESS. NO doubt this woman, who thought she had destroyed all the “seed royal,” considered she had made her way to the throne clear and secure. For six long years she had no conception that one had escaped her bloody purpose. Now it was revealed to her, and her disappointment maddens her with vengeance, and excites the desperate cry, “Treason! Treason!” It is ever so. “He disappointeth the devices of the crafty.” History abounds with the examples of the bafflement of wrong. The conduct of Joseph’s brethren, Ahithophel, Sanballat, Haman, and the Jewish Sanhedrin in relation to Christ, are instances. Satan, the arch-enemy of the universe, will exemplify this through all the crises of his accursed future. A piece of conduct, wrought by the highest human skill and earnest industry, if not in accord with the immutable principles of right and truth, can no more succeed in its purpose than a house can stand, which is built regardless of the resistless laws of gravitation. The architecture may look well, the materials be most precious, and the production be most costly, yet down it must come, and confound the builder. Craftiness uses lies as concealment and defense, but the eternal law of Providence makes them snares. One lie leads to another, and so on, until they become so numerous that the author involves himself in contradictions, and he falls and flounders like a wild beast in a snare.
III. JUST RETRIBUTION. “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 that followeth her kill with the sword . And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king’s house: and there was she slain . And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king’s house.” Thus Soepe intereunt aliis meditantes necem. Those who plot the destruction of others often fall themselves. Here is:
1. A terrible retribution.
2. A prompt retribution. It came on her here before she passed into the other world. Retribution is going on now and here.
3. A retribution administered by human hands. Truly “the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; yet he shall perish forever . Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.” An Oriental act thus vividly describes the retribution that must follow wickedness
“All vice to which man yields in greed to do it,
Or soon or late, be sure, he’ll sorely rue it;
Experience deep, howe’er false seeming blind him,
Surcharged with retribution, out will find him.
It locks upon his soul a fatal fetter,
Explodes throughout his face in horrid tatter,
Over his shameless eyeballs brings a blurring,
Keeps in his heart a deadly fear-load stirring;
At all pure joys with fiendish talon snatches,
The noblest traits from out his being catches;
Each beam and hope and vision darkens,
His conscience stuns whene’er towards heaven be hearkens;
On goading thorns his sleepless longing tosses,
With soul remorse-foam pleasure’s waves embosses.
Sometimes from phantom-fears impels him flying,
Sometimes in frantic horrors shrouds his dying;
Now turns his dearest friends to cease to love him,
Now spreads avenging Siva’s form above him;
Makes this world black with prison walls and gibbets,
And in the next escape from hell prohibits.
The whole creation’s strange and endless dealing,
In spite of shields and veils and arts concealing,
Proclaims that whosoe’er is long a sinner
Can only be by it of woe a winner.”
D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
2Ki 11:1-3
Athaliah’s usurpation.
Athaliah was the evil genius of Judah, as Jezebel was of Israel. The mother was slain, but, unwarned by her fall, the daughter snatched at the reins of power, and held the throne for six years. The track of both was marked by violence, bloodshed, and political convulsion.
I. THE WICKEDNESS OF ATHALIAH. Ahaziah’s death gave Athaliah her opportunity. Nothing could more clearly reveal the wicked disposition of the woman than the means by which she raised herself to the throne. When she “saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.”
1. She was a woman, yet, to pave her way to power, she did not hesitate to crush every feminine instinct in her breast, and to imbrue her hands in innocent blood.
2. She was a mother, yet she remorselessly put to death her own grandchildren. The youngest was a babe, but her savage temper made no distinctions. Her son’s offspring were only rivals, to be got out of the way by murder. In this tigress-like nature of the queen-mother all womanhood is effaced. Truly “the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (Pro 12:10).
II. THE PRESERVATION OF JOASH. After all, Athaliah’s end was not gained. Unknown to this savage woman, one of Ahaziah’s sons, the youngest, was saved from the general massacre by his aunt Jehosheba, and, after a temporary concealment in the store-chamber of the palace, was conveyed to the temple, and there secretly brought up. We have in this deliverance of the young Joash:
1. An example of faith and courage. IS was “by faith” that the pious Jehosheba did this daring act, even as it was by faith that the parents of Moses hid their goodly child (Heb 11:23). And faith, in this instance as in the other, had its reward.
2. A proof of God‘s faithfulness to his promise. It had been promised to David that he should never want a man to sit on his throne (1Ki 8:25). That promise seemed now frustrated, when to outward appearance every descendant of David was destroyed. But “the counsel of the Lord standeth forever” (Psa 33:11). No device of man can prevail against that.
3. An illustration of how God can defeat the designs of the wicked. Skillfully as the wicked lay their plots, there is generally something overlooked, forgotten, which brings them to naught. Some witness of their crimes is left undetected. They seem to have closed up every chink and cranny through which defeat could enter, yet it is found that some loophole has been left. A good and true cause may be safely left in the hands of God. He will not suffer it to fail.J.O.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
2Ki 11:4-21
The coronation of Joash.
For six years Athaliah was dominant in Israel. Jehoiada meanwhile kept his secret well. Least of all did the usurping queen suspect that a legitimate heir to the throne was in hiding in the temple almost at her own palace door. Her reign must have grown well-nigh unendurable to the people, when they were so willing as the event proved to throw it off. At the six years’ end Jehoiada prepared for his coup d’etat.
I. JEHOIADA‘S PREPARATIONS.
1. Joash produced. The good priest found it necessary to proceed with caution. His measures were taken with skill and secrecy. He first took into his confidence the five centurions of the life-guards, made them swear an oath of fidelity, then produced the king, and showed him to them. The soldiers entered into his plan at once. The risks were enormous, but God’s shield was around this one remaining “lamp” of David’s house, and did not allow its tremulous light to be extinguished. The boy-king was the feeble ark that bore the fortunes of David’s house and of Messianic promise. Had he perished, God’s Word would have fallen to the ground. The Chronicler tells how the captains of hundreds went forth and secretly spread among the Levites and chief of the fathers of Israel the tidings that there was still a living heir of David’s line, and how these came to Jerusalem, and saw the young king too (2Ch 23:2, 2Ch 23:3). It is remarkable that a fact known to so many persons did not in some way leak out. But the people were of one heart and one soul, and Athaliah was left in her false security without a single friend to warn her of her danger.
2. The events sabbath. The day chosen for the public production of the king was probably a feast-day. Otherwise the large concourse of people from all parts of the land could hardly have failed to attract attention. It was a sabbath and an high day”the better the day, the better the deed.” What was contemplated was indeed a revolution, and might involve bloodshed; but it was also a reviving of the fallen theocracy, a replanting of the red of Jesse, and therefore fit work for the sabbath. Nothing that favorably affects the fortunes of the kingdom of God is out of place on the sabbath day. Jehoiada made careful strategic preparations, combining apparently the Levites who went on and off duty in the temple with the life-guards under the captains, and assigning to different companies their respective posts.
3. The place and temple guarded. Guards were told off both for the “king’s house” and for the temple.
(1) those who entered on duty on the sabbath were divided into three parts, and posted round the palace. One third was posted at the principal entrance; a second third at “the gate Sur”perhaps a side gateand the remaining third was placed at a gate which communicated with the temple (2Ki 11:19), where the guards or “runners” were usually stationed.
(2) Those, again, who went off duty on the sabbath were placed within the court of the temple, stretching across from side to side, to guard the person of the king. To these weapons were given from David’s spears and shields, which were in the temple of the Lord. While trusting in God, Jehoiada thus took every human precaution. Faith and works co-operate in God’s service. Our dependence should be as entirely in God as if human means were unavailing, yet our use of means should be as diligent as if everything depended on their employment.
II. THE KING CROWNED.
1. The safety of the king‘s person. When the young king Joash was brought forth, and placed on a raised stand in the temple court, his guard stood firmly around him, each man clutching his weapon. The instructions were that any person attempting to break through the ranks should at once be slain. The person of David’s son was too precious to be left without an effectual guard. Yet more effectual is the guard which God places round his sons (Psa 34:6, Psa 34:7).
2. The ceremony of coronation. The act of coronation of the child-king was then proceeded with. Jehoiada presided at the ceremony.
(1) The crownvisible symbol of royal officewas placed upon his head. God’s priest could well preside at the coronation of God’s king. As son of David, Joash was the legitimate heir of the throne. Royal authority is from God, and investiture at the hands of God’s ministers is our acknowledgment of this. Only those who rule by Divine favor can look for a blessing on their crown.
(2) He had put upon his head “the testimony,” i.e. the Law of Moses, by which kings of Judah and Israel were to be guided (Deu 17:18-20). “Finely are both the crown and the book presented to the king, that he might be not only mighty, but also wise, or, as we may say, know God’s Word and right. Thus, even now, we make kings with a sword and book (Luther). The highest in the land are not above the authority of God’s Word. He by whom “kings reign” is mightier than the mightiest, and requires from the monarch the same allegiance as from the humblest of his subjects. A nation is happy, prosperous, and blessed only when God’s Law is made the rule of its policy and the foundation of its government (Deu 4:6-8).
(3) He was anointed with oil. For where God gives office he gives also qualification for that office. Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. The Word without the Spirit to interpret it, and to give strength for obedience to it, is useless. Kings need the grace of God for the discharge of their duties as much as, even more than, ordinary people. Jesus is God’s King, “anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows” (Heb 1:9).
(4) He was acknowledged as king by popular acclamation. “They clapped their hands and said, God save the king!” The Divine choice was ratified by the free election of the people. While kingly, like all other authority, is derived from God, a throne is only strong when it rests on the loyal affection of the body of the people.
III. THE DEATH OF ATHALIAH.
1. The shout of a king. Athaliah, though queen of Judah, was not a worshipper of the God of Judah. While the scenes above described were being transacted, she was either in her own “house of Baal,” or in the palace. But now the ringing shouts of the people apprised her that something was wrong. The sight of the guards posted round her palace would add to her alarms. She hastened to the temple, and there beheld a spectacle which told her that her hour was come. The young Joash was standing on his platform, the crown on his head, the captains and trumpeters around him, while the air rang with the joyful huzzas of the people, with the notes of the silver trumpets, and with cries of “Let the king live!” Only in part could Athaliah read the meaning of the scene, for she did not know who this crowned boy was. But she saw enough to tell her that the loyalty of the people had found a new center, and that her power was gone. The rejoicings of the people would be gall and wormwood to her heart, for they told her, not only that it was all over with her authority, but that the people were glad it was so. How swiftly, as by a bolt from a clear sky, does retribution often fall upon the wicked! An hour before Athaliah had no suspicion of any calamity. She had but to speak, and guards and servants were ready to yield her all obedience; now her authority has departed like a pricked bubble, and she stands helpless among a multitudenone so poor as to do her reverence. The passage is an illustration of the proverb, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Pro 29:2).
2. Treason to a traitress. When Athaliah saw what was being done, heard the shouts, and witnessed the rejoicings, she rent her garments, and cried, “Treason! Treason!” Treason is an act or series of acts designed to compass the overthrow of a constituted government, and is generally held to be punishable by death, It is wicked and illegitimate governments which make most of the crime of treason, and most severely enforce the penalties against it. Yet it is plain that these penalties are justified only on the supposition that the government against which the treason is directed is a legitimate one. A government which is itself born and bred of treason has no moral justification for punishing treason in others. Athaliah was queen, not by God’s will, but in defiance of all right and morality. She had usurped the throne, and killed (or thought she had killed) the rightful heirs to it. Treason against such a government, itself the offspring of the blackest treachery, was not a crime, but might be the highest duty. Still, as if some horrid iniquity was being practiced, the traitress rends her clothes, and cries, “Treason!” Her own treason is unthought of; she sees only the treason of her enemies. Is not this state of mind too common? Men are loud in denouncing transgressions which they themselves are flagrantly guilty of. They point to the mote in another’s eye, without reflecting on the beam in their own. Callous as to their own falsehood, selfishness, and dishonesty, they detect in an instant, and loudly denounce, the same vices in their neighbors, especially when practiced towards themselves. It is this which renders them inexcusable. For the power to detect sin in others implies a knowledge of the law which condemns the person judging if he does the same things (Rom 2:1).
3. Just retribution. The order of Jehoiada was that if any one ventured to follow Athaliah, he was to be killed with the sword. But no one seems to have shown any pity for the fallen queen. The downfall of her power was thus complete. A new government having been constituted, her own attempt to excite rebellion now fell under the category of treason, and was punishable. Jehoiada gives orders for her being taken beyond the temple bounds, and there slain. We see hands laid upon her, and she is led away, or goes, “by the way by the which the horses come into the king’s house,” and in that place of stables meets her death. An inglorious end! But what glory can we look for to crown a career of sin? In Athaliah, the last member of Ahab’s cursed house met a deserved doom. Judgment against the sinner may not always be executed speedily, but the stroke will surely fall at last (Ecc 8:11).
IV. A COVENANT WITH JEHOVAH.
1. The covenant with God renewed. The people had received, as if from heaven, a new king of the line of David, and the moment was auspicious for a new covenant being entered into, and formally ratified, with God. It is good when special mercies are made an occasion of renewal of vows. The covenant promoted by Jehoiada wan twofold.
(1) It was a covenant between the king and people and Jehovah. In this transaction they solemnly pledged themselves to be the Lord’s people. National covenanting is only appropriate when it springs from the spontaneous impulse of the masses of the people. Among the Hebrews, who, by the very form of their national existence, were a people in covenant with Jehovah, such renewal of religious vows was specially suitable. The idea of a “people of the Lord” is now embodied, not in a national form, but in the Church of Christ. Great is the honor of forming part of this “chosen generation,” this “royal priesthood,” this “holy nation,” this “peculiar people” (1Pe 2:9), and we should often recall the fact to ourselves, and make it the basis of new consecration.
(2) It was a covenant between the king and the people. He, on his part, would pledge himself to maintain the government according to the Law of God; and they, on theirs, would promise him loyalty and obedience. Happy is it, when rulers and people stand in this bond of mutual confidence!
2. Zeal in religious reform. The earnest spirit awakened by this solemn act of covenant immediately showed itself in zealous efforts for the removal of abuses. We read that, not one or two, but “all the people of the land,” set themselves to reforming, work.
(1) They went into the house of Baal, and brake it down. A house of Baal in Jerusalem, and possibly on the temple hill, was a deliberate insult to Jehovah. No respect for the beauty or costliness of the building was allowed to save it from destruction. When higher interests are involved, artistic and sentimental considerations must go to the wall.
(2) They brake in pieces “thoroughly” Baal’s altars and images. Idolatry was to be thoroughly rooted out in accordance with the word of the testimony (Deu 12:1-3).
(3) They slew Mattan, the high priest of Baal. By the Law of Israel his life was forfeited through the practice of idolatry.
(4) They restored the worship of the temple. This is implied in the statement, “The priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord.” It is evident from the next chapter that the temple service had been allowed to become greatly disorganized. The zeal of these reformers had, therefore, its positive side. They sought to build up as well as cast down. The false worship of God was replaced by the true. Court fashion goes a long way in determining preferences in religion. When Athaliah worshipped Baal, it was fashionable to neglect Jehovah; now that Joash restored the worship of Jehovah, people flocked back to the temple. Those in high stations have great responsibilities, and not least for the examples they set in religion.
3. The joy of the people. Joash was now escorted in grand procession to the palace of his fathers. Athaliah was dead, and he sat on the throne of the kings. Joy filled the people’s hearts, and quiet reigned in the city. When godliness is victorious, it diffuses peace and gladness through all minds.J.O.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
2Ki 11:1. When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, &c. The consideration of the fate which attended these royal families, is sufficient to make one thankful to God for having been born of meaner parentage. The whole offspring of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab, kings of Israel, were cut off for their idolatry; and the kings of Judah having contracted an affinity with the house of Ahab, and being by them seduced into the same crime, were so destroyed by three successive massacres, that there was but one left: for, first Jehoram slew all his brethren, then Jehu slew all his brother’s children, and now Athaliah destroys all the rest whom her executioners can meet with. Enraged to see Ahab’s family cut off, she resolved to revenge it on the house of David. As she was one of Ahab’s family, she had reason to apprehend that Jehu, who had a commission to extirpate all, would not be long before he called upon her; her only way therefore to secure herself against him was, to usurp the throne; but this she knew she could not do without destroying all the royal progeny, who were no well-wishers to the worship of Baal, which she had abetted, and was resolved to maintain.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
B.Athaliahs Reign, and Fall
2Ki 11:1-20. (2Ch 22:10 to 2Ch 23:21.)
1And [But] when [omit when] Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah [when she] 1saw that her son was dead, [then] she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 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 [who were to be] 2slain; [,] and they hid him, even [omit from and to even: read and put] 3him and his nurse, [omit,] in the bed-chamber [store-room, and hid him] from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.
4And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard [centurions of the life-guards and of the runners] 4and 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 shewed them the kings Song of Solomon 5 And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of [those of] you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the kings house; 6And a third part shall be at the gate of [omit of] Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard [runners] 5so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down [to prevent entrance]. 7And two parts of [omit two parts of] all [those of] you that go forth on the sabbath [of both sorts of soldiers] 6even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king. 8And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within [breaketh through] the ranges [ranks] 7let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as lie cometh in. 9And the 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. 10And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king Davids spears 8and 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 [hand wall] of the temple [house] to the left corner [hand wall] of the temple [house] along by [towards] the altar and the temple. 12And he brought forth the kings son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king [lit. Live the king].
13And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard9and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord. 14And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar [was standing on a platform] as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced [were rejoicing] and blew [blowing] with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, treason. 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 [through the ranks]; and him that followeth her kill 10with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord. 16And they laid hands on her [made room for her on either hand]; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the kings house: and there was she slain.
17And Jehoiada made a [the] covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lords people; between the king also and the people. 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 appointed officers over the house of the Lord. 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 [runners] to the kings house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. 20And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and [but] they slew [had slain] Athaliah with the sword beside [at] the kings house.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Introductory RemarksThe parallel account in the Chronicles is, in some places, word for word the same as the one before us. It cannot, however, have been copied from this record, for it not only varies in particular details, but also contains additions, and those such as the Chronicler cannot possibly have invented himself, e. g., the names of the five centurions and their fathers (2Ch 23:1). It is, therefore, very generally admitted that the two accounts are derived from one and the same original record, from which the author of the books of Kings and the Chronicler each took different extracts according to the stand-point of each. The record before us is not only older, but it is also clear and definite, so that when it is regarded by itself simply it presents no difficulties. These do not present themselves until we turn to the story in Chronicles, which is, it is true, in some cases more full and detailed, but which is, on the whole, far less clear. In any attempt at reconciliation, therefore, we must not, as Keil does, make the Chronicles the standard, but must start from the record which here lies before us. Noteworthy as the additions and variations in the Chronicles may appear, they can only be accepted in so far as they are not contradictory to this account.
2Ki 11:1. But Athaliah, &c. We may suppose that she had carried on the government as queen-regent ( cf. 1Ki 15:13; 1Ki 11:19), [In the latter place it is applied to a queen-consort, as in Jer 13:18; Jer 29:2. In 1Ki 15:13 and here it is applied to the queen-mother. It is a title which implies more actual political power and influence than . The queen-mother has always been, and is, a personage of influence in oriental countries. For the importance of this role in the Israelitish monarchy, and for the influence exerted on the history by some of the individuals who filled it (Bathsheba, Maacah, Athaliah, Jezebel), see Stanleys Lectures, 2d ser. p. 432], during the absence of her son at Ramoth and at Jezreel (2Ki 8:28-29), and now she took the royal authority directly into her own hands. In order to establish herself on the throne, she proceeded in the usual manner of oriental usurpers (see above, on chap. 10). She slew all the seed royal, i.e., all the male members of the royal house who might eventually become pretenders to the throne. The forty-two brethren of Ahaziah, who were slain by Jehu (2Ki 10:13 sq.), were not, therefore, all the princes there were, but a certain portion of them, especially those who were grown up.
2Ki 11:2. Jehosheba was the sister of Ahaziah, but not the daughter of Athaliah. She was the daughter of another wife of king Jehoram. According to 2Ch 20:11, she was the wife of Jehoiada, the priesta statement the truth of which Thenius unjustly questions. It explains Jehoiadas conduct most satisfactorily. The Chronicler has , after , and this word must here be supplied. is not the bed-chamber (Luther, E. V.) either of the royal princes (Clericus), or of the priests and levites (Vatablus), but the room of the palace in which the beds, mattresses, and coverlets were stored, and where no one lived. The child, who was an infant at the breast, was temporarily hidden here, and then he was brought, for greater security, into the house of Jehovah, i.e., into a room adjoining the temple, or into one of the temple chambers, so that he was under the care of the high-priest. With her, i.e., with the wet-nurse, whose care he yet needed; not, with Jehosheba (Thenius), for she could not remain concealed for so long a time. The nurse remained with him, after he was weaned, as his attendant until his sixth year. Instead of the Chronicler has, less precisely, , with them, i.e., in their family. The priest and Jehosheba kept him in concealment. The Sept. translate , in Chronicles, by , which they also give for in Kings. We cannot infer, with Keil, that he was concealed in the house of the high-priest, in one of the courts of the temple, for there is no hint anywhere that the high-priest and his family lived in any part of the temple-building (cf. Neh 3:26 sq., from which the contrary seems more probable).
2Ki 11:4. And the seventh year Jehoiada sent, &c. For the Chronicler has , i.e., he took courage. It seemed to Jehoiada doubtful whether he ought to keep the prince any longer in concealment. Perhaps also the government of Athaliah had become more and more unendurable. In 2Ki 11:15; 2Ki 11:18 he is called simply , whereby he is designated as high-priest. Cf. 2Ki 12:11. The centurions were the commanders each of a hundred men of the life-guards and the runners (see notes on 1Ki 1:38; 1Ki 14:27). The Chronicler gives the names of these centurions and of their fathers, which he can only have obtained from the original document which served as authority both for him and for the writer of this history. As there are five names given we may infer that the entire life-guard consisted of 500 men. It is to be noticed that their agreement is not called a , as in the case of Baasha, Zimri, &c., but a . Only Athaliah calls it , 2Ki 11:14. The oath which Jehoiada took of them in the holy place can only have been to this effect, that they would bring about the elevation of the prince to the throne, but, for the present, would keep the intention to do so secret. He then showed the prince to them. In the account in Chronicles the words: And took an oath of them in the house of Jehovah, and showed them the kings son, are wanting. Instead, we read there: And they went about in Judah, and gathered the levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. And all the congregation (i.e., the collected representatives of the people) made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he (Jehoiada) said unto them, Behold, the kings son shall reign as the Lord hath said of the sons of David. There is no contradiction here, for we may well suppose that Jehoiada at first only admitted the five chiefs into the secret, and won their adhesion, but that they, before they proceeded to carry out the plan proposed (2Ki 11:5 sq.), sought to assure themselves of the support of the levites and of the representative family chiefs, and invited them to one of the three great yearly festivals, at which they were accustomed to visit Jerusalem according to the law, so that their presence there would not attract attention. [See appendix to this section for a detailed comparison of the two accounts.]
2Ki 11:5. And he commanded them, &c. Jehoiadas plan was to take military possession of the two places, which here were of prime importance, the palace and the temple. In the latter was the young prince, who was then to be crowned and anointed; in the former was the throne, of which he was afterwards to take possession. 2Ki 11:5-6 treat of the taking possession of the palace; 2Ki 11:7-8 of that of the temple. It should be particularly observed that Jehoiadas words are addressed to the centurions of the life-guard and of the runners (2Ki 11:4). Therefore when he says (2Ki 11:5): A third part ; and (2Ki 11:7): both sorts , he means of course no other than the soldiers under the command of these captains, who are distinctly mentioned, in 2Ki 11:9, as their men, so that it is simply impossible to understand by it, levites. The entire body of men at their disposal consisted, therefore, of those who had to undertake guard-duty on the sabbath, and of those who were released from service on that day. Those who entered upon service at that time were to hold control of the palace at three points; one third at the , by which we have to understand here the royal residence proper, in distinction from the less important accessory buildings connected with it (2Ki 11:5, in which, it may be remarked in passing, must be read instead of . The Sept. add after , the words: .) The second third-part was to hold the gate . No gate by this name is mentioned elsewhere. According to the signification of the stem , to depart from the way, it can refer only to the exit or side-door of the palace. The third third-part received the charge , or, as it is called in 2Ki 11:19 simply, . [The runners were probably couriers whose line of duty was to act as the kings messengers. This gate was probably so called, because it was the one before which they were usually stationed, either on guard-duty, or awaiting commands which were directed to their department of the service, or both.W. G. S.] Since the new king held his solemn entry into the palace through this gate (2Ki 11:19), it must have been the chief gate; through which there was the most direct approach to the royal residence. It was behind the runners, since their usual station was before it. The word is not a proper name (Luther: Massa; Vulg.: Messa), but means repulse, defence, that which wards off, from , to ward off, and it is in apposition to . It may be referred to all three of the third-parts, since all three were intended to ward off and expel every one who might desire to gain admission to the palace. This was the duty assigned to those who commenced duty on the sabbath. Those who were released on that day were to guard the temple (2Ki 11:7). They were not to be divided up into subdivisions to do duty at separate posts, but their two were to form and to take the young king in their midst (2Ki 11:8) By are meant, in distinction from (2Ki 11:5-6) the two different sorts of soldiers, according to their weapons and duties, i.e., the life-guards and the runners. are the ranks, in which they were to arrange themselves, between which the king went out of the temple into the palace. Any one who broke through them and ventured inside was to be slain (2Ki 11:8). Let it be observed with what accuracy is used in 2Ki 11:7, where the reference is to a distinction of functions, and in 2Ki 11:5, where the reference is to merely numerical subdivisions of the force (Thenius). The final words of 2Ki 11:8 : And be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in, belong to the directions which Jehoiada gave for the division of the numbers and of the functions of the soldiers for this especial case. They cannot, therefore, be taken as of general signification, referring to all the life of the king, under all circumstances: In all his business, or, in all his movements (Keil), as in Deu 28:6; Deu 31:2, but they refer to the execution of this plan, and are to be understood of the movement of the king from the temple to the palace (Thenius). In 2Ki 11:9 sq. follows the actual execution of the commands of Jehoiada which have been imparted in the preceding verses.
2Ki 11:10. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give, &c. Instead of the sing. , the Chronicler has the plural , and all the ancient versions present the plural in the verse before us. It seems that it stood originally (Isa 2:4; Mic 4:3), and the last was lost by an error in copying (Keil). We must understand that these were not Davids own weapons, but some which he had captured, and placed in the temple as an offering. According to Ewald, whose opinion Thenius approves, Jehoiada gave these weapons to the captains, in order to begin and consecrate the enterprise on which they were about to enter, of restoring the family of David to the throne, by using the weapons of the great ancestor of that family. But perhaps his only reason for distributing these arms among them was, that those who had retired from service at the palace had left their weapons there. The centurions divided these weapons among their soldiers, as 2Ki 11:11 expressly mentions, among the runners, not, therefore, among levites. When the men were thus armed, they were stationed: From the right-hand side of the house to the left-hand side of the house, along towards the altar and the temple, so that they surrounded and covered the person of the king. The meaning is that they shut off the space from the temple-building proper to the altar, and that the king stood in the midst of this space. Whether one row stood across the front from side to side, and two others parallel, along the side (Bertheau), or whether one row stood from the right-hand corner of the temple to the altar, and the other from the altar to the left-hand corner (Thenius), must be left undecided. Not until after the troops had been thus arranged, did Jehoiada lead out the young prince into the midst of the open space (2Ki 11:12). does not mean the insignia regia (Clericus), or the phylacteries (Deu 6:8, Grotius), but, the Law, and, if not the whole Pentateuch, at least the Decalogue, which is so often called the Testimony (Exo 25:21; Exo 16:34, &c.). This was probably given into his hands as a symbol of what is declared to be the law for the king in Deu 17:19, whereas the diadem was placed upon his head (2Sa 1:10). He was then anointed (1Ki 1:39). To clap the hands was a sign of delight and approval (Isa 55:12). Besides the armed force, the priests, and the levites, a multitude of people was also present (2Ki 11:14), which denotes that the coronation took place on a feast-day, when the people collected in Jerusalem from all parts of the country. The acclamations of the people are in the same words as in 1Ki 1:25.
2Ki 11:13. And when Athaliah heard the noise, &c. As worshipper of Baal, who, at that time, had his own temple in Jerusalem (2Ki 11:18), Athaliah took no part in the feasts of the worshippers of Jehovah, in the Jehovah-temple, and, on this day, she paid the less heed to what was going on in the temple, inasmuch as the change of the guards in the palace had taken place as usual, and nothing indicated any unusual disturbance. The great outcry, which she either heard herself, as she well might in view of the short distance from the palace to the temple, or which was reported to her by her attendants, aroused her suspicions, so that she betook herself thither. Josephus states that she went out of the palace with her own troops ( ), and that, when she came to the temple, the priests allowed her to enter, but the guards prevented her guards from following; that Athaliah, when she saw the crowned boy, cried out, and commanded that he who had dared to try to usurp her authority should be put to death, and that thereupon Jehoiada gave orders that she should be led out and executed outside of the temple. [That the queen should have gone down in person into the temple, without guards or attendants, to quell what must have appeared to be a mere vulgar riot, is certainly an astonishing incidentW. G. S.] The words cannot be translated: Of the people who flocked to the spot (Luther, after the Vulg.). The text must have read originally , and the must have fallen out by a copyists error (Thenius, Keil). The Chronicler transposes the words: , and adds: , i. e., the people who were flocking together and hailing the king. The are, however, in this context, always the runners who formed a part of the royal guards (2Ki 11:4; 2Ki 11:6; 2Ki 11:11; 2Ki 11:19), so that the word can mean nothing else in 2Ki 11:13, and the text of the Chronicles cannot, with any good reason at all, be preferred.
2Ki 11:14. The king stood , i.e., not at the column (Luther) [or, by a pillar (E. V.)], but at the appointed, traditional place, which was reserved for the king, by established usage (), as in chap, 2Ki 23:3; 2Ch 34:31. Thenius understands by it the top step of the stairs which led up to the temple, but this would not be any especial position, because the priests passed and stood there every day. Evidently a particular place is meant, an elevated dais or platform (Vulg.: tribunal), which was reserved for the king alone, for, when Athaliah saw the prince standing there, she knew at once what the transaction was which was being accomplished. The people, who stood in the forecourt, could not have seen the king, if he had stood on the top of the temple-steps, on account of the altar ten cubits high which stood in the court of the priests. The platform in question must have stood before the altar, at the entrance to the inner fore-court ( 2Ch 23:13), so that the king, when he stood upon it, was the first object to strike the eye of Athaliah as she entered. Solomon had caused just such arrangements to be made (2Ch 6:13; see Exeg. on 1Ki 8:22)The Vulg. incorrectly renders by cantores, the Sept. by , and Luther by singers, as if the word were . They are the centurions, as in 2Ki 11:4; 2Ki 11:9. The word is correctly translated in the Sept. and Vulg. versions of Chronicles by , and principes., trumpets, for trumpeters. Since the word occurs in 2Ki 12:14, in the enumeration of the utensils of the temple, and is also used in Num 10:2 to designate the trumpets or horns of the priests, and since, moreover, 1Ch 15:24 (2Ki 13:8), the priests appear as , we can think here only of levites or priests as the persons who were blowing the trumpets.And all the people of the land, i.e., the multitude which was present (Bertheau), as in 2Ki 11:13, not, the entire force of militia, which was present in Jerusalem (Thenius).Athaliah rent her clothes, not so much in grief as from terror, like Joram, 2Ki 6:30.
2Ki 11:15. But Jehoiada the priest commanded, &c. The centurions of the life-guard are here designated as commanders of the army in general. The readers are to be reminded by this addition that the military forces were willing to obey Jehoiada (Bertheau).Have her forth through (or between) the ranks, , i.e., within the ranks, so that she was led through the ranks, and was hindered from taking any measures in accord with her adherents (Bertheau). Any one who might desire to take her part, or to assist her, was to be slain. (2Ki 11:16), i.e., not, as Luther [and the E. V.] translate, following the Sept. ( ), and the Vulg. (imposuerunt ei manus), They laid hands on her, but, as the Chaldee version renders it, and as almost all the expositors understand it: They made for her two sides, i.e., they made room for her, opening the ranks on both sides, formed in rank and escorted her out (Keil). By , the entrance-way for horses into the royal stables is to be understood, so that it is not the horse-gate (Neh 3:28), as Josephus understands, for this was a gate of the inner city, and led into the city, not into the palace. She was not to be conducted by the way into the palace, because the new king was to make his solemn entry into the palace by this. It does not follow, however, that Athaliah was to die shamefully and disgracefully by the stables (Thenius), for the royal stables were not, as such, a shameful or unclean place.
2Ki 11:17. And Jehoiada made the covenant, &c. Not a covenant (Luther), but the covenant, i.e., the covenant of Jehovah with Israel, which had been broken by the false worship of Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah. This covenant was solemnly renewed. It attached primarily to the relation between the king and people on the one hand, and Jehovah on the other (they were to be Jehovahs people and belong to Him, Deu 4:28), then, also, to the relation between the king and the people. The people was to be, from that time on, once more the people of God; it was to worship and serve Him alone. The king was to rule according to the testimony, i.e., the Law of Jehovah, which had been solemnly put into his hands, and the people were to be loyal to the legitimate king of the family of David. The immediate and necessary consequence of this renewal of the covenant was the destruction of the temple of Baal, with its altars and idols (2Ki 11:18). When and by whom this temple was built is nowhere stated. It is most probable that it was erected by Jehoram, under the influence of Athaliah (2Ki 8:18), as the one in Samaria was built by Ahab, under the influence of Jezebel (1Ki 16:32). Thenius is wrong in inferring from 2Ch 24:7, that this temple was erected in the enclosure of the temple of Jehovah, for that passage says only that Athaliah and her sons had plundered the Jehovah-temple of all which they could use in the worship of Baal. There can be no doubt that we must understand it to refer to a building on another elevation. It is certain also that Mattan, the priest of Baal who was slain, did not perform his functions in the same place with Jehoiada. [The grounds which lead Bhr to believe that the temple of Baal was not on Mount Moriah are not satisfactory. Every indication which we have in regard to it goes to show that it was there. Mount Moriah is just the spot which would have been chosen for the site of a temple by any nation of ancient times which might have lived at Jerusalem. There was no other elevation near or convenient. The old city was perhaps in some places a little higher than Mount Moriah, but it presented no sharp and clear elevation, such as those which ancient nations always chose as sites of temples, if there was one in the neighborhood. The other hills were too far away. It would be little in accord with the character of Athaliah to suppose that she gave up the best site, which was, at the same time, one of the grandest in the world, according to the taste in those matters, to the Jehovah-religion, and sought another for her own favorite deities. The Jehovah-religion may have been strong enough in Judah to force a compromise, and maintain a joint possession of the mountain. 2Ch 24:7 says that Athaliah and her sons had broken down or torn down () the house of God Just how much that means we cannot perhaps determine, but the temple was standing and available for worship, &c., at this time, as we see, and it may well be meant that they broke down such portions of the walls of the courts, &c., as was necessary to get room for the temple of Baal. See also 2Ki 12:5 (Exeg.) and 2Ch 24:7. Still farther, if 2Ki 11:18 is in its proper chronological position before 2Ki 11:19, and is not, as Thenius thinks, to be taken as belonging after it in order of time, then it gives a strong ground for believing that the temple of Baal was on Mount Moriah. They stayed to tear it down before they formed the procession, and left the temple-mountain to go down and escort the king into the palace. It cannot be regarded, therefore, as beyond doubt that Mattan and Jehoiada did not perform their functions in the same place. That the latter did not like the juxtaposition, we may well believe, but if the question was whether to share Mount Moriah with the worshippers of Baal, or to remove the Jehovah-worship from it, or to give up the Jehovah-worship altogether, we may easily imagine what course he would have chosen.W. G. S.]Duncker, whom Weber again follows, deduces from the sentence: The priests appointed over the house of the Lord, the arbitrary conclusion that, in spite of the victory of the priestly party, Nevertheless the number of the servants of Baal was so great, and their courage was so little broken, that it was necessary to protect the temple of Jehovah against their attacks by especial guards Thenius also thinks that there is reference here to a kind of temple-officers which had not existed before, by whom a new desecration of the temple by the worship of false gods was to be prevented We must understand by it, as is expressly stated 2Ch 23:18, the overseers who were appointed by David (1 Chronicles 25.), and who, during the time that idolatry prevailed, had not been regularly kept up, or perhaps had not been appointed at all. That the article is wanting cannot be decisive to the contrary. [So Keil. Ewald, Thenius, and Bunsen, on the contrary, think that they were intended to protect the temple against the attacks of the heathen. The Chronicler develops this short note into an elaborate statement, as he does all the notices of the origin of any ritual formalities or hierarchical organizations. It is not clear, however, that it should have been thought necessary, just at the time when the Jehovah-religion could once more count on the support of the throne, to appoint new and permanent officers to protect the temple from heathen attacks and desecrations. Moreover, this clause, thus understood, makes the position of 2Ki 11:18 before 2Ki 11:19 probably incorrect as regards the order of time. Shall we understand that they stayed to appoint temple-officers before completing the inauguration of the king? It would be most reasonable to understand it to state simply that they appointed a guard to stay and protect the temple from any sudden attack of the enraged worshippers of Baal, while all the rest went to escort the king into the palace, and see him mount the throne.W. G. S.] According to 2Ki 11:19, the centurions mentioned in 2Ki 11:4, with their troops, the life-guards and the runners, escorted the king down () from the House of Jehovah in a solemn procession arranged () by the priest Jehoiada. Escorted him down, it is said, because there was a ravine between Mount Moriah and Mount Zion, over which at that time there probably was no bridge. They came through the Gate of the Runners (the Chronicler gives instead of , by way of explanation) into the palace, where the throne stood, upon which the king seated himself. The Gate of the Runners belonged therefore to the palace. The Sept. take as a direct genitive, . It was unquestionably the chief gate, for the solemn entry would not take place through any other (Thenius). Ewald, Thenius, and Bertheau connect with the following, in opposition to the massoretic punctuation: And the city remained quiet when they slew Athaliah with the sword: that is to say, her adherents remained peaceful and did not venture to make any movement to save her. But, in that ease, the words with the sword would be unnecessary. The correct interpretation of the words is rather that the concluding sentence is intended to append to 2Ki 11:16 an emphatic statement of the manner in which she was put to death, and, at the same time, to call attention to the fact that, by her death, the last member of the house of Ahab was removed, and the legitimate authority of the house of David was restored. In this interpretation this sentence brings the account to a well-rounded close.
Appendix.In the exegetical explanations which precede, only the less important variations of the Chronicles have been noticed, and no account has been taken of the grand divergence of the two narratives in their general conception of the occurrence, in order that the continuous elucidation of the text before us might not be too much interrupted, and in order that no confusion might arise. The chief variation now, one which runs through the entire account, is, that, according to the Chronicler, it was not the centurions of the royal guards, but the priests, the levites, and the family-chiefs, by whose aid Jehoiada accomplished his reformation (2Ch 23:2); furthermore, that the first third of the priests and levites who entered upon service on the sabbath were appointed , i.e., to be gate-keepers of the threshold, the second to guard the kings house, and the third to keep the gate (2Ki 11:4-5); finally, that the two classes of priests and levites, those who entered upon, and those who were released from, service, remain together (2Ki 11:8), so that, in general, it is only the temple, and not the royal palace at various points, which is guarded. Modern criticism explains these variations as arbitrary alterations of the Chronicler, which he adopted out of preference for the tribe of Levi, in order to. ascribe to the priest-caste an honor which belonged to the prtorians(Thenius, De Wette). This assertion is, to say the very least, exaggerated. No suspicion of falsehood can attach to the idea that the priests and levites participated in the coronation and inauguration of the new king, especially seeing that the main object to be gained by this was the abolition of idolatry (2Ki 11:17 sq.). The plan of the enterprise, according to the account before us, did not proceed from the centurions of the prtorian guard, but from the head of the priest-class, and it would be astonishing and unnatural if the high-priest had excluded all his comrades in rank, office, and family, from participation in a transaction which was not only political, but also religious, and which took place in the temple. This participation was a matter of course, all the more seeing that the act, according to all the indications (see notes on 2Ki 11:4; 2Ki 11:13), took place on a feast, at which priests and levites were bound to be present. The author does not, therefore, exclude them, he rather takes their participation for granted, as we see distinctly from 2Ki 11:14. Still less does the Chronicler exclude the prtorian guard from participation; he even gives what this author does not give in regard to them, viz., the names of the centurions and of their fathers, and thereby he shows how important their part in the work appeared to him, and also shows that he had not forgotten them, but desired that they should be kept in honorable remembrance. He could not, therefore, have had any intention of robbing them of any honor which belonged to them, and conferring it upon the levites. But while this author permits the participation of the levites to remain unemphasized, as something which was a simple matter of course, the Chronicler, who certainly looks at the history more from the priestly, levitical standpoint, feels bound to give it greater prominence. There is no contradiction between the two accounts in this respect. The case is somewhat different, however, in regard to the other detailed variations. The three localities which were to be held, each, according to the Chronicler, by one third of the priests and levites, cannot possibly have been all in the temple, for the , the guard of which is entrusted (2Ki 11:5) to the second third, can only be the kings house or palace, not the place in the temple where the young king was (in concealment) (Keil). The Gate , which was entrusted to the third third, was, as no one doubts, the same which is called in Kings (2Ki 11:6) the Gate . It appears there distinctly as a gate of the palace. Probably is only another reading for . A temple-gate with this name is not mentioned anywhere else. The , which the first third are to guard (2Ki 11:4), might, according to 1Ch 9:19, be a locality in the temple, but it is utterly impossible that they should be identical, as Keil assumes, with the Gate of the Runners in the account here before us (2Ki 11:6), for this gate is distinctly mentioned in 2Ki 11:19 as the one through which the king, after the procession had left the House of Jehovah, was conducted into the palace. According to this account, that gate was guarded by the third third of that portion of the troops under the command of the centurions which entered upon duty on that day, and not by priests and levites, who, of course, never mounted guard at the palace. These variations of the two accounts cannot be reconciled, and we are absolutely forced to admit that the Chronicler, although he made some more detailed extracts from the original document than the author of the Book of Kings, nevertheless did not accurately discriminate between the priests and levites and the military life-guard, and did not keep separate the shares of the two in the transaction. Keil asserts, in order, in spite of this, to bring the two accounts into accord: Jehoiada determined to carry out the project chiefly by the aid of the priests and levites, who relieved each other, in the service of the temple, on the sabbath, and he entrusted the chief command of these forces to the captains of the royal life-guard, that they, with the force of priests and levites under their command, might take possession of the approaches to the temple, in order to repel any attempt of the military to force an entrance, and might protect the young king. These captains came into the temple without weapons in order not to attract attention, therefore Jehoiada gave them the weapons of king David, which were laid up in the temple. But the account of the Chronicler says nothing of any commission of the command over the priests and levites to the centurions, and this account directly contradicts any such notion (see above, on 2Ki 11:5), [not to say anything of the very great intrinsic improbability that any such arrangementputting military leaders in command of priestly forceswould ever have been adopted, or that, if it had, it would have worked well.W. G. S.] According to the account before us it is impossible to exclude the troops ordinarily under the command of the centurions from a share in the transaction. It was almost more necessary to get possession of the palace than of the temple, because the king was to make his solemn entry into it, and mount the throne after his coronation. It is not an argument against the notion that a guard was set over the palace, that Athaliah came down out of it to the people in the temple. There was no object in preventing her from coming out; the guard was set to prevent any one from getting in ( 2Ki 11:6). There is no force in the citation of Josephus (Antiq., 7. 14, 7): Each of the twenty-four classes of priests took charge of the worship for eight days from sabbath to sabbath, or in the observation that it is not known that any such arrangement was observed with respect to the life-guards or any other portion of the army, for of course all regular guards had to relieve each other at definite times, and the record says distinctly that this was the custom of the troops who were under command of the centurions.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. The elevation of Joash to the throne of Judah has great importance in the history of redemption, inasmuch as Gods guidance and protection of the house of David appears in it, and as it is a confirmation of the promise given to this house that it should never be extinguished, and that its light should never fail (2Sa 7:13 sq.; 1Ki 11:36; 1Ki 15:4; 2Ki 8:19; cf. Psa 132:17). In the kingdom of Israel the dynasties changed; one overthrew the other and destroyed it; with Jehu the fourth had already begun. In the kingdom of Judah, on the contrary, the house of David had maintained itself until this time. But now, when Jehu had killed Ahaziah and forty-two of his relatives, and all the remaining royal seed had been destroyed by Athaliah, it appeared that the line of David also was at an end. But God wonderfully ordered it so that an infant of this house escaped the massacre and was saved. He remained concealed for years, and it must have been believed that Davids lamp had gone out forever, when suddenly the sole remaining offshoot of the house of David ascended the throne, and, with the murderess Athaliah, the last survivor of the house of Ahab perished. As the fulfilment of the promise to protect the house of David must have been recognized in this event, there was in it at the same time, for every faithful servant of Jehovah, a pledge that the God of Israel would protect this house also for the future in any calamities; and so He did, until finally, according to the promise, the great son of David came, who was not only the lamp of David, but the light of the world, whose kingdom shall have no end (Luk 1:32-33; Luk 1:69).
2. All the mischief which the relationship contracted by Jehoshaphat with the house of Ahab (1 Kings 22, Hist 1) had brought upon Judah, culminated in the reign of Athaliah, which brought Judah and its royal house to the verge of ruin. Athaliah was a faithful copy of. her mother Jezebel, fanatical, idolatrous, imperious, and cruel. As her mother had controlled Ahab, so she controlled Jehoram and her son Ahaziah. It was she who transplanted idolatry into Judah, which had, until then, been faithful to Jehovah. Under her influence a temple of Baal was built in Jerusalem itself. She plundered the temple of Jehovah and took all the sacred implements for use in the service of Baal (2Ch 24:7). After the death of her son she usurped the royal authority, so that a woman came to sit upon the throne, a thing which had never taken place before and never took place afterwards, and which not only was in direct contradiction with one of the essential duties which devolved upon a king of Israel, who, as such, was to be a servant of God, but also was contrary to the express provision of the law. Maimonides, in the tract Melachim, draws this inference, thus: They place no woman on the throne, for it is said (Deu 17:15): Thou shalt in any wise set him king, not queen. So also, in all positions of dignity and authority, they place only men. Athaliahs usurpation of the throne was the dissolution of the Israelitish monarchy. In order to maintain herself in her usurped authority, she put to death, not, like other usurpers, her opponents, but those who were connected with her own family, her own nephews and grandchildren. The ground for this senseless crime (Ewald) cannot be sought in the fact that she desired to annex Judah to Israel, for Jehu was reigning there, but only in the blind and passionate love of power of this wicked woman (2Ch 24:7), and in her raging hate against the house of David, to which all true servants of Jehovah adhered. For six years she pursued her own courses undisturbed, and believed herself secure, when finally the legitimate heir to the throne, who had escaped the massacre by Gods evident protection, appeared and was anointed king. As her mother Jezebel had stood upon her majesty in her dealings with Jehu, and had believed that she could command, so she came, proud and insolent, into the house of Jehovah, and, forgetting the illegitimacy of her own authority, founded, as it was, solely upon violence, she cried out: Treason, treason! But again, as her mother had heard her doom pronounced: Throw her down! so she hears the command: Have her forth! and him that followeth her kill with the sword. As there was no one who took the part of the hated woman, she died, abandoned by all her servants, a just and disgraceful death. Thereby Judah and its royal house were saved. Racine concludes his tragedy Athalie, with these words:
Par cette fin terrible, et due ses forfaits,
Apprenez, roi des Juifs, et noubliez jamais,
Que les rois dans le ciel ont un juge svre,
Linnocence un vengeur, et lorphelin un pre.
3. The high-priest Jehoiada is, for his time, a very remarkable character. Although, through his wife Jehosheba, he was connected with the idolatrous court, and although he was entrusted with an office which, under the circumstances, was doubly difficult, yet he held firm and true to the God of Israel, and to the legitimate dynasty. The Lord had given the last heir of this line into his hands, and, at the peril of his life, he protects him for years in concealment, guarding him as his own child, and waiting in faith and patience until Jehovah shall give means and ways to restore the apparently exterminated royal house. As the yoke of the tyrannical woman became more and more unendurable, he strengthened himself [i.e., took courage, made up his mind] (2Ch 23:1), and put his hand to the work. He did not wish to open the way to the throne for the young heir by deceit or craft, by cruelty and bloodshed. In the first place he admits the captains of the military guard into the secret, and makes sure of their assistance; then he causes the priests and levites, and the heads of all the families, i.e., the representatives of the people, to be summoned to Jerusalem for a public festival. He. does not wish to do anything by himself alone, but with the consent of the different classes among the entire people. His plan bears witness, not only to his wisdom and prudence, but also to his patriotism. He takes all his measures in such a way that the end is accomplished without tumult or violence, but yet without chance of failure. It is not selfishness and love of power, but pure and disinterested love to Jehovah and to His people which is his motive. Only when Athaliah stigmatizes the restoration of the legitimate order of things as treason and insurrection, puts herself on the defensive, and calls for armed opposition to the movement, does he give orders to lead the crowned monster, as Dereser justly calls her, out of the sanctuary, and deliver her over to her well-deserved fate. His next care then is to renew the covenant between the king and people, exhorting the former to fidelity to the law, and the latter to fidelity to the king. Then finally he leads the king to the throne, and the people put an end to the idol-worship. If ever a man stood pure and blameless in the midst of such a bold, difficult, and far-reaching enterprise, then Jehoiada, the ideal Israelitish priest, did so here.
4. Our modern historians see, in the elevation of the descendant of David to the throne of his fathers, a priest-revolution, just as they see, in the elevation of Jehu, a prophet-revolution. So Duncker (Gesch. d. Alt., s. 417), whom Weber (Gesch., s. 241) follows, states it thus: The priests of the temple at Jerusalem had yielded to the foreign worship much more easily than the prophets in Israel. The example and the success of the latter gradually exercised an influence upon Judah. After the prophets of Israel had brought about the ruin of the house of Omri, the priests tried to overthrow the last remnant of this family in Judah also. The fall of Joram of Israel, and perhaps also the hope of finding in Joash, the son of Ahaziah, whom the priests held in concealment from Athaliah in the temple, an easy tool for priestly influence, induced the high-priest Jehoiada to undertake the overthrow of the queen. Winer (R.-W.-B., i. s. 111) also presents the incident in a similar manner: The priests saved her (Athaliahs) grandson, Joash, with the help of a princess, in the temple. When he had grown up he was secretly anointed king, and Athaliah was put to death in a popular insurrection excited by the priests. Here we have another specimen of that history-making which ignores what the text says, and states, as assured historical fact, that which it does not say. That the priests in Judah gave way more easily to the Baal-worship than the prophets of Israel; that they, encouraged by the example and success of the latter, dethroned and murdered Athaliah, and regarded Joash as one who would probably prove an easy tool in their hands; that the priests saved Joash and hid him in the temple; that he was secretly anointed king, and that then a popular rising was instigated by the priests; of all that, there is nothing in either record. On the contrary, both agree in stating that the sister of king Ahaziah, without any assistance from the priests, took away the infant, and hid him in the palace itself, in the bed store-room, and that she then hid him, for greater security, in the temple, which was under the charge of her husband, the high-priest. These two near relatives of the prince were, for six years, the only ones who knew of his existence. Not until the seventh year did Jehoiada admit any one to the secret, and then not the priests, but the captains of the military guard, and he took of them an oath of secrecy. They it was who summoned the chiefs of the people, and the priests, and the levites, to the festival at Jerusalem, and who took the lead in carrying out the plan. The young prince was not anointed secretly, but as openly as possible. Not only the priests, but also the captains of the royal guard, the representatives of the people, and the people themselves, shouted their acclamations to the new king. The coronation took place without violence, without any scene of public disturbance. The city is quiet, and the people joyful (2Ki 11:20). How can anyone then speak of a popular rising instigated by the priests? Criticism here comes into contradiction with itself. It declares the record in Chronicles unreliable and unhistorical, because it gives such prominence to the participation of the priests and levites, whereas the record in Kings only mentions the captains of the guard, and yet it says that the entire enterprise was conducted by the priests. But it is radically perverse and false to regard the incident as a revolution or a revolt. That Athaliah, as even De Wette expresses it, usurped the throne of David, that she took the royal authority into her own hands, that she destroyed all the remaining seed-royal, that was a revolution. What Jehoiada undertook, not by himself, but in harmony with all ranks, and with the representatives of the people, was a repeal of the revolution, and a restoration of the constitutional, divine as well as human, order. It would have been contrary to conscience and to duty, if Jehoiada had gone down to the grave with the secret that there was yet living a legitimate heir of the throne of David. It was most natural that he should take the initiative in the restoration of the legitimate monarchy, because he had the prince under his care, and no one knew anything about him but Jehoiada and his wife. Moreover, it was doubly his duty, as chief of those whose calling it was to guard and teach the law, i.e., the covenant of God with Israel (Mal 2:7; Deu 33:10; Lev 10:11), to labor to the end that the organic law of the kingdom, which was a theocracy, should be maintained; and, when this law was trodden under foot by the usurping sovereign, no one was so much bound as he to restore it, that is, to renew the covenant. In the kingdom of Israel, where, since Jeroboam, there was no longer any lawful priesthood (2Ch 11:13 sq.), it was the prophets who had to watch over the covenant of Jehovah and to fight for it. In Judah, on the contrary, the diminished and weakened priesthood, together with the true Jehovah-prophets, had to form the opposition to the patronage of paganism (Ewald). Jehoiadas enterprise did not aim to bring about the dominion of the priesthood, but that of the legitimate theocratic dynasty. He, therefore, turned first to the servants of the crown for assistanceaimed to have the new king inaugurated by their power. After this was accomplished, he restored the priestly offices. He aimed at nothing more and nothing less than the restoration of the original theocratic constitution.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
2Ki 11:1-3. Queen Athaliah. (a) Her wicked plans, 2Ki 11:1. (Idolatrous and fond of power, like her mother Jezebel, she takes the royal authority into her own hands, in self-will and contrary to right, and murders all the male seed, in order to put an end forever to the house of David. Wrt. Summ.: We see here whither ambition and love of rule may lead men. Athaliah does not spare her own innocent grandchildren, but causes them to be put to death, only in order that she may be called queen, and may remain such. Sir 3:29 sq.). (b) The frustration of her plans, 2Ki 11:2-3. (Job 5:12; Psa 2:4; Psa 33:10. Wrt. Summ: No one can tread down him whom God sustains. Thus, Pharaoh would have been glad to destroy Israel; Saul would have slain David; Herod, the child Jesus; they could not accomplish it, however; they only injured themselves and perished, just as Athaliah did also.)
2Ki 11:1. Jehoshaphats marriage of his son with a daughter of the house of Ahab, although he brought it about in a good intention, produced the result that Athaliah ruled over Judah, and brought the dynasty of David to the brink of ruin. Neue Wrt. Summ.: So, many a quiet, humble, God-fearing family has been brought into calamities, affecting both body and soul, by a thoughtless marriage. The hope that those who are brought up by godless parents will themselves reform and turn to the fear of God has very slight foundation.
2Ki 11:1-4. Krummacher: King Joash. (a) The great danger which threatened him; (b) but how gloriously he was protected, and (c) how high he was elevated.
2Ki 11:1. When she saw, &c. That which should have made her hesitate and bow in humility to Gods judgment, only made her insolent and blood-thirsty. That is the judgment which obstinacy and wilfulness bring upon themselves.
2Ki 11:2. Calw. Bib.: We have an instance in Jehosheba how, even in the midst of godlessness in a family, any one who will can make an exception.Jehosheba stole him. That was not stealing the child, but saving him. What can a woman do better and nobler than to save an infant child from danger of soul and body, and take him under her protection for the sake of God and His promises?
2Ki 11:3. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. He watches over helpless infants, and holds His protecting hand over them (Mat 18:10; Psa 91:11-13).Krummacher: Joash is a voiceless, yet a mighty, preacher of the security of the elect of God.When the godless appear to have succeeded in the attainment of their objects, and believe that they have conquered, the very moment of their victory is the unperceived commencement of their ruin. The cross of Christ was the victory of His enemies, but this very victory was what brought about their total defeat.
2Ki 11:4-12. Joashs Elevation to the Throne. (a) How it was determined upon and prepared, 2Ki 11:4-8. (Jehoiada took the initiative in it, for it was his right and duty. It was no rebellion and conspiracy against a just authority, but a fact by itself. Rebels violate law and right in order that they may rule; Jehoiada restored law and right, and did not wish to rule; he remained what he was. He conducted himself with courage, but also with wisdom and prudence. See Historical, 3). (b) How it was carried out and accomplished, 2Ki 11:9-12. (With the participation and approval of the different classes of the entire people, without conspiracy, bloodshed, or violence; in the house of God, whose servant the king was; the crown and the law were given into his hands; he was anointed; significant symbols of his calling as king of the people of God.)
2Ki 11:4. Jehoiada, a faithful priest, such as is pleasing to God (1Sa 2:35). It is not hard to proclaim the word of God, when the mighty and great of this world hold to it, but the faithfulness which is needed in the stewards of Gods mysteries is that which will not be stayed or impaired, when the great of this world despise and persecute the word; which will sail against the wind of courtly or popular favor, and will persevere in patience (1Co 4:1-2).Wrt. Summ.: The servants of the Church in the New Testament have not the same calling as the high-priests in the Old, so that they have not to meddle with worldly affairs.Where spiritual and worldly authority go hand in hand, where both unite for the sake of God and for His cause, there the Lord gives blessing and prosperity.
2Ki 11:5 sq. Kyburz: Jehoiada teaches us by his example that we ought not to shun either danger or labor in a just cause, but also that we should go prudently to work.
2Ki 11:9 sq. To take weapons in hand and risk ones life for ones country, redounds to the glory and honor of any nation.
2Ki 11:12. The word of God says: By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth (Pro 8:16). Therefore kings should be crowned in the house of God. Starke: The crown and the law of the Lord belong together. God give to Christendom princes who love His Word!
2Ki 11:13-16. Athaliahs Fall, (a) Her last appearance, 2Ki 11:13-14. (She comes boldly and impudently into the midst of the people, blinded to their disposition towards her. Insolently relying upon her imagined majesty, she commands resistance to the movement which is in progressa faithful type of many tyrants. Pride goes before a fall.) (b) Her terrible end, 2Ki 11:15-16. (Abandoned, despised, and hated by all the people, who rejoice over her fall, she goes to meet her doom, and receives the fate which her deeds deserve. All they that take the sword, &c. Mat 26:52. She is punished by that by which she had sinned.)And all the people rejoiced. That was no forced joy, produced at command, but a natural and sincere joy. It is great good fortune for a people when its dynasty is preserved. It may and ought to rejoice in the house of God, when God has released it from tyranny and usurpation.Kyburz: Sedition! treason! is the cry of Joram, Jezebel, and Athaliah, and of all those who are themselves most to blame for it (Act 24:5).
2Ki 11:17-20. The Results of Athaliahs Fall. (a) The renewal of the covenant, 2Ki 11:17; (b) the destruction of the Baal-worship, 2Ki 11:18-19; (c) the rest and peace of the land.
2Ki 11:17. The abolition and extermination of all which is bad and perverse is necessary, but it is beneficial only when the construction of what is true and good is added to it (Jer 1:10). The reformers of the sixteenth century not only denied and protested, but at the same time they also laid the foundation, other than which none can be laid, and on this they built the Church.The covenant which Jehoiada renewed. (a) The covenant of the king and the people with God. (The basis and fountain of all national prosperity. An irreligious state is a folly and an impossibility; it is no-thing.) (b) The covenant between king and people. (It is built upon the former. There is prosperity in a country only when the prince rules before and with God, and the people is obedient through obedience to God. Without this fundamental condition all constitutions, laws, and institutions, however good they may appear, are useless.) Lange: No relation of subjects and rulers is sound if it has not the covenant with God as its basis on either side.
2Ki 11:18. The zeal of thine house (Joh 2:17). That applies here to an entire people. (Calw. Bibel: It is a grand national event when a people destroys its idols.) He who stands by God and His word tolerates neither gross nor refined idolatry. Where there is decided faith in the living God, the altars of the false gods fall of themselves.The offices in the House of God. God is a God of order, therefore these offices are necessary (Eph 4:11-12).
2Ki 11:19-20. Wrt. Summ.: Where there are pious and faithful rulers, the people should rejoice, should thank God for them, and pray fervently to him for their prolonged life, so that they may lead a peaceful and godly life under their government.
2Ki 11:20. Starke: Governments which are founded in blood always end disastrously.
Footnotes:
[1]2Ki 11:1.[The chetib, , is to be retained. Athaliah is put in independent construction at the head of the sentence, as general subject, and then what she did is stated in detached sentences. The construction is made smoother if we take away the , but the style then loses some of its liveliness. So Thenius and Keil.]
[2]2Ki 11:2.The keri is confirmed by 2Ch 22:11. The chetib [should be punctuated .W. G. S.] mortes, cannot without violence be translated as Keil proposes: Those who were doomed to death.Bhr. [Ewald raises the question whether the chetib cannot be punctuated and explained as a participle hofal, in which the chief vocal force has been concentrated in the second syllable. He cites several cognate instances of considerable force, 131, d, note.On the use of the participle for a preterit future, see Ewald, 335, b, and cf. Gen 19:14; Exo 11:5; Jdg 13:8.]
[3]2Ki 11:2.[After supply from 2Ch 22:11; cf. Exegetical.]
[4]2Ki 11:4.[The chetib, is only a longer and more original form for the keri, , since is contracted from . Ewald, 267, d. here forms a periphrasis for the genitive.]
[5]2Ki 11:6.[I.e., before which the runners generally kept guard.]
[6]2Ki 11:7.[ does not mean parts in the same sense as means a fraction of. Its first meaning is hands, and so parts like hands, that is, two branches of one subject, as the two hands are parts of one person. It refers to the two military divisions, life-guards and runners, of which the squad which retired on the Sabbath was composed. The preposition after it marks these as component or essential parts. See further the Exegetical notes on the verse.]
[7]2Ki 11:8.[I. e., any one who strives to break through the cordon of guards thus posted so as to penetrate either into the palace or the temple.]
[8]2Ki 11:10.[We must read the plural , as in Chron. The sing. in a collective sense is not a probable construction in prose (Thenius).]
[9]2Ki 11:13.[The Aramaic form of the plural in () is very rare in Hebrew prose. It occurs in 1Ki 11:33; 2Sa 21:20 (chetib). In poetry it is more frequent. Ewald, 177, a.]
[10]2Ki 11:15.[, inf. abs. for imper.W. G. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The sacred historian in this chapter is relating the affairs of the kingdom of Judah. Athaliah destroys all the seed royal; one only escaped the general massacre, which is Jehoash. At six years of age Jehoida anoints him king. Athaliah is slain.
2Ki 11:1
The character of this woman is given by the Holy Ghost in a short, but expressive manner: 2Ch 27:7 . Whether from a spirit of revenge, or from a spirit of cruelty, she perpetrated those wicked deeds, is not said. But we must look higher than the instrument. God had said to David, concerning the matter of Uriah, that the sword should not depart from his house. And, although the same God had graciously promised that the seed of David he would make to endure forever, because that Christ, after the flesh, was to be the offspring of David, yet many of David’s branches were lopped off. 2Sa 12:10 ; Psa 80:19 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 11
1. And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw [as to the evil influence of Athaliah on her husband Jehoram, see chap. 2Ki 8:18 , 2Ki 8:26 , 2Ki 8:27 . By her ambition and her cruelty she shows herself a worthy daughter of Jezebel] that her son [Ahaziah (chap. 2Ki 9:27 )] was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal [Heb., seed of the kingdom].
2. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram. sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain [which were to be put to death]; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bed-chamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.
3. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign [was reigning] over the land.
4. And the seventh year [when perhaps discontent at Athaliah’s tyranny had reached a climax] Jehoiada [the high priest ( 2Ki 11:9 )] sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard [the centurions of the Carians and the couriers: the officers commanding the royal 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 shewed them the king’s son.
5. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house;
6. And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down.
7. And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king.
8. And ye shall compass the king round about [they were to form two lines, between which the king might walk safely from the temple to the palace], every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within the ranges [ranks], let him be slain; and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in.
9. And the captains over the hundreds [ 2Ki 11:4 , 2Ki 11:10 ] did according to all things that Jehoiada the priests [had] 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.
10. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David’s spears and shields, that were in the temple of the Lord.
11. And the guard [literally, the couriers; not therefore the Levites] stood, every man with his weapons in his hands, round about the king, from the right corner [side] of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by [at] the altar and the temple.
12. And he brought forth the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony: and they made him king and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king [Heb., Let the king live. Lit., Vivat rex ( 1Ki 1:25 )].
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 [evidently the palace was hard by the temple].
14. And when she looked [having entered the court, the whole scene met her astonished gaze], behold, the king stood by a pillar [the king was standing on the stand (comp. chap. 2Ki 23:3 )], as the manner was [according to the custom on such occasions], and the princes and the trumpeters [the sacred trumpets or clarions blown on solemn occasions by the priests (comp. chap. 2Ki 12:14 ; Num 10:2 ; 1Ch 15:24 )] by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets; and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason [literally, Conspiracy].
15. But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges [cause her to go out between the ranks]: and him that followeth her [ i.e. whoever shows any sympathy with her, or attempts to take her part] kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord.
16. And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king’s house [she entered the palace by way of the entry of the horses. Athaliah was conducted to the royal stables which adjoined the palace, and there put to death]: and there was she slain.
17. And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord’s people [comp. Deu 4:20 ; Exo 19:5-6 ]; between the king also and the people [for the protection of their mutual rights (comp. 1Sa 10:25 )].
18. And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images [or, its (the temple’s) altars… its images] brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priests appointed officers [Heb., offices] over the house of the Lord.
19. And 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 king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings [and they seated him on the throne].
20. And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah [and Athaliah they had slain; an emphatic recurrence to the real climax of the story ( 2Ki 11:16 ), by way of conclusion] with the sword beside the king’s house.
21. Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign.
Athaliah
Athaliah was a king’s daughter, and a king’s wife. She had a son whose name was Ahaziah, but as he was an invalid, he did not occupy the throne longer than about twelve months. As soon as his mother saw that he was dead a fierce and most murderous passion seized her heart. She resolved to be queen herself. In order to carry out this nefarious purpose she slew all the seed royal, so that there being no successor to the throne, she herself ascended it and reigned as queen. It is very wonderful that some of the most cruel and startling things in the world have been done by women. One called Laodice poisoned her six sons one by one, that she might be Empress of Constantinople. Another, ironically named Irene, took the eyes out of her own boy, that he might be incapable of empire, and that she might reign alone. These things were done in the ancient time: is any of the cruelty of heart left still? The accident may be changed what about the passion and purpose of the heart? Let every one answer the question individually.
Athaliah made her heap of corpses and laughed in her mad heart, saying that now she was queen. But always some Fleance escapes the murderer’s clutch. In that heap of corpses there was an infant boy, hardly twelve months old he was spared: the sword had not taken his little life, but the queen knew not that the child Joash had escaped. He was taken and with his nurse was hidden in the temple, and there he was trained by the good priest Jehoiada for some six years. All the while the queen was reigning and doing evil. The little boy was saved by his aunt Jehosheba, and when six years had passed and the boy was seven years of age, being twelve months old when he was snatched from impending ruin, Jehoiada called the rulers together and all the chief and mighty men of Israel, and he revealed the secret to them, and he disposed them in military order and with military precision around the young king, and he brought the crown and put it on his head, and he gave him the testimony or Book of Leviticus, and having gone through all this ceremonial process, the young king stood upright by the pillar of inauguration in the temple, and all that great throng clapped their hands and said “God save the king!” and again “God save the king!” and louder the shout rang till the queen heard it in her house which was not far off. The nearer the church, the farther from God, as has been wittily said. She hastened to the sacred place to know the reason of this hilarious tumult, and when the case was made clear to her, she shrieked and cried “Treason, treason!” and the voice had no echo in the hearts of men. Not a soul fluttered, not a heart started up in royal defence the woman, the evil daughter of an evil mother, was taken out by the way by the which the horses came into the king’s house, and the sword she had thrust into the throat of others drank her own blood. In an event of this kind there must be some great lessons for all time. These are not merely momentary ebullitions of wrath or malice: they have history in them, they are red with the common blood of the whole race.
Very few men stand out in ancient history with so fair and honourable a fame as good Jehoshaphat. It is like a tonic, intellectual and spiritual, to read his vivid history. He was a grand king, long-headed, good-hearted, honest and healthy in purpose of doing wondrous things for his kingdom and for the chosen of God. But is there not a weak point in every man? Does not the strongest man stoop? Does not great Homer sometimes nod? Jehoshaphat had this weakness, that he hankered after some kind of connection with the wicked house of Ahab. He had a son, whose name was Jehoram or Joram, and he wanted his son married. He must look round for royal blood: explain it as we may no man has explained it fully yet Jehoshaphat wanted to be connected with the evil house of Ahab. To that house he looked for a wife for his son Jehoram. His son married Athaliah, and Athaliah brought into the kingdom the idolatrous-ness of Ahab and the fierce blood-thirstiness of Jezebel. That was the root of the mischief. Some roots lie a long time before they begin to germinate. There may be roots in our lives which will take ten years or forty years to develop, but the root will bring forth according to its kind. Let us take care what roots we plant in our life, what connections we form.
Jehoram, the son of good Jehoshaphat, walked in the evil ways of the kings of Israel, and he wrought that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. For mark the reason given by the inspired historian Jehoram did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, for “he had the daughter of Ahab to wife”! What secrets were indicated by that one reason! What a whole volume of tragedy is wrapped up in that brief sentence! The responsibility seems to a large extent transferred from him and placed upon his wife, who was a subtler thinker, a more desperate character, with a larger brain and a firmer will, with more accent and force of personality. Jehoram played the evil trick, repeated the foul habit, went in the wrong direction, bowed down to forbidden altars, for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife. She lured him, the seduction was hers, she won the conquest: when he would have bowed the knee to the God of heaven, she laughed at him and mocked him into Baal-worship he fell as a victim into her industrious and cruel hands.
“Be not unequally yoked together:” do not look upon marriage lightly; do not suppose that it is a game for the passing day, a flash and gone, a hilarious excitement, a wine-bibbing, a passing round of kind salutations, then dying away like a trembling echo. Beware what connections you form, and do not suppose that the laws of God can be set aside with impunity. Get out of your heads the infinite mistake that you can do as you like and escape the operation of divine law. Deliver yourselves from the cruel delusion that you can sow tares and reap wheat. Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. Our family life explains our public attitude and influence. What we are at home we are really abroad. Wives, do not destroy your husbands: when they would do good, help them; when they propose to give to the cause of charity, suggest that the donation be doubled, not divided; when they would help in any good and noble work, give them sympathy, and prayer, and blessing. We never knew a man yet of any enduring public power that was not made by his wife, and we never knew a public yet that fully appreciated the value of that ministry. It is secret; it is at home; it does not show, it is not chalked on a black-board, it is not gilded on a high ceiling, it is silent but vital. We have seen a man go down in his church life, and we have wondered why, and it was his wife, the daughter of Ahab, who was degrading him, narrowing him and dwarfing him in his thinking and sympathy. We have seen a man go up in his public influence, and we have found that it was his wife who was encouraging him, helping him, telling him that he was on the right way, and wishing him good luck in the name of the Lord. See to it that your home is right: have a beautiful home morally and religiously; a sacred house, a sanctuary where joy is the singing angel, and then, when you come abroad into the market-place, into the pulpit or into parliament, or into trading and commerce, or into any of the social relations of life, you will bring with you all the inspiration that comes from a home that blooms like a garden or glows like a summer sun.
Do not suppose that the divine purpose can be set aside by Athaliahs or Irenes or Laodices, or any false, furious, or desperate characters of any kind. The Lord promised David that he should always have a candle in Jerusalem. The light was very low sometimes, it was reduced to a spark in young Joash, but it was God’s candle, and Athaliah’s wild breath could not blow out that light. The word of the Lord abideth for ever. Our confidence in the final reclamation of the world from the grip of evil is not in the eloquence of tongues, nor in the vividness of prophecy, nor in the dauntlessness of courage but it is in the written and sealed oath of the Almighty Maker and Redeemer of his own universe.
Observe a very strong peculiarity in human nature, as shown in the conduct of Athaliah. She went into the temple and saw the young Joash with a crown upon his head and she shrieked out, “Treason, treason!” Poor innocent Athaliah! who would not pity so gentle a dove, with a breast of feathers and a cruel dart rankling in it. Sweet woman, gentle loving creature, injured queen her hands were perfectly clean; she was the victim of a cruel stratagem; she was outwitted by heads longer than hers; she, poor unsuspecting soul, had been brought into this condition, and all she could do was to cry in injured helplessness, “Treason, treason!”
How moral we become under some circumstances! How very righteous we stand up to be under certain provocations! Who could but pity poor Athaliah, who had nursed her grandchildren with a wolf’s care? We do this very self-same thing very often in our own lives. Where is the man who does not suppose that he has a right to do wrong? But let other people do wrong, and then hear him. Given a religious sect of any name whatsoever, that has the domination of any neighbourhood, and the probability is that that religious sect will use its supremacy somewhat mischievously in certain circumstances. It will not let anybody who opposes its tenets have an acre of ground in that neighbourhood, nor will it allow any sect that opposes its principles to build a church there. No, it takes a righteous view of the circumstances; it will not trifle with its responsibilities; it can allow no encroachment; it is charged with the spirit of stewardship, and must be faithful to its sacred obligations. So it cants and whines, whatever its name be: if it be the name we bear religiously so much the worse. We speak of no particular sect, or of any sect that may be placed in such peculiar circumstances as to claim the domination and supremacy in any neighbourhood. Now let any member of that sect leave that particular locality and go to live under a different set of circumstances, and apply for a furlong of ground, or for a house that he may occupy as tenant; then let it be found that his religious convictions are a bar to his entrance upon the enjoyment of local properties and liberties, he will call “Persecution, persecution!” How well it befits his lips. The very man who in one district persecuted to the death those who opposed him removes to another locality where a screw is applied to his own joints, and he cries out, “Persecution persecution!” It is Athaliah’s old trick, and will have Athaliah’s poor reward.
See how the cry of the wicked is unheeded. She was a woman, and by so much had a claim upon the sympathy of the strong. No man’s heart went out towards her in loyal reverence. With what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged. With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. “As I have done,” said a sufferer of old, “to others, so the Lord hath requited me.” Though hand join in hand, yet the wicked shall not go unpunished. If you are treating any of your family, your wife or husband or child, with base cruelty, it will surely come home to you some other day. If you are kind, gentle, true, honest, the wheel will turn in your favour. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Forget not to send a portion to the hungry, and extend a hand to the helpless these are investments that cannot go down; their value increases with the ages. “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” A voice will be heard saying, “Is there any left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” And some day you will receive great rewards and special honours because of your father’s generosity to a former generation. Fathers, you are laying up treasures for children that you know nothing about. You think all you are laying up for your children is to be measured in pounds, shillings, and pence you are doing kindnesses and rendering services that will come up twenty years hence and longer, and your children will then sit down at tables which you are spreading now.
Jehoash, or Joash, as the name was shortened, was trained in the temple, under the good Jehoiada. He was blessed in his aunt for it was his aunt that took him, the daughter of Ahab, but not by the mother of Athaliah and Joash did good all the days of Jehoiada the priest. See the influence of a noble life, see how religion may help royalty, and how that which is morally true lifts up patriotism to a higher level. No country is sound at heart, through and through good, and likely to endure, that draws not the inspiration of its patriotism from the loftiness and purity of its religion.
All these tragedies are making the earth reek with abomination today. Athaliah lives in a vigorous progeny. The times are drunk with iniquity, our streets are the hunting-grounds of all manner of vice, the earth is furious against the Lord, and righteousness is as a bruised angel, trampled and insulted in the highways of the world. Do not decorate the ghastly tomb, and call it the abode of life; let us look at the wild tragedies that are about us on every hand openly in the face, and ask how the deadly mischief can be counteracted. O temple of the Lord, temple of the Lord, search thyself with the candle of heaven, and see if there be aught in thee that keeps up the history of the world’s base Athaliahs.
The great question to be raised and answered by the Christian expositor is this How is this mischief to be cured? It is not to be cured by Associations reading papers to one another at stated times in the year; it is not to be cured by clever ecclesiastical organisations, by multiplying bishops and ministers and Christian agencies, merely as such. How then is it to be cured? It took God to answer that question. He and he only could find the reply to a question accented with fire, and made urgent with blood. What is the divine answer? There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, but that of Jesus Christ the Son of God. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and he said in one of his tenderest discourses, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Except a man be born of the la ver of regeneration which laver is filled with blood and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
This is the answer, poignant, tragical, sublime, tender. Who art thou, poor plasterer, running up and down the world’s broken walls, and daubing them with untempered mortar? Who art thou, crying “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace? Who art thou with an inch of gilt, seeking to decorate the world’s death? The message must be vital, the gospel must be one of blood “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,” and not until we realise the grandeur of that doctrine shall we rouse ourselves from playing at philanthropy, and become inflamed and inspired with the desire to save the world.
Athaliah still lives the connection with the house of Ahab still has evil results: evil-doers will turn round and complain of being badly used when their turn comes, the merciless will meet with no real mercy, the pitiless will have to confront the sword of their own cruelty, and amid all the world’s sin and woe and death there is but one hope, and its name is The Cross of Christ.
Selected Note
” And the captains over the hundreds did according to all tilings that Jehoiada [known by Jehovah] the priest commanded” ( 2Ki 11:9 ). Several persons of this name are mentioned in the Old Testament, of whom the one most deserving notice is he who was high priest in the times of Ahaziah and Athaliah. He is only known from the part which he took in recovering the throne of Judah for the young Joash, who had been saved by his wife Jehoshebah from the massacre by which Athaliah sought to exterminate the royal line of David. Jehoiada manifested much decision and forecast on this occasion; and he used for good the great power which devolved upon him during the minority of the young king, and the influence which he continued to enjoy as long as he lived. The value of this influence is shown by the misconduct and the disorders of the kingdom after his death. He died in b.c. 834, at the age of 130, and his remains were honoured with a place in the sepulchre of the kings at Jerusalem.
Prayer
Almighty God, thou dost give us our bread day by day, and our thought, our light, and our revelation. Thou dost keep us in continual dependence upon thyself. This is well. We know it now to be so. Once we were like a bullock under the yoke, and we chafed under the discipline of heaven: but now we know we are under divine care and guidance, that the spirit of providence is a spirit of education and progress. Even affliction is meant for our chastening and sanctification; our loss is intended to be the beginning of our gain. We see things now as we never saw them before: a man that is called Jesus anointed our eyes, and we see. Of this we are certain. We now contradict all the things we said in our own wisdom. They were but superficial; they did not take in the whole horizon; they were mere conjectures: but now we have brought the power of an endless life to bear upon the concerns of the passing time. This is the miracle which Christ has wrought in our heart. We read time in the light of eternity; we look upon earth through the light of heaven; we measure affliction by the purpose of God. We have changed all our standards and measures and methods of looking at things, so that now we see brightness where we saw nothing but gloom; the wilderness rejoices and stony places are beautiful with flowers. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. This is the daily miracle. We now know the power of the Spirit within ourselves. As to thine energy in things that are round about us, as to the miraculous displays of thine almightiness, we know nothing; we cannot tell why they have ceased to attract our vision, but we feel the inward miracle, the spiritual marvel, the personal surprise. Our prejudices are destroyed, our view is enlarged and brightened, our charity has displaced our censoriousness, and now we live a beautiful life a life of aspiration and love and sacrifice in which there is joy: this also is the miracle of God. What we shall yet do who can tell but thyself? We may even yet live to forgive our worst enemy; thou mayest even now spare us to clasp hands with him whose heel has been lifted up against us; we may yet make room for the prodigal whom we have forsworn for ever; we may yet kill the fatted calf for the man whose name at this moment we dare not mention. We cannot tell what thou hast in store for us. The most iron heart may be melted, the most stubborn will may yield to the persuasion of thy grace, and we may yet be glad with a new joy, and invested with an everlasting liberty. Thou hast many things to say unto us, but we are not able to bear them now; when we are a little older and wiser and stronger, then thou wilt speak the secret word, and it will come to us as a revelation self-testifying, and we shall open our hearts and receive it and give it glad welcome. In the meantime, keep us quiet, patient, restful: may we know the meaning of waiting for God as well as waiting upon him; give us that long-enduring patience which is quite sure that the door will be opened at last, and that the angel of God will come with sweet messages to our heart. Thou knowest our estate, what trouble we are in, what fear darkens upon us, what a cold cloud now and again crosses the line of our life; thou wilt have pity upon us; thy mercy shall be tender, thy kindness shall be loving, and thy coming to us shall be a miracle of redemption. Oh that we were wise really, spiritually, largely, wise; then fear would be killed within us, and hope would light her lamp, and show us all the way, and then thy Spirit would dwell with us, and we should be without apprehension. Could we measure things aright, we should change all our verdicts. Save us from all sophism, all fallacy in practical reasoning, and may we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, daring all coming worlds in this grace of thine. Then it shall be well with us; the eventide shall be a period of rest, and the morning shall call us to service in which there is no weariness. We have been taught these prayers by Jesus Christ our Saviour. He died for us. He has told us all we know of thyself, and of thy purposes; and behold thy name is love, thy purpose is goodness, the intent of thine heart towards this whole creation is an intent of redemption and blessing. Thus saith thy Son, the Son of man, the Saviour of the world. Help us to receive his cross, the mystery of his sacrifice, and all the blessings of his priesthood, and make us rich with promise, and rich with possession, so that the time that now is may be brightened by the time that is to come, and the time that is to come may not lure us from the work which has now to be done. Put a blessing into every heart; shed a new light upon the way of every life; and at last bring us in thine own way to the great Zion on high, the sweet home, the abiding sanctuary, where the labour is delight, where the service is song, where the light never declines. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
IX
ELISHA, THE SUCCESSOR OF ELIJAH
2Ki 2:13-13:21
For the sake of unity, this chapter, like the one on Elijah, will be confined to a single person, Elisha, who was the minister, the disciple, and the successor of the prophet Elijah. “Minister” means an attendant who serves another generally a younger man accompanying and helping an older man. A passage illustrating this service 2Ki 3:11 : “Elisha, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” We may here recall a situation when no wash basin was convenient, and the water was poured on our hands for our morning ablutions. A corresponding New Testament passage is Act 13:5 : “Paul and Barnabas had John Mark to their minister,” that is, the young man, John Mark, attended the two older preachers, and rendered what service he could. Elisha was also a disciple of Elijah. A disciple is a student studying under a teacher. In the Latin we call the teacher magister. Elijah was Elisha’s teacher in holy things. Then Elisha was a successor to Elijah. Elijah held the great office of prophet to Israel, and in view of his speedy departure, God told him to anoint Elisha to be his successor, that is, successor as prophet to the ten tribes.
About four years before the death of Ahab, 800 B.C., Elijah, acting under a commission from God, found Elisha plowing, and the record says, “with twelve yoke of oxen.” I heard a cowman once say that it was sufficient evidence of a man’s fitness to preach when he could plow twelve yoke of oxen and not swear. But the text may mean that Elisha himself plowed with one yoke, and superintended eleven other plowmen. Anyhow, Elijah approached him and dropped his mantle around him. That was a symbolic action, signifying, “When I pass away you must take my mantle and be my successor.” Elisha asked permission to attend to a few household affairs. He called together all the family, and announced that God had called him to a work so life-filling he must give up the farm life and devote himself to the higher business. To symbolize the great change in vocation he killed his own yoke of oxen and roasted them with his implements of husbandry; and had a feast of the family to celebrate his going into the ministry. It is a great thing when the preacher knows how to burn the bridges behind him, and when the family of the preacher recognizes the fulness and completeness of the call to the service of God.
The lesson of this and other calls is that no man can anticipate whom God will call to be his preacher. He called this man from the plow handles. He called Amos from the gathering of sycomore fruit; he called Matthew from the receipt of custom; he called the fishermen from their nets; he called a doctor in the person of Luke. We cannot foretell; the whole matter must be left to God and to God alone, for he alone may put a man into the ministry. I heard Dr. Broadus preach a great sermon on that once: “I thank Christ Jesus, my Lord, for that he hath enabled me and counted me faithful, putting me into this ministry, who was before a blasphemer.”
Elijah served as a prophet fifty-five years. That is a long ministry. There were six kings of Israel before he passed away, as follows: Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Joash. There were five sovereigns of Judah, to wit: Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah (this one a woman) and Joash. Athaliah was queen by usurpation.
God said to Elijah, “Anoint Elisha to be thy successor; anoint Jehu to be king of Israel, and anoint Hazael to be king of Syria.” Now here were two men God-appointed to the position of king, as this man was to the position of prophet, and we distinguish them in this way: It does not follow that because the providence of God makes a man to be king, that the man is conscious of his divine call, like the one who is called to be a preacher. For instance, he says, “I called Cyrus to do what I wanted done: I know him, though he does not know me.” The lesson is that God’s rule is supreme over all offices. Even the most wicked are overruled to serve his general purposes in the government of the world.
The biblical material for a sketch of Elisha’s life 1Ki 19:16 to 2Ki 13:21 . Elisha means, “God the Saviour.” The Greek form is Elisaios; we find it in the Greek text of Luk 4:27 , where our Lord says, “There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elisaios. ” “Elijah” is Hebrew, and “Elias” is the corresponding Greek word; “Elisha” is Hebrew, and “Elisaios” is the corresponding Greek form.
We will now distinguish between the work of Elijah and Elisha, giving some likenesses and some unlikenesses. In the chapter on Elijah attention has already been called to the one great unlikeness, viz: that Elijah did not live in public sight; he appeared only occasionally for a very short time. Elisha’s whole life was in the sight of the public; he had a residence in the city of Samaria, and a residence at Gilgal; he was continually passing from one theological seminary to another; he was in the palaces of the kings, and they always knew where to find him. He had a great deal to do with the home life of the people, with the public life of the people and with the governmental life of the people. There were some points of likeness in their work, so obvious I need not now stop to enumerate them. Elijah’s life was more ascetic, and his ministry was mainly a ministry of judgment, while Elisha’s was one of mercy.
The New Testament likenesses of these two prophets are as follows: Elijah corresponds to John the Baptist, and Elisha’s ministry is very much like the ministry of Jesus in many respects.
There were many schools of the prophets in the days of Elijah and Elisha. Commencing with Jericho we have one; the next was at Bethel; the third at Gilgal not the Gilgal near Jericho but the one in the hill country of Ephraim and there was one at Mount Carmel. These stretched across the whole width of the country four theological seminaries. The history shows us that Elijah, just before his translation, visited every one of them in order, and that Elisha, as soon as Elijah was translated, visited the same ones in reverse order, and there is one passage in the text that tells us that he was continually doing this.
I think the greatest work of Elisha’s life was this instruction work; it was the most far-reaching; it provided a great number of men to take up the work after he passed away. Indeed the schools of the prophets were the great bulwarks of the kingdom of God for 500 years during the Hebrew monarchy. We cannot put the finger on a reformation, except one, in that five hundred years that the prophets did not start. One priest carried on a reformation we will come to it later. But the historians, the poets, the orators, the reformers, and the revivalists, all came from the prophets. Every book in the Bible is written by a man that had the prophetic spirit. Elisha was the voice of God to the conscience of the kings and the people, and when we study the details of his life we will see that as the government heard and obeyed Elisha it prospered, and as it went against his counsel it met disaster.
We have two beautiful stories that show his work in the homes. One of them is the greatest lesson on hospitality that I know of in the Bible. A wealthy family lived right on the path between the Gilgal seminary and the Mount Carmel seminary. The woman of the house called her husband’s attention to the fact that the man of God, Elisha, was continually passing to and fro by their house; that he was a good man, and that they should build a little chamber on the wall to be the prophet’s chamber. “We will put a little table in it, and a chair, and a bed, and we will say to him, Let this be your home when you are passing through.” Elisha was very much impressed with this woman’s thoughtfulness, and the reason for it. He asked her what he could do for her. But she lived among her own people, wanted no favor from the king nor the general of the army. Elisha’s servant suggested that she was childless, so he prophesied to her that within a year she would be the mother of a son. The son was born and grew up to be a bright boy, and, like other boys, followed his father to the field. One hot day when they were reaping and it was very hot in reaping time over there he had a sunstroke and said, “My head! My head!” The father told his servant to take him to his mother as usual, let a child get sick and the daddy is sure to say, “Take him to his mother.” I don’t know what would become of the children if the mothers did not take care of them when they are sick. But the boy died. The woman had a beast saddled and went to the seminary at Mount Carmel. She knew Elisha was there for he had not passed back. It was a very touching story. Anyhow, Elisha restored the boy to life, and to show how it lingered in his mind, years afterward he sent word to her that there would be a famine of seven years, and she had better migrate until the famine was over. She went away for seven years, and when she came back a land-grabber had captured her home and her inheritance. She appealed the case to Elisha, and Elisha appealed the case to the king, and then the kin said, “Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.” When he had heard the full story of this man’s work he said, “Let this woman have her home back again, and interest for all the time it has been used by another.” This is a very sweet story of family life.
There is another story. One of the “theologs ” I do not know how young he was, for he had married and had children the famine pressed so debt was incurred, and they had a law then we find it in the Mosaic code that they might make a bondman of the one who would not pay his debts. The wife of this “theolog” came to Elisha and said, “My husband is one of the prophets; the famine has brought very hard times, and my boys are about to be enslaved because we cannot pay the debt.” Then he wrought the miracle that we will consider a little later, and provided for the payment of the debt of that wife of the prophet and for the sustenance of them until the famine passed away.
These two stories show how this man in going through the country affected the family life of the people; there may have been hundreds of others. I want to say that I have traveled around a good deal in my days, over every county in this state. It may be God’s particular providence, but I have never been anywhere that I did not find good people. In the retrospect of every trip of my life there is a precious memory of godly men that I met on the trip. I found one in the brush in Parker County, where it looked like a “razor-back” hog could not make a living, and they were very poor. I was on my way to an association, and must needs pass through this jungle, and stopped about noon at a small house in the brush, where I received the kindest hospitality in my life. They were God’s children. They fixed the best they had to eat, and it was good, too the best sausage I ever did eat. So this work of Elisha among the families pleases me. I have been over such ground, and I do know that the preacher who is unable to find good, homes and good people, and who is unable to leave a blessing behind him in the homes, is a very poor preacher. I have been entertained by the great governors of the state and the generals of armies, but I have never enjoyed any hospitality anywhere more precious than in that log cabin in the jungle.
The next great work of Elisha was the miracles wrought by him. There were two miracles of judgment. One was when he cursed the lads of Bethel that place of idolatry and turned two she-bears loose that tore up about forty of them. That is one judgment) and I will discuss that in the next chapter. Just now I am simply outlining the man’s whole life for the sake of unity.
The second miracle of judgment was the inflicting on Gehazi the leprosy of Naaman. The rest of his miracles were miracles of patriotism or of mercy. The following is a list (not of every one, for every time he prophesied it was a miracle): 2Ki 2:14 tells us that he divided the Jordan with the mantle of Elijah; 2Ki 2:19 , that he healed the bad springs of Jericho, the water that made the people sick and made the land barren, which was evidently a miracle of mercy. The third miracle recorded is in 2Ki 2:23 , his sending of the she-bears (referred to above) ; the fourth is recorded in 2Ki 3:16 , the miracle of the waters. Three armies led by three kings were in the mountains of Edom, on their way to attack Moab. There was no water, and they were about to perish, and they appealed to Elisha. He told them to go out to the dry torrent bed and dig trenches saying, “To-morrow all of those trenches will be full of water, and you won’t see a cloud nor hear it thunder.” It was a miracle in the sense that he foresaw how that water would come from rain in the mountains. I have seen that very thing happen. Away off in the mountains there may be rain one can’t see it nor hear it from where he is in the valley. The river bed is as dry as a powder horn, and it looks as if there never will be any rain. I was standing in a river bed in West Texas once, heard a roaring, looked up and saw a wave coming down that looked to me to be about ten feet high the first wave and it was carrying rocks before it that seemed as big as a house, and rolling them just as one would roll a marble.. So his miracle consisted in his knowledge of that storm which they could not see nor hear. If they had not dug the trenches they would have still had no water for a mountain torrent is very swift to fall. In that place where I was, in fifteen minutes there was a river, and in two or three hours it had all passed away. But the trenches of Elisha were filled from the passing flood.
The fifth miracle is recorded in 2Ki 4:2-7 , the multiplying of the widow’s oil, that prophet’s wife that I have already referred to. The sixth miracle is recorded in 2Ki 4:8-37 , first the giving and then the restoring to life of the son of the Shunamite. The seventh is given in 2Ki 4:38 , the healing of the poisonous porridge: “Ah, man of God! there is death in the pot,” or “theological seminaries and wild gourds.” The eighth miracle is found in 2Ki 5:1-4 , the multiplying of the twenty loaves so as to feed 100 men. The ninth, 2Ki 5:1-4 , the healing of Naaman’s leprosy, and the tenth, 2Ki 5:26-27 , the inflicting on Gehazi the leprosy of which Naaman was healed.
The eleventh miracle is found in 2Ki 6:1-7 , his making the ax to swim. One of the prophets borrowed an ax to increase the quarters; the seminary was growing and the place was too straight for them, and they had to enlarge it. They did not have axes enough, and one of them borrowed an ax. In going down to the stream to cut the wood, the head of the ax slipped off and fell into the water and there is a text: “Alas, my master, for it was borrowed.” The miracle in this case was his suspension of the law of gravity, and making that ax head to swim, so that the man who lost it could just reach out and get it.
Twelfth, 2Ki 6:8-12 , the revealing of the secret thought of the Syrian king, even the thoughts of his bedchamber. No matter what, at night, the Syrian king thought out for the next day, Elisha knew it by the time he thought it, and would safeguard the attack at that point.
Thirteenth, 2Ki 6:15 , his giving vision to his doubtful servant when the great host came to capture them. The servant was scared. Elisha said, “Open this young man’s eyes, and let him see that they who are for us are more than those who are against us.” What a text! His eyes were opened, and he saw that hilltop guarded with the chariots of God and his angels. We need these eye openers when we get scared.
Fourteenth, the blinding of that Syrian host that came to take him. He took them and prayed to the Lord to open their eyes again. An Irishman reported at the first battle of Manasseh, thus: “I surrounded six Yankees and captured them.” Well, Elisha surrounded a little army and led them into captivity.
Fifteenth, 2Ki 7:6 , a mighty host of Syrians was besieging Samaria, until the women were eating their own children, the famine was so great. Elisha took the case to God, and that night, right over the Syrian camp was heard the sound of bugles and shouting, and the racing of chariots, and it scared them nearly to death. They thought a great army had been brought up, and a panic seized them, as a stampede seizes a herd of cattle, and they fled. They left their tents and their baggage: their provisions, their jewels, and the further they went the more things they dropped, all the way to the Jordan River, until they left a trail behind them of the cast-off incumbrances. The word “panic” comes from the heathen god, “Pan,” and the conception is that these sudden demoralizations must come from deity. I once saw sixteen steers put an army of 4,000 to flight, and I was one of the men. We were in a lane with a high fence on one side and a bayou on the other side, and suddenly, up the lane we heard the most awful clatter, and saw the biggest cloud of dust, and one of the men shouted, “The cavalry is on us! The cavalry is on us!” and without thinking everybody got scared. A lot of the men were found standing in the bayou up to their necks, others had gone over the fence and clear across the field without stopping. I did not get that far, but I got over the fence.
Sixteenth, 2Ki 8:2-6 , the foreseeing and foretelling of the seven years of famine.
Seventeenth, 2Ki 8:11 , the revelation of the very heart of Hazael to himself. He did not believe himself to be so bad a man. Elisha just looked at him and commenced weeping. Hazael could not understand. Elisha says, “I see how you are going to sweep over my country with fire and sword; I see the children that you will slay; I see the bloody trail behind you.” Hazael says, “Am I a dog, that I should do these things?” But Elisha under inspiration read the real man) and saw what there was in the man. One of the best sermons that I ever heard was by a distinguished English clergyman on this subject.
Eighteenth, 2Ki 13:14 , his dying prophecy.
Nineteenth, the miracle from his bones after he was buried. We will discuss that more particularly later.
We have thus seen his great teaching work, his relation to the government, and his miracles.
Now, let us consider some of his miracles more particularly. The Romanists misuse the miracle of the bones of Elisha, and that passage in Act 19:11-12 , where Paul sent out handkerchiefs and aprons, and miracles were wrought by them. On these two passages they found all their teachings of the relics of the saints, attributing miraculous power to a bit of the cross, and they have splinters enough of that “true cross” now scattered about to make a forest of crosses. In New Orleans an’ auctioneer said, “Today I have sold to seventeen men the cannon ball that killed Sir Edward Packenham.” The greatest superstition and fraud of the ages is the Romanist theory of the miracle working power of the reputed relics of the saints. Some of Elisha’s miracles were like some of our Lord’s. The enlargement of the twenty loaves to suffice for 100 men reminds us of two miracles of our Lord, and his curing a case of leprosy reminds us of many miracles of our Lord like that. In the Bible, miracles are always numerous in the great religious crises, where credentials are needed for God’s people, such as the great series of miracles in Egypt by Moses, the series of miracles in the days of Elisha and the miracles in the days of our Lord.
The greatest of Elisha’s work is his teaching work, greater than his work in relation to the government, his work in the families, or his miracles. I think the more far-reaching power of his work was in his teaching. There were spoken similar words at the exodus of Elijah and Elisha. When Elijah went up, Elisha said, “My Father! My Father! The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!” The same words are used when Elisha died. What does it mean? It pays the greatest compliment to the departed: that they alone were worth more to Israel than all its chariots, and its cavalry; that they were the real defenders of the nation.
At one point his work touched the Southern Kingdom, viz: When Moab was invaded, and he wrought that miracle of the waters, filled the trenches and supplied the thirsty armies. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah was along, and for his sake Elisha saved them.
There are many great pulpit themes in connection with Elisha’s history. I suggest merely a few: First, “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me” that was his prayer when Elijah was leaving him; second, “The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof”; third, when he came to the Jordan he did not say, “Where is Elijah?” but he smote the Jordan and said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” for it made no difference if Elijah was gone, God was there yet; fourth, “The oil stayed” not as long as the woman has a vessel to put it in; fifth, the little chamber on the wall; sixth, “Ah, man of God! There is death in the pot” or “theological seminaries and wild gourds” radical criticism, for instance there is death in the pot whenever preachers are fed on that sort of food; seventh, “Is it well with thy husband?” “Is it well?” and I will have frequently commenced a meeting with that text; eighth, Elisha’s staff in the hands of Gehazi, who was an unworthy man and the unworthy cannot wield the staff of the prophets; ninth, “Alas, my master, it was borrowed!”; tenth, the Growing Seminary “The place is too straight for us”; eleventh, “Make this valley full of trenches,” that is, the Lord will send the water, but there is something for us to do; let us have a place for it when it comes; twelfth, the secret thoughts of the bedchamber are known to God; thirteenth, “They that be with us are more than those that be against us”; fourteenth, “Tell me, I pray thee, all the great works done by Elisha.”
These are just a few in the great mine of Elijah or Elisha where we may dig down for sermons. The sermons ought to be full of meat; that is why we preach to feed the hungry. We should let our buckets down often into the well of salvation, for we cannot lower the well, and we may draw up a fresh sermon every Sunday. We should not keep on preaching the same sermon; it is first a dinner roast, then we give it cold for supper, then hash its fragments for breakfast, and make soup out of the bones for the next dinner, and next time we hold it over the pot and boil the shadow, and so the diet gets thinner and thinner. Let’s get a fresh one every time.
QUESTIONS
1. Who was Elisha?
2. What is the meaning of “minister to Elijah”? Illustrate and give corresponding passage in the New Testament.
3. What is the meaning of “Elisha, a disciple of Elijah”?
4. What is the meaning of “Elisha, a successor to Elijah”?
5. Give the date, author, manner, and nature of Elisha’s call, his response and how he celebrated the event.
6. What is the lesson of this and other calls? Illustrate.
7. How long his prophetic term of office and what kings of Israel and Judah were his contemporaries?
8. What secular calls accompanied his, how do you distinguish between his and the call of the others and what is the lesson therefrom?
9. What is the biblical material for a sketch of Elisha’s life?
10. What is the meaning of his name?
11. What is the Greek and Hebrew forms of his name? Give other examples.
12. What likenesses and unlikenesses of the work of Elijah and Elisha?
13. What New Testament likenesses of these two prophets?
14. How many schools of the prophets in the days of Elijah and Elisha, and where were they located?
15. What was Elisha’s great teaching work in the seminaries? Discuss.
16. What was Elisha’s part in governmental affairs?
17. What of his work in the families? Illustrate.
18. What two classes of his miracles and what miracles of each class?
19. What is the Romanist misuse of the miracle of Elisha’s bones and Act 19:11-12 ?
20. What miracles were like some of our Lord’s?
21. When and why were Bible miracles numerous?
22. Which of Elisha’s works was the greatest?
23. What words spoken at the exodus of Elijah and Elisha and what their meaning?
24. At what point did Elisha’s work touch the Southern Kingdom?
25. What New Testament lesson from the life of Elisha?
26. Give several pulpit themes from this section not given by the
27. What is the author’s exhortation relative to preaching growing out of this discussion of Elisha?
X
GATHERING UP THE FRAGMENTS THAT NOTHING BE LOST
The title of this chapter is a New Testament text for an Old Testament discussion. For the sake of unity the last two chapters were devoted exclusively to Elijah and Elisha. It is the purpose of this discussion to call attention to some matters worthy of note that could not very well be incorporated in those personal matters, and yet should not be omitted altogether.
It is true, however, that the heart of the history is in the lives of these two great prophets of the Northern Kingdom. In bringing up the record we will follow the chronological order of the scriptures calling for exposition.
Jehoshaphat’s Shipping Alliance with Ahaziah. We have two accounts of this: first, in 1Ki 22:47-49 , and second, in 2Ch 20:35-37 . I wish to explain, first of all, the locality of certain places named in these accounts. Tarshish, as a place, is in Spain. About that there can be no question. About Ophir, no man can be so confident. There was an Ophir in the southern part of Arabia; a man named Ophir settled there, but I do not think that to be the Ophir of this section. The Ophir referred to here is distinguished for the abundance and fine quality of its gold. Several books in the Bible refer to the excellency of “the gold of Ophir,” and to the abundance of it. Quite a number of distinguished scholars would locate it in the eastern part of Africa. Some others would locate it in India, and still others as the Arabian Ophir. My own opinion is, and I give it as more than probable, that the southeastern coast of Africa is the right place for Ophir. Many traditions put it there, the romance of Rider Haggard, “King Solomon’s Mines,” follows the traditions. The now well-known conditions of the Transvaal would meet the case in some respects.
Ezion-geber is a seaport at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, which is a projection of the Red Sea. What is here attempted by these men is to re-establish the famous commerce of Solomon. I cite the passages in the history of Solomon that tell about this commerce. In 1Ki 9:26 we have this record: “And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram (king of Tyre) sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.” Now, 1Ki 10:11 reads: “And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of Almug trees and precious stones.” This “almug-trees” is supposed to be the famous sweet-scented sandalwood. The precious stones would agree particularly with the diamond mines at Kimberly in the Transvaal.
Then1Ki_10:22 reads: “For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: Once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.” The ivory and apes would fit very well with the African coast, but we would have to go to India to get the spices, which are mentioned elsewhere, and the peacocks. A three years’ voyage for this traffic seems to forbid the near-by Arabian Ophir, and does make it reasonable that the merchant fleet touched many points Arabia, Africa, and the East Indies. It is, therefore, not necessary to find one place notable for all these products gold, jewels, sandalwood, ivory, apes, spices, and peacocks. Solomon, then, established as his only seaport on the south Eziongeber, a navy, manned partly by experienced seamen of Tyre, and these ships would make a voyage every three years. That is a long voyage and they might well go to Africa and to India to get these varied products, some at one point and some at another.
Now Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah (king of Israel) made an alliance to re-establish that commerce. The first difficulty, however, is that the Chronicles account says that these ships were to go to Tarshish, and the Kings account says that they were ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir. My explanation of that difficulty is this: It is quite evident that no navy established at Eziongeber would try to reach Spain by circumnavigating Africa, when it would be so much easier to go from Joppa, Tyre, or Sidon over the Mediterranean Sea to Spain. “Tarshish ships” refers, not to the destination of the ships, but to the kind of ships, that is, the trade of the Mediterranean had given that name to a kind of merchant vessel, called “Ships of Tarshish.” And the ships built for the Tarshish trade, as the name “lndianman” was rather loosely applied to certain great English and Dutch merchant vessels. It is an error in the text of Chronicles that these ships were to go to Tarshish. They were Tarshish ships, that is, built after the model of Tarshish ships, but these ships were built at Eziongeber for trade with Ophir, Africa, and India.
1Ki 22:47 of the Kings account needs explanation: “And there was no king in Edom; a deputy was king.” The relevancy of that verse is very pointed. If Edom had been free and had its own king, inasmuch as Eziongeber was in Edom, Judah never could have gone there to build a navy. But Edom at this time was subject to Judah, and a Judean deputy ruled over it. That explains why they could come to Eziongeber.
One other matter needs explanation. The account in Kings says, “Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.” Ahaziah attributed the shipwreck of that fleet to the incompetency of the Judean seamen. He did not believe that there would have been a shipwreck if he had been allowed to furnish experienced mariners, as Hiram did. So Kings gives us what seems to be the human account of that shipwreck, viz: the incompetency of the mariners; but Chronicles gives us the divine account, thus: “Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath destroyed thy works. And the ships were broken.” How often do we see these two things: the human explanation of the thing, and the divine explanation of the same thing. Ahaziah had no true conception of God, and he would at once attribute that shipwreck to human incompetency, but Jehoshaphat knew better; he knew that shipwreck came because he had done wickedly in keeping up this alliance with the idolatrous kings of the ten tribes.
THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH Let us consider several important matters in connection with the translation of Elijah, 2Ki 2:1-18 . First, why the course followed by Elijah? Why does he go from Carmel to Gilgal and try to leave Elisha there, and from Gilgal to Bethel and try to leave Elisha there, and from Bethel to Jericho and try to leave Elisha there? The explanation is that the old prophet, having been warned of God that his ministry was ended and that the time of his exodus was at hand, wished to revisit in succession all of these seminaries. These were his stopping places, and he goes from one seminary to another. It must have been a very solemn thing for each of these schools of the prophets, when Elisha and Elijah came up to them, for by the inspiration of God as we see from the record, each school of the prophets knew what was going to happen. At two different places they say to Elisha, “Do you know that your master will be taken away to-day?” Now, the same Spirit of God that notified Elijah that his time of departure was at hand, also notified Elisha, also notified each school of the prophets; they knew.
But why keep saying to Elisha, “You stay here at Gilgal; the Lord hath sent me to Bethel,” and, “You stay here at Bethel; the Lord hath sent me to Jericho,” and “You stay here at Jericho; the Lord hath sent me to the Jordan”? It was a test of the faith of Elisha. Ruth said to Naomi, “Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to forsake thee; for where thou goest, I will go; and God do so to me, if thy God be my God, and thy people my people, and where thou diest there will I die also.” With such spirit as that, Elisha, as the minister to Elijah, and as the disciple of Elijah, and wishing to qualify himself to be the successor of Elijah, steadfastly replied: “As the Lord liveth and thy soul liveth, I will not forsake thee.” “I am going with you just as far as I can go; we may come to a point of separation, but I will go with you to that point.” All of us, when we leave this world, find a place where the departing soul must be without human companionship. Friends may attend us to that border line but they cannot pass over with us.
We have already discussed the miracle of the crossing of the Jordan. Elijah smote the Jordan with his mantle and it divided; that was doubtless his lesson to Elisha, and we will see that he learned the lesson. I heard a Methodist preacher once, taking that as a text, say, “We oftentimes complain that our cross is too heavy for us, and groan under it, and wish to be relieved from it.” “But,” says he, “brethren, when we come to the Jordan of death, with that cross that we groaned under we will smite that river, and we will pass over dry-shod, and leave the cross behind forever, and go home to a crown to wear.”
The next notable thing in this account is Elijah’s question to Elisha: “Have you anything to ask from me?” “Now, this is the last time; what do you want me to do for you?” And he says, “I pray thee leave a double portion of thy spirit on me.” We see that he is seeking qualification to be the successor. “Double” here does not mean twice as much as Elijah had, but the reference is probably to the first-born share of an inheritance. The first-born always gets a double share, and Elisha means by asking a double portion of his spirit that it may accredit him as successor. Or possibly “double” may be rendered “duplicate,” for the same purpose of attenuation. The other prophets would get one share, but Elisha asks for the first-born portion. Elijah suggests a difficulty, not in himself, but in Elisha ; he said, “You ask a hard thing of me, yet if you see me when I go away, you will get the double portion of my spirit,” that is, it was a matter depending on the faith of the petitioner, his power of personal perception. “When I go up, if your eyes are open enough to see my transit from this world to a higher, that will show that you are qualified to have this double portion of my spirit.” We have something similar in the life of our Lord. The father of the demoniac boy says to our Lord, “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus replied, “If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth.” It was not a question of Christ’s ability, but of the supplicant’s faith.
The next thing is the translation itself. What is meant by it? In the Old Testament history two men never died; they passed into the other world, soul and body without death: Enoch and Elijah. And at the second coming of Christ every Christian living at that time will do the same thing. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they shall be changed.” Now, what is that change of the body by virtue of which without death, it may ascend into heaven? It is a spiritualization of the body eliminating its mortality, equivalent to what takes place in the resurrection and glorification of the dead bodies. I preached a sermon once on “How Death [personified] Was Twice Startled.” In the account of Adam it is said, “And he died” and so of every other man, “and he died.” Methuselah lived 969 years, but he died. And death pursuing all the members of the race, strikes them down, whether king or pauper, whether prophet or priest. But when he comes to Enoch his dart missed the mark and he did not get him. And when he came to Elijah he missed again. Now the translations of Enoch and Elijah are an absolute demonstration of two things: First, the immortality of the soul, the continuance of life; that death makes no break in the continuity of being. Second, that God intended from the beginning to save the body. The tree of life was put in the garden of Eden, that by eating of it the mortality of the body might be eliminated. Sin separated man from that tree of life, but it is the purpose of God that the normal man, soul and body, shall be saved. The tradition of the Jews is very rich on the spiritual significance of the translation of Enoch and Elijah. In Enoch’s case it is said, “He was not found because God took him,” and in this case fifty of the sons of the prophets went out to see if when Elijah went to heaven his body was not left behind, and they looked all over the country to find his body. Elisha knew; he saw the body go up.
Now, in Revelation we have the Cherubim as the chariot of God. This chariot that met Elijah at the death station was the chariot of God, the Cherubim. Just as the angels met Lazarus and took his soul up to heaven, and it is to this wonderful passage that the Negro hymn belongs: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
Elisha cried as the great prophet ascended, “My Father! My rather I The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” the meaning of which is that thus had gone up to heaven he who in his life had been the defense of Israel, worth more than all of its chariots and all of its cavalry. Now these very words “were used when Elisha died. “My Father! My Father! The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” signifying that he had been the bulwark of the nation as Elijah had been before him.
ELISHA’S MINISTRY, 2Ki 2:19-25 As Elijah went up something dropped not his body, but just his mantle his mantle fell, and it fell on Elisha, symbolic of the transfer of prophetic leadership from one to the other. Now, he wants to test it, a test that will accredit him; so he goes back to the same Jordan, folds that same mantle up just as Elijah had done, and smites the Jordan. But, mark you, he did not say, “Where is Elijah” the man, Elijah, was gone, but, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” and the waters divided and he came over. There he stood accredited with a repetition of the miracle just a little before performed by Elijah, which demonstrated that he was to be to the people what Elijah had been. And this was so evident that the sons of the prophets recognized it and remarked on it: “The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.” It is a touching thing to me, this account of more than fifty of these prophets, as the president of their seminary is about to disappear, came down the last hill that overlooks the Jordan, watching to see what became of him. And they witness the passage of the Jordan they may have seen the illumination of the descent of the chariot of fire. They wanted to go and get the body the idea of his body going up they had not taken in, and they could not be content until Elisha, grieved at their persistence) finally let them go and find out for themselves that the body had gone to heaven.
I have just two things to say on the healing of the noxious waters at Jericho. The first is that neither the new cruse nor the salt put in it healed the water. It was a symbolic act to indicate that the healing would be by the power of God. Just as when Moses cast a branch into the bitter waters of Marah, as a symbolic act. The healing power comes from God. The other re-mark is on that expression, “unto this day,” which we so frequently meet in these books. Its frequent recurrence is positive proof that the compiler of Kings and the compiler of Chronicles are quoting from the original documents. “Unto this day” means the day of the original writer. It does not mean unto the day of Ezra wherever it appears in Chronicles, but it means unto the day of the writer of the part of history that he is quoting from. More than one great conservative scholar has called attention to this as proof that whoever compiled these histories is quoting the inspired documents of the prophets.
THE CHILDREN OF BETHEL AND THE SHE-BEARS Perhaps a thousand infidels have referred Elisha’s curse to vindictiveness and inhumanity. The word rendered “little children” is precisely the word Solomon uses in his prayer at Gibeon when he says, “I am a little child” he was then a grown man. Childhood with the Hebrews extended over a much greater period of time than it does with us. The word may signify “young men” in our modern use of the term. And notice the place was Bethel, the place of calf worship, where the spirit of the city was against the schools of the prophets, and these young fellows call them “street Arabs,” “toughs,” whom it suited to follow this man and mock him: “Go up, thou bald bead; go up, thou bald head.” Elisha did not resent an indignity against himself, but here is the point: these hostile idolaters at Bethel, through their children are challenging the act of God in making Elisha the head of the prophetic line. He turned and looked at them and he saw the spirit that animated them saw that it was an issue between Bethel calf worship and Bethel, the school of the prophets, and that the parents of these children doubtless sympathized in the mockery, and saw it to be necessary that they should learn that sacrilege and blasphemy against God should not go unpunished. So, in the name of the Lord he pronounces a curse on them had it been his curse, no result would have followed. One man asks, “What were these she-bears doing so close to Bethel?” The answer is that in several places in the history is noted the prevalence of wild animals in Israel. We have seen how the old prophet who went to this very Bethel to rebuke Jeroboam and turned back to visit the other prophet, was killed by a lion close to the city.
Another infidel question is, “How could God make a she bear obey him?” Well, let the infidel answer how God’s Spirit could influence a single pair of all the animals to go into the ark. Over and over again in the Bible the dominance of the Spirit of God over inanimate things and over the brute creation is repeatedly affirmed. The bears could not understand, but they would follow an impulse of their own anger without attempting to account for it.
THE INCREASE IN THE WIDOW’S OIL, 2Ki 4:1-7
We have already considered this miracle somewhat in the chapter on Elisha, and now note particularly:
1. It often happens that the widow of a man of God, whether prophet or preacher, is left in destitution. Sometimes the fault lies in the imprudence of the preacher or in the extravagance of his family, but more frequently, perhaps, in the inadequate provision for ministerial support. This destitution is greatly aggravated if there be debt. The influence of a preacher is handicapped to a painful degree, when, from any cause, he fails to meet his financial obligations promptly. In a commercial age this handicap becomes much more serious.
2. The Mosaic Law (Lev 25:39-41 ; see allusion, Mat 18:25 ) permitted a creditor to make bond-servant of a debtor and his children. For a long time the English law permitted imprisonment for debt. This widow of a prophet appeals to Elisha, the head of the prophetic school, for relief, affirming that her husband did fear God. In other words, he was faultless in the matter of debt. The enforcement of the law by the creditor under such circumstances indicates a merciless heart.
3. The one great lesson of the miracle is that the flow of the increased oil never stayed as long as there was a vessel to receive it. God wastes not his grace if we have no place to put it: according to our faith in preparation is his blessing. He will fill all the vessels we set before him.
DEATH IN THE POT, 2Ki 4:38-41 We recall this miracle to deepen a lesson barely alluded to in the chapter on Elisha. The seminaries at that time lived a much more simple life than the seminaries of the present time; it did not take such a large fund to keep them up. Elisha said, “Set on the great pot,” and one of the sons of the prophets went out to gather vegetables. He got some wild vegetables he knew nothing about here called wild gourd and shred them into the pot, not knowing they were poisonous. Hence the text: “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” I once took that as the text for a sermon on “Theological Seminaries and Wild Gourds,” showing that the power of seminaries depends much on the kind of food the teachers give them. If they teach them that the story of Adam and Eve is an allegory, then they might just as well make the second Adam an allegory, for his mission is dependent on the failure of the first. If they teach them the radical criticism; if they teach anything that takes away from inspiration and infallibility of the divine Word of God or from any of its great doctrines then, “O man of God, there is death in the pot” that will be a sick seminary.
In a conversation once with a radical critic I submitted for his criticism, without naming the author, the exact words of Tom Paine in his “Age of Reason,” denying that the story of Adam and Eve was history. He accepted it as eminently correct. Then I gave the author, and inquired if it would be well for preachers and commentators to revert to such authorities on biblical interpretation. He made no reply. We find Paine’s words not only in the first part of the “Age of Reason,” written in a French prison without a Bible before him, but repeated in the second part after he was free and had access to Bibles. I gave this man a practical illustration, saying, “You may take the three thousand published sermons of Spurgeon, two sets of them, and arrange them, one set according to the books from which the texts are taken Gen 1:2 , Gen 1:3 , etc., and make a commentary on the Bible. By arranging the other set of them in topical order, you have a body of systematic theology.” Now this man Spurgeon believed in the historical integrity and infallibility of the Bible, in its inspiration of God, and he preached that, just that. As the old saying goes, “The proof of the pudding is in the chewing of the bag.” He preached just that, and what was the result? Thousands and thousands of converts wherever he preached, no matter what part of the Bible he was preaching from; preachers felt called to enter the ministry, orphan homes rose up, almshouses for aged widows, colportage systems established, missionaries sent out, and all over the wide world his missionaries die in the cause. One man was found in the Alps, frozen to death, with a sermon of Spurgeon in his hand. One man was found shot through the heart by bush rangers of Australia, and the bullet passed through Spurgeon’s sermon on “The Blood of Jesus.” Now, I said to this man, “Get all your radical critics together, and let them preach three thousand sermons on your line of teaching. How many will be converted? How many backsliders will be reclaimed? How many almshouses and orphanages will be opened? How many colportage systems established? Ah! the proof of the pudding is in the chewing of the bag. If what you say is the best thing to teach about the Bible is true, then when you preach, it will have the best results. But does it?”
We have considered Elisha’s miracle for providing water for the allied armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom, when invading Moab (2Ki 3:10-19 ). We revert to it to note partakelarly this passage: “And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew sword, to break through unto the king of Edom: but they could not. Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land” (2Ki 3:26-27 ). On this passage I submit two observations:
1. Not long after this time the prophet Micah indignantly inquires, “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” The context is a strong denunciation of the offering of human sacrifices to appease an angry deity. The Mosaic law strongly condemned the heathen custom of causing their children to pass through the fire of Molech. Both this book of Kings and Jeremiah denounce judgment on those guilty of this horrible practice. The Greek and Roman classics, and the histories of Egypt and Phoenicia, show how widespread was this awful custom.
2. But our chief difficulty is to expound the words, “There was great wrath against Israel.” But what was its connection with the impious sacrifice of the king of Moab? Whose the wrath? The questions are not easy to answer. It is probable that the armies of Edom and Judah were angry at Israel for pressing the king of Moab to such dire extremity, and so horrified at the sacrifice that they refused longer to co-operate in the campaign. This explanation, while not altogether satisfactory, is preferred to others more improbable. It cannot mean the wrath of God, nor the wrath of the Moabites against Israel. It must mean, therefore, the wrath of the men of Judah and Edom against Israel for pressing Mesha to such an extent that he would offer his own son as a sacrifice.
QUESTIONS
I. On the two accounts of Jehoshaphat’s shipping alliance with Ahaziah, 2Ki 22 ; 2Ch 20 , answer:
1. Where is Tarshish?
2. Where is Ophir?
3. Where is Ezion-geber?
4. What is the relevance of 1Ki 22:47 ?
5. Explain “ships of Tarshish” in Kings, and “to go to Tarshish” in Chronicles.
6. What commerce were they seeking to revive, and what passage from 1 Kings bearing thereon?
7. How does the book of Kings seem to account for the wreck of the fleet, and how does Chronicles give a better reason?
II. On the account of Elijah’s translation (2Ki 2:1-18 ) answer:
1. Why the course taken by Elijah by way of Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho?
2. How did both Elisha and the schools of the prophets know about the impending event?
3. What was the object of Elijah in telling Elisha to tarry at each stopping place while he went on?
4. What was the meaning of Elisha’s request for “a double portion” of Elijah’s spirit and why was this a hard thing to ask, i.e., wherein the difficulty? Illustrate by a New Testament lesson.
5. What was the meaning of Elijah’s translation, and what other cases, past or prospective?
6. What was the meaning of Elisha’s expression, “My Father! My Father! The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” and who and when applied the same language to Elisha?
7. How does Elisha seek a test of his succession to Elijah and how do others recognize the credentials?
III. How do you explain the seeming inhumanity of Elisha’s cursing the children of Bethel?
IV. On the widow’s oil (2Ki 4:1-7 ), answer:
1. What often happens to the widow of a prophet or preacher, and what circumstance greatly aggravates the trouble?
2. What is the Mosaic law relative to debtors and creditors?
3. What one great lesson of the miracle?
V. On “Death in the Pot” answer:
1. What the incident of the wild gourds?
2. What application does the author make of this?
3. What comparison does the author make between Spurgeon and the Radical Critics?
VI. On Elisha’s miracle, the water supply, answer:
1. What is the allusion in Micah’s words, “Shall I give my first-born,” etc.?
2. What the meaning of “There was great wrath against Israel”?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XIII
FROM THE RISE OF JEHU TO THE REIGN OF JEHOASH AND THE CORRESPONDING HISTORY OF JUDAH
2Ki 10:18-13:9
Israel is now on a rapid decline, while Judah is under the sway of a wicked woman. There are some antecedent facts which relate to the Southern Kingdom, Judah, and the story of her fortunes which we need to review here. In previous chapters we have considered the character and reign of Jehoshaphat. He is described as a good man, a great king, an eminently righteous and successful king, one of the best kings that Judah ever had, and the record tells of the various reforms which he instituted, the cities which he built, the new system of judiciary which he established and the various other great improvements in his kingdom. But Jehoshaphat made three mistakes in his reign:
First, he married his son to the daughter of Jezebel. It was the cause of great disaster to his realm, almost to the extinction of his dynasty and the wrecking of his kingdom. Second, he made an alliance with Ahab to reconquer Ramothgilead, and take it from Syria. The 400 false prophets all promised him victory, but Micaiah prophesied failure, and that prophecy came true as they failed to take Ramothgilead and Ahab was slain, and Jehoshaphat returned home to Jerusalem in partial disgrace. There is no question but that Jehoshaphat lost a great deal of popularity by that mistake and failure.
Third, he made an alliance with Jehoram, son of Ahab, in an attempt to reconquer and subject Moab to the northern realm. But for Elisha who told them to make the valley full of trenches and thus make room for water to flow down that their hosts might have drink he would there have suffered probably an ignominious defeat. Through Elisha and the providence of God he was saved but the expedition proved fruitless. The king of Moab sacrificed his first-born son and great wrath came upon Israel and they retired from the siege and went home and left King Mesha still master of his own country. Shortly before his death we find Jehoshaphat appoints his son Jehoram as king with him and they are joint kings over southern Israel. Jehoram becomes co-regent with Jehoshaphat when thirty-two years of age. Very soon we find the influence of Athaliah his wife. She had him under her control even more than Jezebel had Ahab under her control. She was a vicious, strong-minded, self-willed, determined, and depraved woman. Here is Athaliah’s influence. We can almost see Jezebel herself here. Under the influence of this northern woman Jehoram begins his murderous work by shedding the blood of six of his brothers. We find his character described thus: “He had the daughter of Ahab to wife, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.” Notice further: “Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and made the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, and led Judah astray.” That is, he attempted to lead all southern Israel after the worship of Baal, just as Jezebel had tried to lead all northern Israel after the worship of Baal. Athaliah is her mother’s daughter.
All this leads to great troubles. His dynasty is in danger. The first thing we read is that disaster befalls the kingdom. In the same account we have the story of the revolt of Edom, one of his provinces which paid him heavy tribute. He undertakes to put down the rebellion, and, in a desperate conflict the Edomites with their chariots and horsemen having surrounded him, he rises up at night and breaks through the rank of the enemy and saves himself, but Edom passes out of his hands and is lost to his realm, and a large revenue is, of course, lost with it. This is the first stage of the downfall of himself and kingdom.
The next stage is the revolt of Libnah. This Philistine city had been paying tribute no doubt and now revolts against him and secures its freedom and thus another stronghold is cut off from his kingdom. This added to his unpopularity still more.
Shortly after this we have the story of the posthumous message from Elijah the prophet written before the going away of the great servant of God, doubtless preserved by Elisha and now sent to Jehoram. It is the prophet Elijah’s message of doom to this wicked king: “Behold, the Lord will smite with a great plague thy people, and thy children and thy wives, and all thy substance,” and Jehoram is to be smitten with a horrible and loathsome disease, too loathsome to be mentioned. We don’t know what that plague was nor how many people perished because of it. These things would add greatly to the unpopularity of Jehoram throughout his realm.
Another invasion takes place: “And the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, which are beside the Ethiopians: and they came up against Judah, and brake into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the king’s house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of the sons.” They invaded his capital, took his treasures, and his harem, and carried them away, only one son left, Jehoahaz, known more correctly as Ahaziah.
Shortly after this Jehoram falls a prey to his sickness or disease and dies, unlamented, undesired. In some respects a blessed death, that is, to those who were left. He is refused burial in the sepulchers of the kings. They buried him in the City of David but not in the sepulchers of the kings. He is too loathsome to be buried in the sacred burying grounds of the kings of Israel where David was buried. This reign is one of the first fruitages of that ill-fated alliance of Jehoshaphat with the house of Ahab.
Then follows the reign of Ahaziah his son, which lasts about one year. He is a worthy son of his unspeakable mother. We find his record very short and is all a failure and ends in disgrace and murder. The record says that he entered into an alliance with Jehoram, his uncle, of northern Israel to fight against Ramothgilead, and bring it back into subjection out of the hands of Syria. Evidently their onslaught is successful. Ramothgilead is captured and Jehu left in charge of it. Jehoram is wounded and has to return to Jezreel in order that he might be healed, and while he is recovering Ahaziah goes back to Jerusalem, then pays a visit to Jehoram at Jezreel, and while they are at Jezreel we have enacted a scene which we discussed in a previous chapter. Jehoram is slain by an arrow shot from the bow of Jehu. Ahaziah flees for his life and is pursued by Jehu’s men, wounded in his chariot, escapes to Megiddo, and there dies. This is the end of the second of the kings of Judah that came under the influence of this unholy alliance of northern Israel.
Now we take up the reign of Athaliah. As soon as Athaliah heard of the death of Ahaziah her son, and knowing that all of Ahaziah’s brothers had been captured and taken away by the Arabians and Philistines, and there was no proper heir to the throne excepting her grandsons, the narrative says that she arose and destroyed all the seed royal, that is, all her own grandsons. A woman that would do that is a monster rather than a woman. Fortunately, however, providence interposes. The chief priest of the nation, Jehoiada, a man of great influence and power, had married a sister of Ahaziah, and daughter of Athaliah, and by means of intimacy which this relationship permitted, took the only son of Ahaziah, just one year old, and hid him. Thus the dynasty is preserved.
Now let us look at Jehu’s reign. The first great act which he performs is the destruction of Baal and Baal -worshipers, and he does it under false pretense. He does it in a most treacherous manner under the guise of zeal for their religion and he deceives them. He says, “Ahab served Baal little, Jehu shall serve him much,” and in that way gains the popularity of all those in favor of Baal worship. In that way he manages to secure the presence of a great host of Baal worshipers, but took pains to see that none of the Jehovah worshipers were there. All the priests of Baal are butchered. That is different from the death of the 450 prophets of Baal and the 450 prophets of Asherah by Elijah at Mount Carmel. That was a fair teat by Elijah, but they failed, and therefore deserved death. This was treachery on the part of Jehu, treachery that was inexcusable, and having done that, he breaks down the altars of Baal, destroys all the Baal worshipers in the capital of Samaria. But that does not imply that there were no Baal worshipers anywhere else in the kingdom for there were Baal cults in various sections still. Although Jehu had destroyed Baal worship as a state religion he institutes one very little better. He is a worshiper of Jehovah but it is a corrupt worship of the calves of Dan and Bethel and he follows in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin. It is awful how all of these men are said to have followed Jeroboam the son of Nebat in that he made Israel to sin. Every one of them does the same thing. There is a sermon on that statement entitled, “The Monotony of Sin.” All for generations doing the same thing and they are doing the same thing now; they have been doing the same thing for thousands of years. Jehu’s reign is on the whole an evil reign. The religion of Jehovah made little progress under his rule.
Now Athaliah reigns and we have the strange spectacle of a woman on the throne of Judah, the daughter of Jezebel with Phoenician blood in her veins. We would expect that she would try to do what Jezebel did, viz: install, as the state religion of Judah, the worship of Baal, and so she did. There was no persecution of the prophets in southern Israel. She evidently could not do that, but she partly destroyed the Temple, took the sacred vessels out of it, established priests in her own temple of Baal and set up Baal worship, using the vessels that had been dedicated to Jehovah. Shrines were built throughout the whole kingdom, and now southern Judah is in danger of being brought under the sway of Baal as northern Israel was before Elijah appeared upon the scene. But there was one man in the realm raised up by divine providence to save the situation. Jehoiada is the son-in-law of Athaliah, a -man of influence and power, and evidently a man of great wisdom and piety, the foremost counsellor in the realm, the wisest and best man in the kingdom, the high priest. Six years of silence passes, and Jehoiada is wise enough to know how to hold his tongue and hold his wife’s tongue all that time. It is something for a man to be able to hold his tongue on such a great secret as he possessed, for six years. When little Joash had grown to be seven years old we find that Jehoiada began to strengthen himself in the kingdom and to mature his plans to set Joash upon the throne and destroy his mother-in-law, Athaliah. The time is ripe for action, the people are evidently dissatisfied with the reign of Athaliah, and are ready for the change. Jehoiada matures his plans with great deliberation, extreme caution and great shrewdness. We can’t understand all the details of the situation, the exact relation of the house and the Temple, but we find that he divides the Temple guards and palace guards into three companies, and stations them in separate places surrounding the king, so that he is perfectly safe, and no enemies can get to him. A way is left open by which Athaliah may come into the Temple and any who may follow her, but they will at once be slain as they attempt to pass through. At a given time and a given signal, all the soldiers in their places, the people throng around and raise the shout, Joash is set upon the throne; he is handed the testimony of the law according to the command of Moses, the crown is placed upon his head, and Joash is proclaimed king. Athaliah does not know what is taking place, she hears the noise, rushes forth and pretends to be horrified, tears her clothes and shouts, “Treason! Treason!” Was it treason? How many people there are who know they are in the wrong, and yet when the people turn against them, are ready to cry out like that. They put on an air of injured innocence. Hypocrites! This avails her nothing. She is in the Temple courts and they will not spill Phoenician blood there. “Have her forth between the ranks,” says Jehoiada, and as they made way for her she went to the entry of the horse gate and there she is slain. Jehoiada matured his plans as perfectly as Jehu and carried them out almost as quickly and successfully. That ends the reign of Phoenician blood upon the throne of Israel. There is no doubt that most of the people of Israel felt that a great crisis had passed.
Now let us look at the reign of Joash. He reigned for forty years beginning when a boy only seven. Joash was a grandson of Athaliah on his father’s side, so there was a little of the Phoenician blood in his veins. It is not all pure Hebrew blood, and as blood will tell sooner or later, we find that his Phoenician, corrupt, heathen blood manifests itself in the life of Joash afterward.
His great religious revolutions and reforms were instituted by Jehoiada. As soon as Joash is made king, Jehoiada renews the covenant thus: “And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people, and the king, that they should be the Lord’s people.” That covenant had been broken through Athaliah’s introduction of Baal worship, through the breaking up of the Temple services and the defection of the people to Baal. Now Jehoiada must renew the covenant between God and Judah. The covenant made at Sinai had been broken more than once, and had been renewed. He establishes a covenant between the king and the people, and between the king and Jehovah on the basis of the law of Moses. The king is to be representative of Jehovah and must rule as Jehovah directs through his prophets. Now there is a revival of true religion and a reformation is begun. The first thing to be done is to destroy Baal: “And all the people of the land went to 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 appointed officers over the house of the Lord.” They carried out a work in southern Israel almost similar to what Jehu did-in northern Israel: the priests of Baal are slain, the temple of Baal is broken down, and the shrines of Baal destroyed, and Baal worship is given a severe blow in southern Israel, but it is not extinguished; there are still Baal worshipers in high places, shrines here and there throughout the country where they carry on this vile and licentious worship of their deity.
The next thing was to reorganize the Temple service: “And Jehoiada appointed the officers of the house of the Lord under the hand of the priests and Levites whom David had distributed in the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt sacrifices of the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David.” The reorganization of the Temple service, a reinstitution of the sacrifices of the burnt offerings and thus once more the nation is brought back to the worship of the true God, Jehovah. Again, it is said, “So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet.” A brief pointed statement, but there is a history behind it. There must have been turmoil, strife, confusion, bloodshed, and unrest in the city of Jerusalem as this revolution in religion was going on, but Jehoiada’s hands have hold of the reigns of power and the city calms down and is quiet. Joash is a good and faithful king so long as he is under the influence of Jehoiada, who did the strange thing to take two wives for Joash, which is very hard to account for.
There were great reforms instituted by Joash. Notice what the king himself institutes. He begins first to repair the Temple that had been broken down during the reign of Athaliah and Jehoram, and in order to do that he must raise money, and to raise money he commands the priests to bring in the revenue which they receive from the people. Under the law of Moses every man of Israel had to pay a shekel or a half-shekel every year. Now the priests or Levites were to receive that money and bring it to the king to be utilized in repairing the Temple. Joash depends upon the honesty of the priests. We see here a very inefficient organization, and it doesn’t work. “Howbeit the Levites hastened it not.” They pocketed the money. It didn’t go into the treasury and therefore the house of the Lord could not be repaired. That scheme failed because the priests lacked honesty and integrity.
Now let us look at Jehu’s political relations. We find by consulting Price’s The Monuments and the Old Testament, that Jehu was forced to pay heavy tribute to Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. Shalmaneser says himself at that time, “I received tribute of the Tyreans and the Sidonians and of Jehu the son of Omri,” in one of his inscriptions and on the back of an obelisk left by Shalmaneser we have pictures of Jehu bringing to him presents of gold, basins of gold, bowls of gold, cups of gold, lead, a royal scepter and staves. Thus we see that Jehu had to pay heavy tribute in order to maintain the integrity of his kingdom after thus securing it. We have no record that Jehu ever fought against Shalmaneser or that Shalmaneser ever fought against Jehu; but Shalmaneser had gained a great victory over Damascus and Syria, and Jehu had to pay him this heavy tribute to keep him away from Israel. Thus Jehu’s reign was not all peace and prosperity. He is in a sense under the iron heel of Assyria. We also see from 2Ki 10:32-33 that Jehu lost all eastern Palestine, which was smitten by Hazael, king of Syria, and thus his kingdom was stripped and there was left to him only a small portion of western Palestine: “In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short; and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.” Thus Jehu is stripped of all of his possessions east of the Jordan. Though one of the ablest of the monarchs of northern Israel, Jehu was also the one that led Israel into sin, and his kingdom was in worse condition at the end than it was at the beginning.
Now let us take up the reign of Jehoahaz. Jehu reigned twenty-eight years, and was succeeded by Jehoahaz his son, who reigned only seventeen years, and followed in the footsteps of his father and Jeroboam the son of Nebat which made Israel to sin. In the reign of Jehoahaz we read: “And Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually “That means that they were compelled to pay tribute, heavy tribute to their conquerors, which drained them of all their resources and left them little better than slaves.
Jehoiada brings forth a new scheme. He is a wise man, and when he finds this other plan of Joash will not work, he suggests that they make a great chest, or box, and bore a hole in the top of it so that no man can get his hand into it, and place this box beside the altar near the entrance to the house of the Lord where the people come and go so that every man could put his tax into the box. It is not long before they find a large amount of money in it, and they are very careful how it should be counted and paid out, and very careful about the men who are to count it and hand it over to the workmen. We see how they go on with the details of the work, and they found enough money to repair the breaches of the Temple that had been broken down, and to provide the various vessels, the cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, vessels of gold, or vessels of silver. Then we find that the Temple worship is resumed, and the burnt offerings were offered continually as it had been for several years previous. Then follows an account of the death of Jehoiada, an old man, 130 years old. They buried him in the city of David among the kings as he was a king’s son-in-law, and was honored as few other Israelites have been who were not of the royal family.
After his death the bad blood flowing in the veins of Joash is manifest. A change comes; the pressure is off; the wise counsellor is gone, and Joash now begins to show what is his true nature and character. He comes under the influence of the princes of Judah, the upper ten or the upper 400, who secretly or openly preferred the worship of Baal to the worship of Jehovah, possibly because of its licentiousness. Joash is foolish enough to listen to them, sanctions the worship of Baal and of Asherah, turns his back upon the worship of Jehovah. Worse than that, Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, a prophet of God, is raised up to rebuke and reprove Joash for his sin, but Joash commands that Zechariah be stoned to death in the Temple area because he has dared to warn and admonish the king. Base ingratitude. “O, what a falling off was this!” Zechariah’s last words, “The Lord look upon it and require it,” were remembered and recorded, as was the dying statement of Jesus Christ and of Stephen, the martyr. Some scholars think that when Jesus Christ was speaking to the Pharisees about the blood of Zechariah, which should be required of their generation, that he referred to this same Zechariah. Joash has incurred the hostility of the prophets and the worshipers of Jehovah in his realm. The best people of his country conspired against him, and very soon he is put to death. Israel is in a desperate condition during the reign of Jehoahaz. Hazael and Benhadad have assaulted him and-defeated him to such an extent that only fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand footmen are left. For the king of Syria destroyed them and made them like the dust in the threshing. The kingdom could hardly be lower and exist at all. It is at its lowest ebb. Joash’s reign ends in misery and defeat. Hazael whom Elijah had anointed in Damascus, that ruthless monarch of Syria, who has crushed northern Israel under his feet and ground it to dust, advances as far south as Judah and Jerusalem and meets a large army of Joash and defeats it utterly, kills the princes of the people, and sends all the spoil that he captures back to Damascus. Then Hazael goes down to Philistia and takes the strong city of Gath, then he turns his eye upon Jerusalem with its vast treasures and is intending to advance up one of those mountain defiles to the hilltop whereon Jerusalem is situated and conquer the capital and take all its treasures. The only thing Joash can do, is to buy Hazael off. Then Joash strips the Temple of all the hallowed things, takes the gold and the treasure and hands it over to Hazael. Hazael is satisfied, as all he wants is the plunder and the treasure of the Temple, and in this way he got it without fighting for it.
Joash perishes by the hands of his own servants who had become disgusted with him because of his apostasy and evil reign. They buried him with the family in the City of David, but it does not say in the sepulchers of the kings.
QUESTIONS
1. What was the condition of Israel at this time?
2. What were the antecedent facts in the history of Judah bearing on this period?
3. After the death of Ahaziah who reigned in his stead, how did she get the throne, and how was God’s promise to David made sure?
4. What was Jehu’s policy and what was his scheme to destroy Baal?
5. What right had Jehu to destroy so many people?
6. What do you think of his method and what did God command in Jehu?
7. How did the Lord reward Jehu for his service and wherein did Jehu fail?
8. Recite the story of how the royal line of David was restored.
9. How did Athaliah meet with her deserts?
10. Who was Joash’s mother and what was the bearing on the life of Joash?
11. What was the character of Jehoiada and what were his works?
12. What was Jehoiada’s influence over Joash, what was the spiritual condition of the kingdom of Judah at this time, what strange thing did Jehoiada do and how do you account for it?
13. What command did Joash give and what was his plan for carrying it out?
14. What happened to Israel during the reign of Joash and what was the character of the Syrians.
15. Who succeeded Jehu, what was his character, who oppressed Israel during this time and what were the events in his reign?
16. How did Joash’s plan for repairing the Temple work, what was the fault with the plans and what was the lesson?
17. What new plan did they adopt and what custom perhaps originated here?
18. What order did he here reset?
19. What was the lesson here of the value of the preacher to the world?
20. What prophetic book has its setting here?
21. What distinction in Jehoiada’s burial?
22. What was his sin of omission; his sin of commission?
23. What indicates Joash’s weakness, what were his sins, what was the origin of the high places and groves, and what was the paliation for the sins of Joash?
24. How did the Lord try to bring them back, how did they receive the Lord’s prophet’s what special case cited, how did Joash show his ingratitude in his case, and what New Testament use of this incident?
25. What was the judgment executed on Joash and how did he escape?
26. Rewrite the story of Joash’s death and contrast this death with that of Jehoiada.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
2Ki 11:1 And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.
Ver. 1. And when Athaliah. ] Ahab’s daughter by Jezebel: Gotholiah, the Septuagint and Sulpitius call her; a most wicked woman, another Medea, by whom the devil sought utterly to root out that race whereof Christ was to be born. Josephus saith that out of envy – which Augustine a calleth vitium diabolicum, a devilish vice – she sought to destroy the house of David, as Jehu had destroyed her father Ahab’s house. Others, that she thus strengthened herself, that she might be revenged upon Jehu. Most likely, she was carried on to this tragic fact by ambition – which ever rideth without reins – and zeal for Baalism, which – to her grief – she saw was now rooted out by Jehu in the kingdom of Israel. Such another imperious whorish woman – as the Scripture speaketh Eze 16:30 – was Semiramis, queen of Assyria; b Tullia, the wife of Tarquinius Superbus; c Irene, empress of Constantinople, and mother of Constantinus Copronymus – whose eyes she put out to make him incapable of the empire, that she might reign alone; Drahomira, queen of Bohemia; and Brumchildis, queen of France, d who is said to have been the death of ten princes of the blood, and was herself afterwards put to a cruel death by king Cletharius. But the likest in cruelty to Athaliah was Laodice, the wife of Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia; who, her husband being dead, seized upon the government, raged cruelly against all sorts both of the nobility and commons, whom she caused to be murdered; yea, against her own family, poisoning six of her own sons, that so she might keep the kingdom more securely: only one little one escaped her fury, whom the people at last advanced to the crown, and slew her. e
Destroyed all.
a In Ps. cxxxix.
b Herodot.
c L. Flor.
d AEn. Sylv.
e Baron., A.D. 614. – Lips.
2 Kings
JEHOIADA AND JOASH
2Ki 11:1 – 2Ki 11:16 The king of Judah has been killed, his alliance with the king of Israel having involved him in the latter’s fate. Jehu had also murdered ‘the brethren of Ahaziah,’ forty-two in number. Next, Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah and a daughter of Ahab, killed all the males of the royal family, and planted herself on the throne. She had Jezebel’s force of character, unscrupulousness and disregard of human life. She was a tigress of a woman, and, no doubt, her six year’s usurpation was stained with blood and with the nameless abominations of Baal worship. Never had the kingdom of Judah been at a lower ebb. One infant was all that was left of David’s descendants. The whole promises of God seemed to depend for fulfilment on one little, feeble life. The tree had been cut down, and there was but this one sucker pushing forth a tiny shoot from ‘the root of Jesse.’
We have in the passage, first, the six years of hiding in the temple. It is a pathetic picture, that of the infant rescued by his brave aunt from the blood-bath, and stowed away in the storeroom where the mats and cushions which served for beds were kept when not in use, watched over by two loving and courageous women, and taught infantile lessons by the husband of his aunt, Jehoiada the high priest. Many must have been aware of his existence, and there must have been loyal guarding of the secret, or Athaliah’s sword would have been reddened with the baby’s blood. Like the child Samuel, he had the Temple for his home, and his first impressions would be of daily sacrifices and white-robed priests. It was a better school for him than if he had been in the palace close by. The opening flower would have been soon besmirched there, but in the holy calm of the Temple courts it unfolded unstained. A Christian home should breathe the same atmosphere as surrounded Joash, and it, too, should be a temple, where holy peace rules, and where the first impressions printed on plastic little minds are of God and His service.
We have next the disclosure and coronation of the boy king. The narrative here has to be supplemented from that in 2Ch 23:1 – 2Ch 23:21 , which does not contradict that in this passage, as is often said, but completes it. It informs us that before the final scene in the Temple, Jehoiada had in Jerusalem assembled a large force of Levites and of the ‘heads of the fathers’ houses’ from all the kingdom. That statement implies that the revolution was mainly religious in its motive, and was national in its extent. Obviously Jehoiada would have been courting destruction for Joash and himself unless he had made sure of a strong backing before he hoisted the standard of the house of David. There must, therefore, have been long preparation and much stir; and all the while the foreign woman was sitting in the palace, close by the Temple, and not a whisper reached her. Evidently she had no party in Judah, and held her own only by her indomitable will and by the help of foreign troops. Anybody who remembers how the Austrians in Italy were shunned, will understand how Athaliah heard nothing of the plot that was rapidly developing a stone’s throw from her isolated throne. Strange delusion, to covet such a seat, yet no stranger than many another mistaking of serpents for fish, into which we fall!
Jehoiada’s caution was as great as his daring. He does not appear to have given the Levites and elders any inkling of his purpose till he had them safe in the Temple, and then he opened his mind, swore them to stand by him, and ‘showed them the king’s son.’ What a scene that would be-the seven-year-old child there among all these strange men, the joyful surprise flashing in their eyes, the exultation of the faithful women that had watched him so lovingly, the stern facing of the dangers ahead. Most of the assembly must have thought that none of David’s house remained, and that thought would have had much to do with their submitting to Athaliah’s usurpation. Now that they saw the true heir, they could not hesitate to risk their lives to set him on his throne. Show a man his true king, and many a tyranny submitted to before becomes at once intolerable. The boy Joash makes Athaliah look very ugly.
Jehoiada’s plans are somewhat difficult to understand, owing to our ignorance of the details as to the usual arrangements of the guards of the palace, but the general drift of them is plain enough. The main thing was to secure the person of the king, and, for that purpose, the two companies of priests who were relieved on the Sabbath were for once kept on duty, and their numbers augmented by the company that would, in the ordinary course, have relieved them. This augmented force was so disposed as, first, to secure the Temple from attack; and, second, to ‘compass the king’-in his chamber, that is. We learn from 2 Chronicles that it consisted of priests and Levites, and some would see in that statement a tampering with the account in this passage, in the interests of a later conception of the sanctity of the Temple and of the priestly order. Our narrative is said to make the foreign mercenaries of the palace guard the persons referred to; but surely that cannot be maintained in the face of the plain statement of 2Ki 11:7 , that they kept the watch of the Temple, for that was the office of the priests. Besides, how should foreign soldiers have needed to be armed from the Temple armoury? And is it probable on the face of it that the palace guard, who were Athaliah’s men, and therefore antagonistic to Joash, and Baal worshippers, should have been gained over to his side, or should have been the guards of the house of Jehovah? If, however, we understand that these guards were Levites, all is plain, and the arming of them with ‘the spears and shields that had been king David’s ‘ becomes intelligible, and would rouse them to enthusiasm and daring.
Not till all these dispositions for the boy king’s safety, and for preventing an assault on the Temple, had been carried out, did the prudent Jehoiada venture to bring Joash out from his place of concealment. Note that in 2Ki 11:12 he is not called ‘the king,’ as in the previous verses, but, as in 2Ki 11:4 , ‘the king’s son.’ He was king by right, but not technically, till he had been presented to, and accepted by, the representatives of the people, had had ‘the testimony’ placed in his hands, and been anointed by the high-priest. So ‘they made him king.’ The three parts of the ceremony were all significant. The delivering of ‘the testimony’ the Book of the Law- Deu 17:18 – Deu 17:19 taught him that he was no despot to rule by his own pleasure and for his own glory, but the viceroy of the true King of Judah, and himself subject to law. The people’s making him king taught him and them that a true royalty rules over willing subjects, and both guarded the rights of the nation and set limits to the power of the ruler. The priest’s anointing witnessed to the divine appointment of the monarch and the divine endowment with fitness for his office. Would that these truths were more recognised and felt by all rulers! What a different thing the page of history would be!
The vigilance of the tigress had been eluded, and Athaliah had a rude awakening. But she had her mother’s courage, and as soon as she heard in the palace the shouts, she dashed to the Temple, alone as she was, and fronted the crowd. The sight might have made the boldest quail. Who was that child standing in the royal place? Where had he come from? How had he been hidden all these years? What was all this frenzy of rejoicing, this blare of trumpets, these ranks of grim men with weapons in their hands? The stunning truth fell on her; but, though she felt that all was lost, not a whit did she blench, but fronted them all as proudly as ever. One cannot but admire the dauntless woman, ‘magnificent in sin.’ But her cry of ‘Treason! treason!’ brought none to her side. As she stood solitary there, she must have felt that her day was over, and that nothing remained but to die like a queen. Proudly as ever, she passed down the ranks and not a face looked pity on her, nor a voice blessed her. She was reaping what she had sown, and she who had killed without compunction the innocents who stood between her and her ambitions, was pitilessly slain, and all the land rejoiced at her death.
So ended the all but bloodless revolution which crushed Baal worship in Judah. It had been begun by Elijah and Elisha, but it was completed by a high priest. It was religious even more than political. It was a national movement, though Jehoiada’s courage and wisdom engineered it to its triumph. It teaches us how God watches over His purposes and their instruments when they seem nearest to failure, for one poor infant was all that was left of the seed of David; and how, therefore, we are never to despair, even in the darkest hour, of the fulfilment of His promises. It teaches us how much one brave, good man and woman can do to change the whole face of things, and how often there needs but one man to direct and voice the thoughts and acts of the silent multitude, and to light a fire that consumes evil.
Athaliah. For genealogy see App-55.
she arose, &c. Another of the ten occasions of deaths being caused by a woman. See note on Jdg 4:21.
destroyed: or thought she did. They were left for dead.
Chapter 11
Now going back twenty-eight years. We go back now to when Jehu first became king, he killed Ahaziah, the king of Judah. And Ahaziah was the son of Athaliah, who was the daughter or a relationship to Jezebel. And there was an intermarriage there tying the kingdoms together.
Now Athaliah [the wicked queen,] when she heard that her son Ahaziah was killed, immediately she went out and killed all of the rest of the children of her son ( 2Ki 11:1 ).
Or all of her grandchildren in order that she might reign as queen. In order that there be no heirs to the throne so that she could reign as queen. Now one of the children of Ahaziah, a baby, Jehosheba was hid away. This nurse took him and ran into the temple, and there they hid him and they raised him secretly for six years so that he was preserved. Athaliah wasn’t able to kill him, and he was preserved and brought up actually in the temple and raised there in the temple in disguise for six years.
Now when he was seven years old, the priest who had more or less raised him, Jehoiada, sent out through all of Judah for all of the captains and all to come. And when he gathered them all together, he swore them to secrecy. And being a priest of God, made them swear by the Lord that they wouldn’t reveal anything. And having sworn them all to secrecy, then he brought forth Jehosheba and he said, “Here is the descendant of David.” You see, Athaliah wasn’t the descendant of David. Here is the descendant of David to reign upon the throne. And now he says, “We’re going to divide into three companies. And I want a part of you guys to surround the king. And I want a part of you to surround the temple. And surround the city, and we’re going to proclaim him king.”
And so they gathered together for the celebration, and they took this seven-year-old boy who was a descendant of David and they gathered all together.
They were all standing there and they brought him forth, and they put the crown on his head; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they all began to clap their hands, and say, God save the king. Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the guards and the people, she came into the temple of the LORD [to see what was going on]. And when she saw the king standing by the pillar, as was the manner of the king, and all of the princes and the trumpeters around him, and the people of the land rejoicing: then Athaliah tore her clothes, and she cried, Treason, Treason. And Jehoiada the priest said, [Get her out of here. Don’t kill her in the temple but take her out and kill her.] So they laid hands on her; and they took her out: and killed her. And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’S people ( 2Ki 11:12-17 ).
So there came now a time of sort of spiritual revival as we have now a king who was raised in the temple under the strong influence of the priest. And now in conjunction with Jehoiada, the proclamation that the people are going to really turn back again and worship the Lord, Yahweh.
And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and they broke it down; his altars, the images they broke in pieces thoroughly, they slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And they took the rulers, and the captains, and the people of the land; and they brought down to the king from the house of the LORD. And the king was placed upon the throne. And all of the people rejoiced, the city was quiet. And he was seven years old when he began to reign as king ( 2Ki 11:18-21 ).
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2Ki 11:1
The story now turns to Judah. When Jehu had slain Ahaziah, his mother Athaliah, the sister of Ahab and of his very nature, seized the throne by killing all the seed royal, and for six years swayed the scepter of her terrible power over the kingdom of Judah.
In this wholesale massacre Jehosheba, the daughter of Athaliah, saved Joash. The fact is stated as an incident. How much romance lies behind the six years during which this woman nursed and cared for the young life hidden in the Temple! He must have been but a year old when she fled there with him, for he was but seven when he came to the throne. Jehoiada, the priest, at last took careful measures to ensure the death of Athaliah and the crowning of Joash.
And still the same great truth of the divine overruling flames on the page. Selfish ambition and all evil passions are at work, but over all these God presides and moves still onward toward the consummation.
Crowning the Boy-King
2Ki 11:1-12
Athaliah well deserves the title given her in 2Ch 24:7. She usurped the throne, and played in Judah the part of her mother Jezebel. Joram was a wicked man and a bad king, but he recognized the value of piety, and chose the good priest Jehoiada as the husband of his daughter. The husband neutralized the evil influences of his wifes upbringing and led her into a noble and useful career, the chief episode of which was the rescue of the youngest son of Ahaziah. His nurse and he were hidden in a room where the mattresses were kept in case of a sudden influx of priests at festal times. Is not this hidden king a type of the hiding of the true Prince in the recesses of our hearts, while some Athaliah occupies too large a share of government? There is no alternative but that the evil self-life, our Athaliah, should be stoned.
It was a glad moment when the hidden prince was produced. Many loyal hearts had renounced all hope of again seeing a scion of Davids line. But God kept His promise. The Word of God was a befitting gift to place in the hands of the young prince, 2Ki 11:12. Compare Deu 17:18-19. But what a revelation will it be when Jesus assumes the government of the earth, and its kingdoms become the kingdom of God and His Christ! He is now hidden, but He shall be manifested, Col 3:4.
Jehoash (Or Joash)
(Jehovah-gifted)
(2 Kings 11, 12; 2 Chron. 22:10-24:27.)
Contemporary Prophet, Zechariah, son of Jehoiada.
It is He that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David His servant from the hurtful sword.- Psa 144:10
And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. Chronicles adds, of the house of Judah (we quote from Kings). But 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 slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.
That wicked woman, is the character given this Athaliah by the Holy Ghost in 2Ch 24:7. She was just such a daughter as her infamous mother, that woman Jezebel, was likely to produce. Her father was himself a murderer, and the family character was fully marked in her. She heartlessly slaughtered her own grandchildren in her lust for power. She would be herself ruler of the kingdom, even at the cost of the lives of helpless and innocent children. No character in history, sacred or secular, stands out blacker or more hideous than this daughter-in-law of the godly Jehoshaphat. Joash was only an infant at the time, and his mother (Zibiah of Beersheba), in all likelihood, dead-murdered, probably, by her fiendish mother-in-law. Jehosheba ( Jehovahs oath, i.e., devoted to Him), the childs aunt, and wife of the high priest Jehoiada ( Jehovah known) , hid him, with his nurse, first in one of the palace bedchambers, and later in the temple (where she lived), among her own children, and perhaps as one of them. And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land. It was Gods mercy to the house of David, even as it had been declared at the time of the reign of Athaliahs husband Jehoram: Howbeit the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and as He promised to give a light to him and to his sons for ever (2Ch 21:7).
Athaliah, no doubt, thought herself secure upon the throne of David. Six years she possessed the coveted power, and could say, I sit a queen. She made the most of her opportunity to corrupt the kingdom with idolatry, and had a temple built to Baal. But in the seventh year her richly-merited retribution suddenly came upon her. And in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guards, 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. And they went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he (Jehoiada) said unto them, Behold, the kings son shall reign, as the Lord hath said of the sons of David. Arrangements were then entered into for the most unique coronation that was ever known. Everything was ordered with great care and secrecy, that suspicion should not be aroused. Trusted men, chiefly Levites, were stationed at important points about the kings house and temple. The sabbath day, and the time for the changing of the courses of the priests and Levites, may have been chosen so that the unusually large number of people about the temple would not excite suspicion in the minds of Athaliah and her Baalite minions. The Levites carefully guarded the royal child, every man with his weapons in his hand, with strict orders to slay any one that should attempt to approach him. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king Davids spears and shields, that were in the temple of the Lord, and a strong guard was placed within the temple enclosure. Then they brought out the kings son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony (a copy of the law, Deu 17:18), and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king! It is a thrilling tale, and nowhere given so well as in our time-honored Authorized Version.
Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord: and she looked, and , behold, the king stood at (or, on) his pillar (stage, or scaffold- Gesenius) at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king: and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with instruments of music, and such as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason! Treason! But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth of the 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. And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by which the horses came into the kings house: and there she was slain. And 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. And 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 appointed officers over the house of the Lord. And 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. And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the kings house (2 Kings 11).
Jehoiada and his wife had engaged in this dangerous business in faith, as is manifest by the words of Jehoiada, Behold the kings son shall reign, as the Lord hath said of the sons of David. The Lord hath said is quite enough for faith to move on or to act whatever be the dangers, the difficulties and the toils. And in that path all the wheels of Providence are made to turn to bring about the successful end. God gives the needful wisdom in it too, and so every step and arrangement of this faithful man succeeds perfectly, all proving that whatever be the cunning and craft of the devil in Athaliah, it must succumb to the wisdom of God and of faith. The cause was of God; Joash was the only and rightful heir to the throne of David, which by the promise of God was not to be without an heir till that Heir should come who would be the sure mercies of David and would need no successor.
Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mothers name also was Zibiah (doe, or gazelle) of Beersheba. And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters. His uncle appears to have exercised a wholesome influence over him. The noting of his taking two wives for him is doubtless to manifest his godly concern for the succession mentioned above.
And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to repair the house of the Lord. And he gathered together the priests and Levites, and said to them, Go out into the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it not. Nothing was done at the time. The spiritual condition of the people made it difficult to accomplish anything. The people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and would therefore feel little responsibility toward the temple at Jerusalem. The lines in Popes pantheistic Universal Prayer,
To Thee whose temple is all space, Whose altar, earth, sea, skies!
would, no doubt, express pretty accurately their thoughts in the matter. What little was contributed was, it would seem, misappropriated towards the maintainance of the priests and Levites. (See 2Ki 12:7, 8, N. Tr.) This neglect continued until the twenty-third year of Joash. Then the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, the collection, according to the commandment of Moses the servant of the Lord, and of the congregation of Israel, for the tabernacle of witness? (He had not neglected to read the testimony delivered to him at his coronation, evidently). For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up (devastated, N. Tr.) the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim. True to what he had learned in the word of God, he did not hesitate to admonish even the high priest if he was negligent in carrying it out, for that Word is above all. And though he owed to his uncle a lasting debt of gratitude for the preservation of his infant life, he could, when occasion required, make request of him that he, as Gods high priest, perform his duty in reference to the necessary repairs of that house over which he had been set by God. Would God he had continued in such a mind to the end of his reign.
And at the kings commandment they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of the Lord. And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the Lord the collection that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. (See Exo 30:11-16.) And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end. It commended itself to the peoples conscience, as what is of God usualy does, and they gave as the Lord loves to see His people give-cheerfully. Now it came to pass, that at what time the chest was brought unto the kings office by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the kings scribe and the high priests officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to his place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the Lord, and also such as wrought iron and brass to mend the house of the Lord. So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in his state, and strengthened it. No exacting accounts were kept; there was no suspicion of dishonesty, or misappropriation; the most beautiful confidence prevailed, evidencing the work of God. When it is the work of God, the heart is engaged; selfish ends are absent; there is one common object; all this produces confidence: Moreover they reckoned not with the men, in whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on the workmen: for they dealt faithfully.
More than sufficient was bestowed by the willing-hearted people, And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the Lord, even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. Nor were the priests left unprovided for. The money of trespass-offerings and the money of sin-offerings was not brought into the house of Jehovah; it was for the priests (2Ki 12:16, N. Tr.)
And they offered burnt-offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada. But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; a hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings (as well they might), because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward His house. He had remembered the claims of the Holy One of Israel, and attended to them with vigor and fidelity. Nor could it be other than the energy of faith in a man nearly a hundred years old setting himself to overthrow such an enemy of God as Athaliah.
His extreme old age may account for his evident laxity in performing the kings command in regard to the repairing of the temple. He was born before the death of Solomon, and had seen much during his long life that peculiarly qualified him to become the protector and early guide of Jehoash. By him the kingdom was reestablished, and the cause of Jehovah revived during his last days on earth. He was a true king, in heart and mind, and it was meet that the aged patriarchs mitered head should be laid to rest among those who had worn the crown.
How long he had filled the office of high priest is not known. He succeeded Amariah, who was high priest under Jehoshaphat. What a contrast between him and those other two high priests, Annas and Caiaphas, of whom we read in the New Testament. He labored to maintain the succession; they labored to destroy the final Heir-great Davids greater Son. And when the time of rewards comes, what will be the unspeakable differences!
But now a cloud begins to appear that dims the brightness of the reign of Joash, and culminates in treachery and murder. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king harkened unto them. And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. Yet He sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the Lord; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear. The revival during Joashs early reign had already lost its hold; it could not have been of much depth when they could so quickly turn aside to idols after Jehoiadas departure. But the spirit of the good high priest was not dead; his worthy son Zechariah withstood and condemned their backslidings. And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, He hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king, in the court of the house of the Lord. At the commandment of the king! Alas for Joashs unfaithfulness to God, and base ingratitude to the man who had been to him so great a benefactor! Zechariah was his cousin, and his foster-brother too! Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it. This is, in all probability, the Zacharias referred to by our Lord, whom ye slew, He says, between the temple and the altar. He was the last historical Old Testament martyr, as Abel had been the first. The prophet Urijah was slain almost two hundred and fifty years after Zechariah, but it is not recorded in the historical canon of Scripture; it is only mentioned incidentally in the prophecy of Jeremiah (chap. 26:23). Son of Barachias (Mat 23:35) presents no real difficulty. It may have been a second name for Jehoiada (and would be a very appropriate one too: Barachias- blessed); or, Barachias may have been one of Zechariahs earlier ancestors, as son of frequently means in Scripture. Luke, chap, 11:51, does not have son of Barachias. But one of the first of the above explanations is preferable.6 Anyway, he met his death at the hand of the very man for whom his mother and his father risked their lives. Other sons of Jehoiada were also slain by Joash (2Ch 24:25). The Lord look upon it, and require it, the dying martyr said. Stephen, also stoned for his testimony, cried, when dying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Law, under which every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, was the governing principle of the dispensation under which the martyr Zechariah died; grace reigned in Stephens day (as still in ours); therefore the difference in the dying martyrs prayers. Both, though so unlike, were in perfect keeping with the dispensations under which they witnessed.
The Lord require it. And He did, and that right speedily-for He does not disregard the dying prayers of men like Zechariah. And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syria came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people (they were judged first for having been chiefly guilty in persuading the king to forsake Jehovah,) and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus. For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash. And when they were departed from him (for they left him in great diseases), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings. 2Ki 12:17, 18 records a previous invasion of Syrians under Hazael, when Joash bought him off with gold and other treasures taken from the temple and the kings palace. It was then that they discovered the real weakness of the army of Joash (spite of its being a very great host); hence only a small company of men was sent out on the second expedition against him. There is no king saved by the multitude of a host, wrote that king (Psa 33:16) whose throne Joash so unworthily filled. And his time to receive the due reward of his deeds was come, and there was no power on earth that could have saved him. The murdered Zechariahs name ( Jah hath re- membered) must have had a terrible significance to him as he lay in great diseases on his bed in the house of Millo, the citadel of Zion. And if he escaped death at the hands of the Syrians by taking refuge in the stronghold at the descent of Silla (2Ki 12:20, N. Tr.), it was only to be treacherously assassinated by his servants, both of them sons of Gentile women (2Ch 24:26), fruit of mixed marriages, condemned by the law. So disobedience brings its own bitter reward, and what Gods people sow they always, in some way or other, reap. Joash abundantly deserved his inglorious and terrible end. It can be ever said, when the judgments of God are seen to come upon such as he, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy (Rev 16:5, 6).
6 But see Num. Bibte (Matthew), page 219. There seems no good reason for supposing any other than Zechariah the prophet to be meant, though Zechariah the son of Jehoiada is generally taken to be. But this leaves the son of Barachias to be accounted for, when the son of Jehoiada also would havp better reminded them of the history. It seems also too far back (in Joashs time) for the purpose, when summing up the guilt of the people.
As to Zechariah the prophet, he was the son of Berachiah, and grandson of Iddo; and the Jewish Targum states that Zechariah the sou of Iddo, a prophet and priest, was slain in the sanctuary.-See The Irrationalism of Infidelity,by J. N. Darby, pp. 150-159.- E&.
3. Athaliah and Jehoiadas Revival
CHAPTER 11
1. Athaliahs wicked reign (2Ki 11:1-3; 2Ch 22:10-12)
2. Joash (Jehoash) proclaimed king (2Ki 11:4-12; 2Ch 23:1-11)
3. The death of Athaliah (2Ki 11:13-16; 2Ch 23:12-15)
4. Jehoiadas revival (2Ki 11:17-21; 2Ch 23:16-21)
Athaliah, the wicked daughter of a wicked pair (Ahab and Jezebel), the widow of Joram, King of Judah, Jehoshaphats son and the mother of Ahaziah, who had been slain by Jehu, destroyed the seed royal. She did so because she wanted the authority herself. It was an awful deed, inspired by him who is the murderer from the beginning. And Satan aimed through her at something of which his instrument was ignorant. It was one of the many attempts Satan made to exterminate the male offspring to make the coming One, the promised saviour, the seed of the woman, impossible. Had he succeeded through Athaliah in the destruction of the royal seed of David, the promise made to David would have become impossible. Notice the first little word in the second verse, But. Satans attempt failed. The watchful eye of Jehovah and His power frustrated it all. A wicked woman killed her own children and a godly woman was used to keep one of the royal seed alive.
Jehosheba (the LORDs oath is the meaning of her name), through whom the covenant-oath was sustained, was the wife of Jehoiada (meaning the LORD knows), the high-priest (2Ch 22:11); he was brother-in-law to Ahaziah (2Ch 22:11) and Jehosheba was probably a half sister of Ahaziah. She took the young child from among the Kings sons and hid him first in the bed-chamber and then in the house of the LORD till the seventh year. Well may we see here a most beautiful type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Like Joash He was doomed to death, yea, He died. But He was raised from the dead and is now hidden in the house of God above, the heavens having received Him. Joash, the heir of the throne of David, was hidden till the seventh year even as the true heir to the throne of David is now hidden in the presence of God till the six years (six the number of mans day, the present age) are passed. And when the seventh year comes–the beginning of the coming age, He will be brought forth as Joash was brought from his hiding place and be crowned king.
A remnant selected by Jehoiada saw the king first. It is a great scene this chapter describes. The company brought together, armed with King Davids shields and spears, the kings son brought into the midst, Jehoiada putting the crown upon his head, anointing him with oil, they clapped with their hands and shouted God save the King. Greater will be the scene when He will be crowned King of Kings, whose right it is to reign. Athaliah, the usurper, appears on the scene, attracted by the noise. She is face to face with the crowned king and receives now her well-deserved punishment outside of the house of the LORD. A great revival followed. A covenant was made by Jehoiada between the LORD and the king and people that they should be the LORDs people. Baals altars and images are broken. The king sits upon his throne. All the people of the land rejoiced and there was peace. All these blessed results are faint foreshadowings of what is yet to be when the usurper is cast out, when the true King is crowned. Then Israel will be in truth the LORDs people, idolatry will cease, the land and the people will rejoice and the city be quiet.
am 3120, bc 884
Athaliah: 2Ch 22:10, 2Ch 24:7
the mother: 2Ki 8:26, 2Ki 9:27
and destroyed: A similar history is related by Mr. Bruce, as having occurred in Abyssinia. Judith “surprised the rock Damo, and slew the whole of the princes, to the number, it is said, of about 400;” while the infant king, Del Naad, was conveyed for safety to a loyal province, and afterwards restored. Mat 2:13, Mat 2:16, Mat 21:38, Mat 21:39
seed royal: Heb. seed of the kingdom, 2Ki 25:25, *marg. Jer 41:1
Reciprocal: Jdg 9:5 – slew 1Ki 1:12 – the life 2Ki 10:7 – slew seventy 2Ki 10:14 – neither left 2Ki 11:14 – Treason 2Ki 12:1 – the seventh 2Ch 18:1 – joined affinity Psa 109:14 – let not Pro 14:1 – the foolish Isa 3:12 – children Isa 49:15 – they may Jer 41:7 – slew Mat 14:8 – Give
A CENTURY OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH
JOASH OF JUDAH (2 Kings 11-12)
The chief events of this reign are the rescue of the infant king from the murderous grandmother (2Ki 11:1-3); the coup detat of the high priest by which he was raised to the throne (2Ki 11:4-16); the reforms of the high priest as regent of the kingdom (2Ki 11:17-21); the repairing of the temple by the king (2Ki 12:1-16); the surrender to the Syrians (2Ki 12:17-18); and the kings assassination (2Ki 12:19-21).
Be careful to read the parallel chapters in 2 Chronicles (22-24), which add details, though at this distance it may be impossible to reconcile all the minor differences.
JEHOAHAZ OF ISRAEL (2Ki 13:1-9)
This reign is notable not for what man did but for what God did (2Ki 13:4). That His compassion was awakened towards such a people commands the wonder even of the spiritually enlightened a wonder the sacred narrator Himself expresses in the parenthetic verses (2Ki 13:5-6). Saviour, or delivered, is used in a military sense, as in Judges. He did not appear in Jehoahazs time but in that of his successors Jehoash and Jeroboam II.
JEHOASH OF ISRAEL (2Ki 13:10-25)
We need not speak further of the chronological difficulty here (2Ki 13:10 compared with 2Ki 13:1) which we cannot solve, but pass on to the preliminary fulfillment of the promised saviour (2Ki 13:5), found in 2Ki 13:14-25.
Jehoash, or Joash (2Ki 13:14), is in sore distress by reason of the affliction in verse three, and sufficiently penitent to implore Jehovah through His prophet (2Ki 13:14). The symbolism of the subsequent verses (2Ki 13:15-19) is plain. Take bow and arrows means, arm thyself for war against the Syrians. The arrow of the Lords deliverance means that the victory would come from God. The second part of the action was an enhancement of it, and showed the king to lack that zeal and persevering trust in God that would have brought the complete destruction of his enemy (Note 2Ki 13:25).
The extraordinary event in 2Ki 13:21 is to be accepted just as it is, but it is useless to speculate on the cause or the object of it.
AMAZIAH OF JUDAH (2Ki 14:1-20)
An interesting event is the challenge Amaziah sends to Jehoash, the manner in which it is received, and the outcome of it (2Ki 14:8-14). It is worthy of remark that he met death in the same way as his father whose murder he had been so prompt to avenge (2Ki 14:19-20).
JEROBOAM II OF ISRAEL (2Ki 14:23-29)
Now God fully redeems His promise to give a saviour to Israel (2Ki 13:5). Observe the long reign of this king the longest in the annals of Israel (2Ki 14:23). Observe his remarkable victories (2Ki 14:25). Observe the reference to Jonah who seems in succession to Elisha, and lived probably contemporaneously with Jehoash or even Jehoahaz. It may have been through him that God gave the promise to that king to which we have made reference. The close of his reign marks about a century from the beginning of that of Joash of Judah.
Another circumstance of interest is that Amos and Hosea both lived and prophesied in this reign (see the opening verses of their prophecies).
QUESTIONS
1. Name the first reigning queen of Judah.
2. Name the high priest who placed Joash on the throne.
3. How old was Joash when he began to reign?
4. What good work marked his reign?
5. Under what circumstances did he die?
6. Who was the saviour intended in 13:5?
7. In whose reign did Elisha die?
8. What nation was the constant enemy of Israel in those days?
9. Name some events making the reign of Jeroboam II the golden age of Israel.
10. Name three prophets of his period whose written works have come down to us.
2Ki 11:1. And destroyed all the seed royal All of the royal family that had not been cut off by Jehu and others, except one, mentioned 2Ki 11:2. To this wickedness she was impelled by many motives: 1st, By rage to see Ahabs family destroyed, which made her resolve that the family of David should share the same fate. 2d, By ambition and desire of rule, to make way for which many persons have destroyed their nearest relations. 3d, By her zeal for idolatry and the worship of Baal, which she intended to establish, and to which she knew the house of David were implacable enemies. 4th, By a regard to her own defence, that, by getting into the throne, which she could not do without destroying the royal family, she might secure herself from Jehus fury, who, she understood, was resolved utterly to destroy all the branches of Ahabs house, of which she was one. Possibly those whom she slew were Jehorams children by another wife. This was the fruit of Jehoshaphats marrying his son to a daughter of that idolatrous house of Ahab: and this dreadful judgment God permitted to come upon him and his, to show how much he abhors all such affinities. The consideration of the fate, says Dr. Dodd, which attended these royal families, is sufficient to make one thankful to God for having been born of meaner parentage. The whole offspring of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab, was cut off for their idolatry; and the kings of Judah, having contracted an affinity with the house of Ahab, and being by them seduced into the same crime, were so destroyed, by three successive massacres, that there was but one left: for first Jehoram slew all his brethren, then Jehu all his brothers children, and now Athaliah destroys all the rest that her executioners can meet with.
2Ki 11:1. Athaliah, that is, wicked woman. She must have received this as a surname for her evil deeds; and justly did she merit the appellation, for she slew her grandsons at a tender age, and so cut off all the heirs of Davids house. In ages of tyranny and blood, such inhuman conduct was too frequently adopted.
2Ki 11:9. On the sabbath. The throne is always safest in the arms of the church. Here is one of the completest plans ever devised.
(1) The venerable highpriest, surnamed the Blessed, aided by his sons, gained the officers of the guards by introducing them to the young king; and they knew already that he was hid in some place.
(2) As the soldiers went unarmed to devotion in the temple, he provided them with spears from the arsenal of the temple.
(3) He divided them into three companies to guard the king, and the two principal gates, where a small force could repel the idolaters.
(4) He crowned the young king in their presence, amid the liveliest effusions of loyalty and joy.
(5) He completed his work by destroying the bloody usurper, with the priest and temple of Baal. See his character, 2 Chronicles 24.
REFLECTIONS.
In this chapter we find the tragedy of Samaria extended to Jerusalem. No sooner was it known that Jehu reigned, that Ahab and all his house were cut off, that Ahaziah was dead, than Athaliah, a pupil of Jezebels school, was struck with terror, and became frantic with alarm. Her guilty mind seemed to see a bloody hand entering at every gate and every door of her palace. Thinking every servant a traitor, and every friend a foe, she fled to her faction for counsel, and probably to the house of Baal, which for two reigns had been suffered to rival the Lords temple in Jerusalem. Here it was decreed to slay the whole house of David, and not leave a branch to perpetuate his name. Consequently all the prophets were to be confounded; and the Lord not allowed, of Davids line, to send the Messiah for the redemption of the world! This was the counsel of the wicked; the bloody measure was no sooner decreed than executed; but God made one exception to the plot. Oh what calamitous times for kings, for princes, and the great ones of the earth. The whole households of Jeroboam, of Baasha, and of Ahab entirely cut off! In Judah the calamities on royalty were much the same. Jehoram, probably at the instigation of this wicked woman, had slain all his brothers, and many of the nobility. 2Ch 21:3. The Arabians had carried away all his wives and all his sons, except Ahaziah, now dead. 2Ch 21:17. The royal family in Damascus had just sustained the like calamity from the conspiracy of Hazael. But all those families had greatly sinned in shedding innocent blood, and in departing from the Lord.
During the fury of popular and military carnage, the supreme Ruler sat serene in the heavens, and directed the tempest, as he prescribes bounds to the waves of the sea. He who preserved a single branch to Gideon, and to Jonathan, preserved a Joash to David, while the numerous and more culpable male branches were all exscinded from the tree. What then have good men to fear in the worst of times? The God of heaven and earth directs the shafts of vengeance, and handles the weapons of the warrior. The hairs of their head are all numbered; life and death, things present and things to come, alike contribute to serve such as are in covenant with the Lord.
The wicked often triumph for a time, notwithstanding the enormity of their crimes. Athaliahs plot was crowned with complete success. God was her defence, because she wantonly and solely hoping to serve herself, obtruded her services to do him a bloody work; and he protected her, because he would grant this daughter of Jezebel space for repentance. Leviticus 2:21. As yet also, the lawful prince was not of age to handle the sceptre of his sires. Sometimes the plans of providence, not being ripe for execution, occasion the wicked to be long preserved. But mark now, how the wheels of justice rolled in their course. Jehoiada, the wary highpriest, whose person and religion had been long insulted by two queens of Ahabs house, kept his eye on the hope of Israel, promised in Davids line. Joash approaching the age of seven years, discovered a most engaging countenance, strongly marked with the features of his fathers, and afforded the most hopeful indications of genius. Urged, on the one hand, by the silent cries of blood, and on the other by a sense of duty, he apprized his friends of his designs, and appointed them captains of hundreds, &c. Applauding his fidelity, they all entered the sanctuary on the sabbath; received the arms which David had taken from his enemies, and instantly on seeing Joash on the throne, saluted him with the appellations of royalty, while the cheers and the trumpets published their joys afar. What a day of gladness to Judah, a new birthday to Davids house, and the renovation of Zions hopes. Athaliah, indolent on her couch, instead of kneeling for devotion, heard and trembled; she wished to know the cause, but feared to ask. Impatient for information, she entered the gates of the sanctuary; and what did she see but Joash on the throne! Joash guarded by the nation, while the venerable priest pronounced her arrest, and ordered her out of the courts for immediate execution. So she died in the carriage road leading to the palace. How mysterious and instructive are the judgments of heaven. Did this woman bring death on a multitude of princes in a moment of perfect repose? Did she cut them off without allowing them to bid adieu to their dearest friends? Did the pursuing sword destroy them in palaces, or in streets? Behold now the requital in kind. She came into the temple for joy, but found sorrow. She expected a long reign in wickedness, but saw the innocent on the throne. She cried, yea, to her gods; but there were none to hear, none to save. How instructive are the reflections which those tragic times suggest! Who would regret as a calamity the being born in a peaceful cottage, rather than in a troubled palace? Who would not pity the peculiar calamities of kings; and who after this can think themselves at ease and secure in their sins? Perhaps that daring infidel, perhaps that proud and haughty woman may soon hear the trumpets, and not be aware that death is at the door. Perhaps the wicked, rioting on the lap of pleasure, and scorning repentance, may see the Lord on his throne, and hear their dreadful sentence, while all around rejoice and applaud. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. If all those bloody families fell in their blood, the same eternal Judge still survives, to render to every man according to his works.
2 Kings 11. Usurpation of Athaliah. Coronation of Joash and Execution of Athaliah.Athaliah, mother of Ahaziah, a daughter of Ahab, destroyed the royal family of Judah, except Joash, a child who was saved by Jehosheba and kept concealed for six years, during which time Athaliah reigned (2Ki 11:1-3). The author gives no notice, as is customary, of her regnal years; and S. A. Cook (EBi, col. 381) remarks on her maintaining herself on the throne for six years as a singular fact, which raises questions more easily asked than answered. At the end of this period Jehoiada, according to 2Ch 22:11, the husband of Jehosheba, made a conspiracy with the troops, showed them the kings son, and arranged for the overthrow of Athaliah (2Ki 11:4-12). At this point we have a second narrative (so Stade, see Cent.B), in which the people play their part (2Ki 11:13-18). Athaliah was slain, and Mattan, the priest of Baal; for it appears that the revolution was a religious one (2Ki 11:17 a), like that of Jehu. This narrative is supplemented in 2 Chronicles 22 f., where Jehoiadas relationship to the royal family is mentioned, the names of the officers with whom he conspired are given, and particular care is taken to show (2Ki 23:6) that the sanctuary was not profaned by non-Levitical soldiery.
2Ki 11:4. Jehoiada.Though the high priest is mentioned in 2Ki 12:10, Jehoiada is always called the priest here and in the parallel passages in Chronicles. Nor does his name appear in the high-priestly line in 1 Chronicles 6, nor in Josephus (Ant.). He was evidently the chief priest in the Temple; but the high-priestly office is probably post-exilic, and there is no one analogous to him in the records of the Temple in Kings.the Carites: probably foreign mercenaries. The Heb. name is akin to the Cherethites, who, with the Pelethites, played a part in the army of David and Solomon (p. 56, 2Sa 8:18, etc.; 1Ki 1:38). It is remarkable that in Jerusalem these foreign guards continued to be the important leaders of the army, and we have no trace of any such in Israel.
2Ki 11:10. The spears and shields which Jehoiada delivered to the guard were possibly sacred weapons to be used at a coronation. According to 2 Chronicles 23, the priest armed the Levites, as the presence of foreign troops in the Temple was deemed a profanation.
2Ki 11:12. Here is an interesting account of a coronation: (a) crowning, (b) giving of the testimony, (c) anointing, (d) the king took his stand by the pillar (2Ki 11:14) as the manner was, (a) The crown (nezer, cf. Nazirite) is only mentioned here in making a king, but Saul wore a nezer at the battle of Mt. Gilboa (2Sa 1:10). (b) The testimony may be the law book, but was more probably part of the regalia. A slight emendation would make it mean the bracelets (cf. 2Sa 1:10), (c) Anointing was evidently the essential ceremony. The king was the Messiah (Christ) of Yahweh. (d) The pillar or platform was at the entrance of the Temple (2Ch 23:13). It was here that Josiah (2Ki 23:3) made his covenant with Yahweh (2Ki 11:17).
2Ki 11:18. The execution of Mattan, the priest of Baal, shows that the rebellion against Athaliah essentially religious.
ATHALIAH SEIZES CONTROL OF JUDAH
(vv.1-3)
The fact that Jehu did not kill Athaliah left Judah exposed to the wickedness of this cruel daughter of Jezebel. Since her son had been killed, she herself killed her grandchildren, so that none of them could rule (v.1). However, she missed one of these, Joash the son of Ahaziah, who was hidden by his aunt, Jehosheba the sister of Ahaziah. Joash was only a year old at the time and was cared for by a nurse in secret (vv.2-3). The condition of Judah was so low at the time that no one was able to resist Athaliah’s vicious usurping of authority over the land.
JOASH FINALLY CROWNED KING
(vv.4-12)
After six years had passed, Jehoiada the priest found courage given of the Lord to gather together captains and body guards to the house of the Lord, where he made a covenant with them and showed them Joash the king’s son (v.4). Certainly it would be a relief to these men to find that there was a living heir to the throne, specially after the ordeal of bearing with Athaliah’s callous authority. Satan was behind the murder of all these children, but God made sure one was left to carry on the title to Judah’s throne, though in the genealogy of Mat 1:1-25 the names of Ahaziah, and Amaziah are omitted because Athaliah was their progenitor (Mat 1:8). There Joram is said to have begotten Uzzah, but Joram actually begot Amaziah, to whom Uzzah was born. The Lord saw fit to drop the three names from the register because of the wickedness of Athaliah.
Jehoiada gave instructions that one third of the officers who served on the Sabbath would watch over the king’s house, one third on guard at the gate of Sur and one third at the gate behind the escorts. These were to guard against any possibility of assault upon the house (vv.5-6). Two contingents of those who went off duty on the Sabbath should also keep watch of the house of the Lord for the king (v.7), and the king (Joash) was to be surrounded on all sides by armed men. Anyone who came within range was to be put to death. The king was to be kept guarded at all times.
The captains followed these instructions, and Jehoiada gave them spears and shields that had belonged to David and were kept in the temple of the Lord (vv.9-10). Thus the king was surrounded and protected. If there were any friends of Athaliah, they had no opportunity to do anything to oppose the coronation of Joash. Jehoiada crowned him and anointed him, giving him the Testimony, the written proof of his kingship. Clapping their hands, the people proclaimed, “Long live the King!”
ATHALIAH EXECUTED
(vv.13-16)
When Athaliah heard the noise of this celebration, she came to the temple and saw Joash standing by a pillar, as was the custom at a coronation, while leaders and trumpeters were there supporting the king. All the people were rejoicing with blowing of trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, “Treason, Treason!” But Joash was the true king. Athaliah was guilty of far worse than treason-She was a mass murderer and a usurper who had no right to the throne.
She required no trial. Everyone knew her wickedness that demanded her death. Jehoiada gave orders to the captains and officers of the army to take her outside, for she must not be executed in the house of the Lord. If anyone took her side, that person must be killed also (v.15). She was taken out by way of the horse gate and executed. Solemn end for this wicked daughter of a wicked couple!
A NEW BEGINNING BY COVENANT
(vv.17-21)
The Lord had one man, Jehoiada the priest, to stand in the gap at this time. The king was only seven years old, but Jehoiada was a faithful and able mentor for him. Jehoiada acted as a priest of God should act, beginning by making a covenant between the Lord, the king and the people. This was consistent with the dispensation of the law of God, under which Israel was at the time. Under grace today, vows and covenants are forbidden (Mat 5:33-37). But Jehoiada sought to bring Israel back to the obedience of law, which was right at the time.
The covenant being made, then all the people of the land tore down the temple of Baal. Jehu had done this before in Israel, but as long as Athaliah was living, she could preserve Baal worship in Judah. Mattan, the priest of Baal, was killed before the altars. In contrast to the house of Baal, Jehoiada appointed officers over the house of the Lord (v.18). With the house of the Lord being cared for first, then a great retinue escorted the king from the house of the Lord to his own house, where he sat on the throne of Judah (v.19). At this time the king, being so young, was dependent on others, and particularly on Jehoiada the priest. But all the people of the land rejoiced and the city was at peace and quiet because they were relieved of the tyranny of Athaliah (v.20).
11:1 And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the {a} seed royal.
(a) Meaning, all the posterity of Jehoshaphat, to whom the kingdom belonged: thus God used the cruelty of this woman to destroy the family of Ahab.
2. Athaliah’s evil reign in Judah 11:1-20
Queen Athaliah usurped the throne of Judah. She was not a descendant of David. She was one of the 20 rulers of Judah, however. She was Judah’s only reigning queen and the strongest Baal advocate among Judah’s rulers.
God’s preservation of a legitimate king 11:1-12
Athaliah was the mother of the Judean king Ahaziah, whom Jehu assassinated (2Ki 9:27-29). She was a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel and the sister of the Israelite kings Ahaziah and Joram, who had succeeded Ahab. She was the wife of the Judean king Jehoram, who had died of intestinal disease (2Ch 21:18-19). Raiding Philistines and Arabians had killed her other sons besides Ahaziah (2Ch 21:17).
Athaliah proceeded to assassinate all potential successors to the throne, totally disregarding God’s will that David’s descendants were to rule Judah (2Sa 7:16).
"It was one of the many attempts Satan made to exterminate the male offspring to make the coming One, the promised Savior, the seed of the woman, impossible. Had he succeeded through Athaliah in the destruction of the royal seed of David, the promise made to David would have become impossible." [Note: Gaebelein, 1:330.]
Jehosheba was a daughter of Athaliah’s husband, King Jehoram. She may not have been Athaliah’s own daughter, but was the half-sister of King Ahaziah of Judah, and the wife of the high priest in Judah, Jehoiada (2Ch 22:11). [Note: Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 9:7:1.] She hid Jehoash (Joash), as Jochebed had hidden Moses (Exodus 2). According to Josephus, Jehosheba hid Jehoash in a room used to store spare furniture and mattresses. [Note: Ibid.]
The Carites (another spelling of Cherethites; cf. 2Sa 8:18; et al.) were special guards. The other guards (2Ki 11:4) were priests and Levites (2Ch 23:4).
When the high priest crowned Jehoash (Joash), who was then seven years old, he gave him a copy of the Mosaic Law consistent with what the Law required (Deu 17:18-19). This is the basis for the British custom of presenting the new king or queen of England with a copy of the Bible during the coronation ceremony. [Note: Wiseman, p. 233.]
ATHALLAH
(B.C. 842-836)
JOASH BEN AHAZIAH OF JUDAH
(B.C. 836-796)
2Ki 11:1-21; 2Ki 12:1-21
“Par cette fin terrible, et due a ses forfaits,
Apprenez, Roi des Juifs, et noubliez jamais,
Que les rois dans le ciel ont un juge severe,
Linnocence un vengeur, et les orphelins un pere!”
– RACINE, “Athalie.”
“Regardless of the sweeping whirlwinds sway,
That, hushed in grim repose, expects its evening prey.”
– GRAY.
BEFORE we follow the destinies of the House of Jehu we must revert to Judah, and watch the final consequences of ruin which came in the train of Ahabs Tyrian marriage, and brought murder and idolatry into Judah, as well as into Israel.
Athaliah, who, as queen-mother, was more powerful than the queen-consort (malekkah), was the true daughter of Jezebel. She exhibits the same undaunted fierceness, the same idolatrous fanaticism, the same swift resolution, the same cruel and unscrupulous wickedness.
It might have been supposed that the miserable disease of her husband Jehoram, followed so speedily by the murder, after one years reign, of her son Ahaziah, might have exercised over her character the softening influence of misfortune. On the contrary, she only saw in these events a short path to the consummation of her ambition.
Under Jehoram she had been queen: under Ahaziah she had exercised still more powerful influence as Gebirah, and had asserted her sway alike over her husband and over her son, whose counsellor she was to do wickedly. It was far from her intention tamely to sink from her commanding position into the abject nullity of an aged and despised dowager in a dull provincial seraglio. She even thought that
“To reign is worth ambition though in hell
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”
The royal family of the House of David, numerous and flourishing as it once was, had recently been decimated by cruel catastrophes. Jehoram, instigated probably by his heathen wife, had killed his six younger brothers. {2Ch 21:2-4} Later on, the Arabs and Philistines, in their insulting invasion, had not only plundered his palace, but had carried away his sons; so that, according to the Chronicler, “there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz [i.e., Ahaziah], the youngest of his sons.” {2Ch 21:17} He may have had other sons after that invasion; and Ahaziah had left children, who must all, however, have been very young, since he was only twenty-two or twenty-three when Jehus servants murdered him. Athaliah might naturally have hoped for the regency; but this did not content her. When she saw that her son Ahaziah was dead, “she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.” In those days the life of a child was but little thought of; and it weighed less than nothing with Athaliah that these innocents were her grandchildren. She killed all of whose existence she was aware, and boldly seized the crown. No queen had ever reigned alone either in Israel or in Judah. Judah must have sunk very low, and the talents of Athaliah must have been commanding, or she could never have established a precedent hitherto undreamed of, by imposing on the people of David for six years the yoke of a woman, and that woman a half-Phoenician idolatress. Yet so it was! Athaliah, like her cousin Dido, felt herself strong enough to rule.
But a womans ruthlessness was outwitted by a womans cunning. Ahaziah had a half-sister on the fathers side, the princess Jehosheba, or Jehoshabeath, who was then or afterwards (we are told) married to Jehoiada, the high priest. The secrets of harems are hidden deep, and Athaliah may have been purposely kept in ignorance of the birth to Ahaziah of a little babe whose mother was Zibiah of Beersheba, and who had received the name of Joash. If she knew of his existence, some ruse must have been palmed off upon her, and she must have been led to believe that he too had been killed. But he had not been killed. Jehosheba “stole him from among the kings sons that were slain,” and, with the connivance of his nurse, hid him from the murderers sent by Athaliah in the palace storeroom in which beds and couches were kept. Thence, at the first favorable moment, she transferred the child and nurse to one of the chambers in the three stories of chambers which ran round the Temple, and were variously used as wardrobes or as dwelling-rooms.
The hiding-place was safe; for under Athaliah the Temple of Jehovah fell into neglect and disrepute, and its resident ministers would not be numerous. It would not have been difficult, in the seclusion of Eastern life, for Jehosheba to pass off the babe as her own child to all but the handful who knew the secret.
Six years passed away, and the iron hand of Athaliah still kept the people in subjection. She had boldly set up in Judah her mothers Baal worship. Baal had his temple not far from that of Jehovah; and though Athaliah did not imitate Jezebel in persecuting the worshippers of Jehovah, she made her own high priest, Mattan, a much more important person than Jehoiada for all who desired to propitiate the favors of the Court.
Joash had now reached his seventh year, and a Jewish prince in his seventh year is regarded as something more than a mere child. Jehoiada thought that it was time to strike a blow in his favor, and to deliver him from the dreadful confinement which made it impossible for him to leave the Temple precincts.
He began secretly to tamper with the guards both of the Temple and of the palace. Upon the Levitic guards, indignant at the intrusion of Baal-worship, he might securely count, and the Carites and queens runners were not likely to be very much devoted to the rule of the manlike and idolatrous alien queen. Taking an oath of them in secrecy, he bound them to allegiance to the little boy whom he produced from the Temple chamber as their lawful lord, and the son of their late king.
The plot was well laid. There were five captains of the five hundred royal bodyguards, and the priest secretly enlisted them all in the service. The Chronicler says that he also sent round to all the chief Levites, and collected them in Jerusalem for the emergency. The arrangements of the Sabbath gave special facility to his plans; for on that day only one of the five divisions of guards mounted watch at the palace, and the others were set free for the service of the Temple. It had evidently been announced that some great ceremony would be held in the shrine of Jehovah; for all the people, we are told, were assembled in the courts of the house of the Lord. Jehoiada ordered one of the companies to guard the palace; another to be at the “gate Sur,” or the gate “of the Foundation”; another at the gate behind the barracks (?) of the palace-runners, to be a barrier against any incursion from the palace. Two more were to ensure the safety of the little king by watching the precincts of the Temple. The Levitic officers were to protect the kings person with serried ranks. Jehoiada armed them with spears and shields, which David had placed as trophies in the porch; and if any one tried to force his way within their lines he was to be slain.
The only danger to be apprehended was from any Carite mercenaries, or palace servants of the queen: among all others Jehoiada found a widespread defection. The people, the Levites, even the soldiers, all hated the Baal worshipping usurper.
At the fateful moment the guards were arranged in two dense lines, beginning from either side of the porch, till their ranks met beyond the altar, so as to form a hedge round the royal boy. Into this triangular space the young prince was led by the high priest, and placed beside the matstsebah-some prominent pillar in the Temple court, either one of Solomons pillars Jachin and Boaz, or some special erection of later days. Round him stood the princes of Judah, and there, in the midst of them, Jehoiada placed the crown upon his head, and in significant symbol also laid lightly upon it for a moment “The Testimony”-perhaps the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant-the most ancient fragment of the Pentateuch which was treasured up with the pot of manna inside or in front of the Ark. Then he poured on the childs head the consecrated oil, and said, “Let the king live!”
The completion of the ceremony was marked by the blare of the rams horns, the softer blast of the silver trumpets, and the answering shouts of the soldiers and the people. The tumult, or the news of it, reached the ears of Athaliah in the neighboring palace, and, with all the undaunted courage of her mother, she instantly summoned her escort, and went into the Temple to see for herself what was taking place. She probably mounted the ascent which Solomon had made from the palace to the Temple court, though it had long been robbed of its precious metals and scented woods. She led the way, and thought to overawe by her personal ascendency any irregularity which might be going on; for in the deathful hush to which she had reduced her subjects she does not seem to have dreamt of rebellion. No sooner had she entered than the guards closed behind her, excluding and menacing her escort.
A glance was sufficient to reveal to her the significance of the whole scene. There, in royal robes, and crowned with the royal crown, stood her little unknown grandson beside the matstsebah, while round him were the leaders of the people and the trumpeters, and the multitudes were still rolling their tumult of acclamation from the court below. In that sight she read her doom. Rending her clothes, she turned to fly, shrieking, “Treason! treason!” Then the commands of the priest rang out: “Keep her between the ranks, till you have got her outside the area of the Temple; and if any of her guards follow or try to rescue her, kill him with the sword. But let not the sacred courts be polluted with her blood.” So they made way for her, and as she could not escape she passed between the rows of Levites and soldiers till she had reached the private chariot-road by which the kings drove to the precincts. There the sword of vengeance fell. Athaliah disappears from history, and with her the dark race of Jezebel. But her story lives in the music of Handel and the verse of Racine.
This is the only recorded revolution in the history of Judah. In two later cases a king of Judah was murdered, but in both instances “the people of the land” restored the Davidic heir. Life in Judah was less dramatic and exciting than in Israel, but far more stable; and this, together with comparative immunity from foreign invasions, constituted an immense advantage.
Jehoiada, of course, became regent for the young king, and continued to be his guide for many years, so that even the kings two wives were selected by his advice. As the nation had been distracted with idolatries, he made the covenant between the king and the people that they should be loyal to each other, and between Jehoiada and the king and the people that they should be Jehovahs people. Such covenants were not infrequent in Jewish history. Such a covenant had been made by Asa {2Ch 15:9-15} after Abijams apostasy, as it was afterwards made by Hezekiah {2Ch 29:10} and by Josiah. {2Ch 29:31} The new covenant, and the sense of awakenment from the dream of guilty apostasy, evoked an outburst of spontaneous enthusiasm in the hearts of the populace. Of their own impulse they rushed to the temple of Baal which Athaliah had reared, dismantled it, and smashed to pieces his altars and images. The riot was only stained by a single murder. They slew Mattan, Athaliahs Baal priest, before the altars of his god.
With Jehoiada begins the title of “high priest.” Hitherto no higher name than “the priest” had been given even to Aaron, or Eli, or Zadok; but thenceforth the title of “chief priest” is given to his successors, among whom he inaugurated a new epoch.
It was now Jehoiadas object to restore such splendor and solemnity as he could to the neglected worship of the Temple, which had suffered in every way from Baals encroachments. He did this before the kings second solemn inauguration. Even the porters had been done away with, so that the Temple could at any time be polluted by the presence of the unclean, and the whole service of priests and Levites had fallen into desuetude.
Then he took the captains, and the Carians, and the princes, and conducted the boy-king, amid throngs of his shouting and rejoicing people, from the Temple to his own palace. There he seated him on the lion-throne of Solomon his father, in the great hall of justice, and the city was quiet and the land had rest. According to the historian, “Joash did right all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” The stock addition that “howbeit the bamoth were not removed, and the people still sacrificed and offered incense there,” is no derogation from the merits of Joash, and perhaps not even of Jehoiada, since if the law against the bamoth then existed, it had become absolutely unknown, and these local sanctuaries were held to be conducive to true religion.
It was natural that the child of the Temple should have at heart the interests of the Temple in which he had spent his early days, and to the shelter of which he owed his life and throne. The sacred house had been insulted and plundered by persons whom the Chronicler calls “the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman,” {2Ch 24:7} meaning, probably, her adherents. Not only had its treasures been robbed to enrich the house of Baal, but it had been suffered to fall into complete disrepair. Breaches gaped in the outer walls, and the very foundations were insecure. The necessity for restoring it occurred, not, as we should have expected, to the priests who lived at its altar, but to the boy-king. He issued an order to the priests that they should take charge of all the money presented to the Temple for the hallowed things, all the money paid in current coin, and all the assessments for various fines and vows, together with every freewill contribution. They were to have this revenue entirely at their disposal, and to make themselves responsible for the necessary repairs. According to the Chronicler, they were further to raise a subscription throughout the country from all their personal friends.
The kings command had been urgent. Money had at first come in, but nothing was done. Joash had reached the twenty-third year of his reign, and was thirty years old; but the Temple remained in its old sordid condition. The matter is passed over by the king as lightly, courteously, and considerately as he could; but if he does not charge the priests with downright embezzlement, he does reproach them for most reprehensible neglect. They were the appointed guardians of the house: why did they suffer its dilapidations to remain untouched year after year, while they continued to receive the golden stream which poured-but now, owing to the disgust of the people, in diminished volume-into their coffers? “Take no more money, therefore,” he said, “from your acquaintances, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.” For what they had already received he does not call them to account, but henceforth takes the whole matter into his own hands. The neglectful priests were to receive no more contributions, and not to be responsible for the repairs. Joash, however, ordered Jehoiada to take a chest and put it beside the altar on the right. All contributions were to be dropped into this chest. When it was full, it was carried by the Levites unopened into the palace, {2Ch 24:11} and there the kings chancellor and the high priest had the ingots weighed and the money counted; its value was added up, and it was handed over immediately to the architects, who paid it to the carpenters and masons. The priests were left in possession of the money for the guilt-offerings, and for the sin-offerings, but with the rest of the funds they had nothing to do. In this way was restored the confidence which the management of the hierarchy had evidently forfeited, and with renewed confidence in the administration fresh gifts poured in. Even in the cautious narrative of the Chronicler it is clear that the priests hardly came out of these transactions with flying colors. If their honesty is not formally impugned, at least their torpor is obvious, as is the fact that they had wholly failed to inspire the zeal of the people till the young king took the affair into his own hands.
The long reign of Joash ended in eclipse and murder. If the later tradition be correct, it was also darkened with atrocious ingratitude and crime.
For, according to the Chronicler, Jehoiada died at the advanced age of one hundred and thirty, and was buried, as an unwonted honor, in the sepulchers of the kings. When he was dead, the princes of Judah came to Joash, who had now been king for many years, and with a strange suddenness tempted the zealous repairer of the Temple of Jehovah into idolatrous apostasy. With soft speech they seduced him into the worship of Asherim. It was marvelous indeed if the child of the Temple became its foe, and he who had made a covenant with Jehovah fell away to Baalim. But worse followed. Prophets reproved him, and he paid them no heed, in spite of “the greatness of the burdens”-i.e., the multitude of the menaces-laid upon him. {2Ch 24:27} The stern, denunciative harangues were despised. At last Zechariah, the son of his benefactor Jehoiada, rebuked king and people. He cried aloud from some eminence in the court of the Temple, that “since they had transgressed the commandments of Jehovah they could not prosper: they had forsaken Him, and He would forsake them.” Infuriated by this prophecy of woe, the guilty people, at the command of their guiltier king, stoned him to death. As he lay dying, he exclaimed, “The Lord look upon it, and require it!”
The entire silence of the elder and better authority might lead us to hope that there may be room for doubt as to the accuracy of the much later tradition. Yet there certainly was a persistent belief that Zechariah had been thus martyred. A wild legend, related, in the Talmud, tells us that when Nebuzaradan conquered Jerusalem and entered the Temple he saw blood bubbling up from the floor of the court, and slaughtered ninety-four myriads, so that the blood flowed till it touched the blood of Zechariah, that it might be fulfilled which is said, {Hos 4:2} “Blood toucheth blood.” When he saw the blood of Zechariah, and noticed that it was boiling and agitated, he asked, “What is this?” and was told that it was the spilled blood of the sacrifices. Finding this to be false, he threatened to comb the flesh of the priests with iron currycombs if they did not tell the truth. Then they confessed that it was the blood of the murdered Zechariah. “Well,” he said, “I will pacify him.” First he slaughtered the greater and lesser Sanhedrin: but the blood did not rest. Then he sacrificed young men and maidens: but the blood still bubbled: At last he cried, “Zechariah, Zechariah, must I then slay them all?” Then the blood was still, and Nebuzaradan, thinking how much blood he had shed, fled, repented, and became a Jewish proselyte!
Perhaps the worst feature of the story against Joash might have been susceptible of a less shocking coloring. He had naturally all his life been under the influence of priestly domination. The ascendency which Jehoiada had acquired as priest-regent had been maintained till long after the young king had arrived at full manhood. At last, however, he had come into collision with the priestly body. He was in the right; they were transparently in the wrong. The Chronicler, and even the older historians, soften the story against the priests as much as they can; but in both their narratives it is plain that Jehoiada and the whole hierarchy had been more careful of their own interests than of those of the Temple, of which they were the appointed guardians. Even if they can be acquitted of potential malfeasance, they had been guilty of reprehensible carelessness. It is clear that in this matter they did not command the confidence of the people; for so long as they had the management of affairs the sources of munificence were either dried up or only flowed in scanty streams, whereas they were poured forth with glad abundance when the administration of the funds was placed mainly in the hands of laymen under the kings chancellor. It is probable that when Jehoiada was dead Joash thought it right to assert his royal authority in greater independence of the priestly party; and that party was headed by Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. The Chronicler says that he prophesied: that, however, would not necessarily constitute him a prophet, any more than it constituted Caiaphas. If he was a prophet, and was yet at the head of the priests, he furnishes an all but solitary instance of such a position. The position of a prophet, occupied in the great work of moral reformation, was so essentially antithetic to that of priests, absorbed in ritual ceremonies, that there is no body of men in Scripture of whom, as a whole, we have a more pitiful record than of the Jewish priests. From Aaron, who made the golden calf, to Urijah, who sanctioned the idolatrous altar of Ahaz, and so down to Annas and Caiaphas, who crucified the Lord of glory, they rendered few signal services to true religion. They opposed Uzziah when he invaded their functions, but they acquiesced in all the idolatries and abominations of Rehoboam, Abijah, Ahaziah, Ahaz, and many other kings, without a syllable of recorded protest. When a prophet did spring from their ranks, they set their faces with one consent, and were confederate against him. They mocked and ridiculed Isaiah. When Jeremiah rose among them, the priest Pashur smote him on the cheek, and the whole body persecuted him to death, leaving him to be protected only by the pity of eunuchs and courtiers. Ezekiel was the priestliest of the prophets, and yet he was forced to denounce the apostasies which they permitted in the very temple. The pages of the prophets ring with denunciations of their priestly contemporaries. {Isa 24:2; Jer 5:31; Jer 23:11; Eze 7:26; Eze 22:26; Hos 4:9; Mic 3:11, etc.}
We do not know enough of Zechariah to say much about his character; but priests in every age have shown themselves the most unscrupulous and the most implacable of enemies. Joash probably stood to him in the same relation that Henry II stood to Thomas a Becket. The priests murder may have been due to an outburst of passion on the part of the kings friends, or of the king himself-gentle as his character seems to have been-without being the act of black ingratitude which late traditions represented it to be. The legend about Zechariahs blood represents the priests spirit as so ruthlessly unforgiving as to awaken the astonishment and even the rebukes of the Babylonian idolater. Such a legend could hardly have arisen in the case of a man who was other than a most formidable opponent. The murder of Joash may have been, in its turn, a final outcome of the revenge of the priestly party. The details of the story must be left to inference and conjecture, especially as they are not even mentioned in the earlier and more impartial annalists.
It is at least singular that while Joash, the king, is blamed for continuing the worship at the bamoth, Jehoiada, the high priest, is not blamed, though they continued throughout his long and powerful regency. Further, we have an instance of the priest-regents autocracy which can hardly be regarded as redounding to his credit. It is preserved in an accidental allusion on the page of Jeremiah. In Jer 29:26 we read his reproof and doom of the lying prophecy of the priest Shemaiah the Nehelamite, because as a priest he had sent a letter to the chief priest Zephaniah and all the priests, urging them as the successors of Jehoiada to follow the ruling of Jehoiada, which was to put Jeremiah in a collar. For Jehoiada, he said, “had ordered the priests, as officers [pakidim] in the house of Jehovah, to put in the stocks every one that is mad and maketh himself a prophet. {Jer 29:24-32} If, then, the Jehoiada referred to is the priest-regent, as seems undoubtedly to be the case, we see that he hated all interference of Jehovahs prophets with his rule. That the prophets were usually regarded by the world and by priests as “mad,” we see from the fact that the title is given by Jehus captains to Elishas emissary; {2Ki 9:11} and that this continued to be the case we see from the fact that the priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem said of John the Baptist that he had a devil, and of Christ that He was a Samaritan, and that He, too, had a devil. If Joash was in opposition to the priestly party, he was in the same position as all Gods greatest saints and reformers have ever been from the days of Moses to the days of John Wesley. The dominance of priestcraft is the invariable and inevitable death of true, as apart from functional, religion. Priests are always apt to concentrate their attention upon their temples, altars, religious practices and rites-in a word, upon the externals of religion. If they gain a complete ascendency over their fellow-believers, the faithful become their absolute slaves, religion degenerates into formalism, “and the life of the soul is choked by the observance of the ceremonial law.” It was a misfortune for the Chosen People that, except among the prophets and the wise men, the external worship was thought much more of than the moral law. “To the ordinary man,” says Wellhausen, “it was not moral but liturgical acts which seemed to be religious.” This accounts for the monotonous iteration of judgments on the character of kings, based primarily, not upon their essential character, but on their relation to the bamoth and the calves. Although the historian of the Kings gives no hint of this dark story of Zechariahs murder, or of the apostasy of Joash, and indeed narrates no other event of the long reign of forty years, he tells us of the deplorable close. Hazaels ambition had been fatal to Israel; and now, in the cessation of Assyrian inroads upon Aram, he extended his arms towards Judah. He went up against Gath and took it, and cherished designs against Jerusalem. Apparently he did not head the expedition in person, and the historian implies that Joash bought off the attack of his “general.” But the Chronicler makes things far worse. He says that the Syrian host marched to Jerusalem, destroyed all the princes of the people, plundered the city, and sent the spoil to Hazael, who was at Damascus. Judah, he says, had assembled a vast army to resist the small force of the Syrian raid; but Joash was ignominiously defeated, and was driven to pay blackmail to the invader. As to this defeat in battle the historian is silent; but he mentions what the Chronicler omits-namely, that the only way in which Joash could raise the requisite bribe was by once more stripping the Temple and the palace, and sending to Damascus all the treasures which his three predecessors had consecrated, -though we are surprised to learn that after so many strippings and plunderings any of them could still be left. The anguish and mortification of mind caused by these disasters, and perhaps the wounds he had received in the defeat of his army, threw Joash into “great diseases.” But he was not suffered to die of these. His servants-perhaps, if that story be authentic, to avenge the slain son of Jehoiada, but doubtless also in disgust at the national humiliation-rose in conspiracy against him, and smote him at Beth-Millo, where he was lying sick. The Septuagint, in 2Ch 24:27, adds the dark fact that all his sons joined in the conspiracy. This cannot be true of Amaziah, who put the murderer to death. Such, however, was the deplorable end of the king who had stood by the Temple pillar in his fair childhood, amid the shouts and trumpet-blasts of a rejoicing people. At that time all things seemed full of promise and of hope. Who could have anticipated that the boy whose head had been touched with the sacred oil and over-shadowed with the Testimony-the young king who had made a covenant with Jehovah, and had initiated the task of restoring the ruined Temple to its pristine beauty-would end his reign in earthquake and eclipse? If indeed he had been guilty of the black ingratitude and murderous apostasy which tradition laid to his charge, we see in his end the nemesis of his ill-doing; yet we cannot but pity one who, after so long a reign, perished amid the spoliation of his people, and was not even allowed to end his days by the sore sickness into which he had fallen, but was hurried into the next world by the assassins knife.
It is impossible not to hope that his deeds were less black than the Chronicler painted. He had made the priests feel his power and resentment, and their Levitic recorder was not likely to take a lenient view of his offences. He says that though Joash was buried in the City of David, he was not buried in the sepulchers of his fathers. The historian of the Kings, however, expressly says that “they buried him with his fathers in the City of David,” and he was peaceably succeeded by Amaziah his son.
There is a curious, though it may be an accidental, circumstance about the name of the two conspirators who slew him. They are called “Jozacar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer, his servants.” The names mean “Jehovah remembers,” the son of “Hearer,” and “Jehovah awards,” the son of “Watcher”; and this strangely recalls the last words attributed in the Book of Chronicles to the martyred Zechariah. “Jehovah look upon it, and require it!” The Chronicler turns the names into “Zabad, the son of Shimeath, an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad, the son of Shimrith, a Moabitess.” Does he record this to account for their murderous deed by the blood of hated nations which ran in their veins?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary