Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons that were

alleges that we must understand the real brothers of Ahaziah, whom the chronicler gets rid of (!) on an earlier occasion (i.e., 2 Chron. xxi. 17, xxii. 1), because he required a Divine judgment in the lifetime of Jehoram. Such arbitrary criticism hardly deserves refutation; we may, however, remark that Thenius relies on the untenable assumption that Jehoram could not have begotten any children before Ahaziah, whom he begot in his eighteenth or nineteenth year.

That ministered to Ahaziah.-In attendance on Ahaziah-i.e., attached to the retinue of Ahaziah as pages, &c.

He slew them.-And slew them.

(9) And he sought Ahaziah.-In 2 Kings ix. 27, 28 we find a different tradition concerning the death of Ahaziah. That passage, literally rendered, runs as follows: "And Ahaziah king of Judah had seen it (i.e., the death of Jehoram, verse 24), and he fled by the way of the garden palace, and Jehu pursued after him, and said, Him, too, smite (shoot) ye him in the chariot on the ascent of Gûr, beside Ibleam; and he fled to Megiddo, and died there." (Perhaps and they smote him has fallen out before the words on the ascent of Gûr.) "And his servants brought him in the chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own grave, with his fathers, in the city of David." Such divergences are valuable, because they help to establish the independence of the two accounts.

For he was hid.-Now he was hiding.

And when they had slain him. And they put him to death, and buried him; for they said, &c.

He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord.-A didactic remark in the usual manner of the chronicler.

So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.-Literally, And the house of Ahaziah had none to retain strength for kingship (capable of assuming the sovereignty). Another sentence marked throughout by the chronicler's own style. (Comp. chap. xiii. 20, "retained strength.") It forms the transition to the account of Athaliah's usurpation of the throne.

ATHALIAH SEIZES THE GOVERNMENT (verses 1012). (Comp. 2 Kings xi. 1-3.)

(10) But when Athaliah.-See 2 Kings xi. 1, with which this verse nearly coincides.

the son of Obed, and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of

Destroyed. So Kings and some Hebrew MSS., and all the versions. Hebrew text, she spake, a mistake of some scribe.

All the seed royal.-Even after the massacres described in verses 1, 8, there would doubtless be left a number of persons more or less nearly connected with the royal family, besides the immediate offspring of Ahaziah, who are, in the first instance, intended by this phrase.

(11) Jehoshabeath.-Kings, " Jehosheba." (Comp. "Elisheba," Exod. vi. 23; and 'Eλioaßér (LXX.), Luke i. 7.)

The daughter of the king. "Joram," and "sister of Ahaziah."

Kings adds

That were slain.-That were to be put to death. In a bedchamber.-Literally, in the chamber of beds, i.e., where the bedding was kept. (See Note on 2 Kings xi. 2.)

The wife of Jehoiada the priest.-So Josephus. Thenius questions the fact, on the supposed grounds(1) that the high priest did not live in the Temple; but the passage he alleges (Neh. iii. 20, 21) does not prove this for Jehoiada; and (2) that the chronicler contradicts himself in asserting that the priest's wife also lived within the sacred precinct; but again his reference (2 Chron. viii. 11) is irrelevant. Ewald calls the statement in question "genuinely historical;" and there is not the smallest reason to doubt it.

(12) With them. With Jehoiada and his wife. Kings, "with her;" LXX., "with him;" Syriac and Arabic," with her." (See Note on 2 Kings xi. 3.)

XXIII.

THE FALL OF ATHALIAH, AND SUCCESSION OF JOASH. (Comp. 2 Kings xi. 4—20.)

(1) Jehoiada strengthened himself.-Showed himself strong or courageous, behaved boldly (1 Sam. iv. 9). The chronicler has substituted a favourite expression (hithchazzaq) for the term used in Kings, "Jehoiada sent."

The captains of hundreds.-Their names, added here, are not given in 2 Kings xi. 4. On the other hand, Kings reads, "the captains of the hundreds of the Carians (or body-guard) and the Runners (or couriers, i.e., royal messengers) "-terms which were probably obscure to the chronicler.

Jehoiada makes

Zichri, into covenant with him. (2) 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. (3) And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said unto them, Behold, the king's son shall reign, as the LORD hath said of the sons of David. (4) This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of

a Covenant with the Levites.

Azariah... and Azariah.-Heb., ‘Azaryah ... and ‘Azaryāhû. (Comp. chap. xxi. 2.) These names are introduced in the chronicler's well-known manner (by the prefix le, marking the object of the verb). His style is very visible in the additions to the narrative as compared with Kings.

(2) And they went about in Judah.-Chap. xvii. 9; 1 Sam. vii. 16.

The chief of the fathers.-The heads of the clans, or chiefs of houses.

This and the next verse are added by the chronicler. In Kings the narrative passes at once to the charge of verse 4: This is the thing that ye shall do," which is there addressed to the "captains of the hundreds," or centurions of the royal guard. In fact, the parallel text is nearly if not altogether silent as to the part played by the Levites in the Restoration; and the chronicler appears to have supplemented that account with materials derived from other authorities, and perhaps from Levitical traditions. That he should have done so, is only consistent with his general practice and the special purpose of his history. At the same time, allowing for certain characteristic additions, interpretations, and substitutions of phrase for phrase, which will be specified in these Notes, the narrative of the chronicler absolutely coincides with that of Kings, treating of the same events, and rigidly observing the same limits, as well as maintaining a general identity of language. We conclude, therefore, that in this case, as elsewhere, the chronicler has used as the groundwork of his relation a historical text which contained sections substantially identical with the present narratives of Kings, but accompanied by numerous details not found in those books.

(3) And all the congregation.-Of the assembled Levites and family chiefs, as well as the royal guard. Made a covenant with the king. Comp. 2 Kings xi. 4: "And he made a covenant for them," i.e., imposed a compact on them, made them swear fidelity to the young prince. (Comp. also 2 Sam. iii. 21, v. 3.)

The king's son shall reign.-Or, Behold the king's son! Let him be king.

As the Lord hath said.-Spake concerning the sons of David, in the oracle delivered by the prophet Nathan (2 Sam. vii. 4—17).

words, which in the older account designate the royal guard; and it might have appeared to him impossible that any but members of the sacred orders would be called together in the Temple by the high priest. (Comp. verses 5, 6 with 2 Kings xi. 4: "brought them into the house of the Lord.") But he may also have had before him an account in which the part taken by the sacerdotal caste in the revolution was made much more of than in the account of Kings. Moreover the priests and Levites would be likely to play a considerable part in a movement tending to the overthrow of a cultus antagonistic to their own, especially when that movement originated with their own spiritual head, and was transacted in the sanctuary to which they were attached. The chronicler, therefore, cannot with fairness be accused of "arbitrary alterations," unless it be presupposed that his sole authority in writing this account was the Second Book of Kings. The priests and Levites used to do duty in the Temple from Sabbath to Sabbath, so that one course relieved another at the end of each week. (See 1 Chron. xxiv.; Luke i. 5.) That the companies of the royal guards succeeded each other on duty in the same fashion is clear from the parallel narrative.

Shall be porters of the doors.-Warders of the thresholds, that is, of the Temple (1 Chron. ix. 19, 22). 1 Kings xi. 5 says: "The third of you that come in on the Sabbath, they shall keep the guard of the king's house;" the latter part of which answers to the first sentence of the next verse: "And the third part (shall be) at the king's house." The king's "house" in Kings means the royal palace; the chronicler appears to mean by it his temporary dwelling within the Temple precincts.

(5) And a third part at the gate of the foundation.-2 Kings xi. 6 reads: "the gate Sûr," which appears there as a gate of the palace. (LXX., the middle gate;" Syr. and Arab., "the Butchers' gate.")

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And all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord.-This appears to be written from the point of view of a strict legalist, according to which none might enter the holy house itself save the priests. It looks like a protest against 2 Kings xi. 4, where it is said that Jehoiada brought the centurions of the royal guard into the house of the Lord.

(6) But let none come into the house of the Lord. This verse is not read in Kings. Apparently it is merely an emphatic repetition of the direction of the last verse that all the people were to remain in the courts, and not to break the law by presuming to enter the holy chambers. In 2 Kings xi. 7 we read instead: And the two parts among you, all that go out on the Sabbath, they shall keep the watch of the house of

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Jehoiada Proclaims

the watch of the Lord.

the Lord, with regard to the king." The last words of the present verse, "And all the people shall keep the watch of the Lord," repeat a portion of this, but in a different sense: "Let all the people carefully observe the legal rule against entering the sanctuary."

(7) And the Levites shall compass. Kings, "And ye (ie., the centurions of the royal guard) shall compass. (See Note on verse 4.) The chronicler characteristically dwells on the share of the Levites in the matter; but he does not expressly exclude the royal guard; and it is utterly unfair to allege that he has metamorphosed the guardsmen of Kings into Levites, "in order to divert to the priesthood the honour which properly belonged to the Prætorians" (Thenius). The truth may perhaps be that the high priest Jehoiada brought about a combination of the royal guard with the Levitical warders of the Temple; and that the united body acted under the command of the five centurions of the guard.

Cometh into the house.-2 Kings xi. 8 has, "into the ranks; a rare word (sederôth), occurring only four times, viz., in this narrative thrice, and once in 1 Kings vi. 8 (in a different sense).

But be ye.-So Kings. But some MSS. and the LXX., Vulg., Targ., and Arab. read here: "and let them (i.e., the Levites) be." (See Note on 2 Kings xi. 8.)

(8) The Levites and all Judah.-2 Kings xi. 9 reads, "the captains of the hundreds." The rest of the verse is the same in both narratives so far as the words "go out on the Sabbath."

For Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the courses.-The companies of priests and Levites, whose weekly duties had been fulfilled, and who under ordinary circumstances would have been formally "dismissed" by the high priest, were detained at the present emergency as auxiliaries to their brethren who were "coming in.'

Instead of this clause Kings has: "And they came to Jehoiada the priest," i.e., the captains of the hundreds came to him; a remark which quite naturally preludes the statement of the next verse both there and here.

This verse is essentially identical with 2 Kings xi. 10: 'And the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spear and the shields that had been king David's, which were in

Joash King.

(10) And he set all the people, every man having his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, along by the altar and the temple, by the king round about. (11) Then they brought out the king's son, and put upon him the crown, and agave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, "God save the king.

(12) 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: (13) and she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king:

the house of Jehovah." The chronicler has added Jehoiada and the bucklers, and turned the spear into spears, rightly according to most critics.

Spears, and bucklers, and shields.-Each word has the article in the Hebrew.

That had been king David's.-Comp. 1 Chron. xviii. 7, 11; also 1 Sam. xxii. 10, xvii. 7.

(10) And he set all the people.-2 Kings ix. 11: "And the Couriers stood." By "the people," the chronicler obviously means, not the mass of the congregation, but the armed body who were to "compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand" (verse 7).

His weapon.-Or, his missiles, arms. LXX., λa. (Comp. chap. xxxii. 5.) Kings has a commoner word. The remainder of the verse is identical with its parallel.

Along by.-Towards the altar.

(11) Then.-And. So in verses 14 and 17. They brought out . . . and put.-2 Kings xi. 12: "he (Jehoiada) brought out . . . and put."

Put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony.-Literally, put upon him the crown (nēzer; Exod. xxix. 6; 2 Sam. i. 10) and the law (ha-'êdûth; Exod. xxv. 21, 22, xxxi. 18). Was a scroll of the ten words wrapped round the diadem, or laid on the king's shoulder? (Comp. Vulg., "imposuerunt ei diadema testimonium dederuntque in manu ejus tenendam legem;" as if a copy of the law was solemnly presented to the newly-crowned king.)

Jehoiada and his sons. The chronicler adds this to make it clear that it was the priests who anointed the king. (Comp. 1 Kings i. 39.)

THE EXECUTION OF ATHALIAH (verses 12- 21). (See 2 Kings xi. 13—20.)

she came.

(12) Now when Athaliah And Athaliah heard . . . and she came. The noise of the people running and praising the king. Or, the noise of the people, the Couriers, and those who were acclaiming the king. (1 Kings xi. 13," the noise of the runners, the people; where the people may be an inadvertent repetition, as the same expression follows directly. The rest of the verse is the same as here.)

(13) Stood.-Was standing.

Athaliah is Slain.

(16) And Jehoiada made a covenant be

At his pillar.—On his stand. So 2 Kings xxiii. 3. Kings here has, “on the stand;” LXX., èπì tŷS OTάOEWS AUTOD; Vulg., "stantem super gradum."

At the entering in.-In the entry. LXX., πl TĤs eloóbov. Kings reads, "according to the custom." So the Syriac and Arabic here.

And the princes.-See Note on 2 Kings xi. 14. Some Hebrew MSS. here also read "singers; " one MS. has "Couriers."

Rejoiced.-Were rejoicing and sounding.

Also the singers with instruments of musick, and such as taught to sing praise.-And the minstrels (or musicians) with the instruments of music, and men leading the chanting (literally, teaching to praise). This is one of the writer's characteristic additions to the older text.

Said.-Kings, "cried," which is more original. (14) Then.-And. This verse is the same as 2 Kings xi. 15, with a few formal variations.

Brought out.-Kings, "commanded." The Heb. words are so nearly alike that one may easily be a corruption of the other. The Syriac and Arabic agree with Kings. The LXX. gives both readings.

Have her forth of the ranges.-Make her go out between the ranks of guards.

Let him be slain.-An explanation of the form used in Kings (the infinitive).

Slay her not.-Ye must not slay her. Kings, "Let her not be slain." So the Syriac here.

(15) So they laid hands on her.-Rather, And they made way for her on both sides. LXX., kal edwкav avtη aveσv. Syriac, "And they made room for her."

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To the entering of the horse gate.-Kings reads: "And she went by the way of the entry of the horses into the king's house." Syriac, And she entered into the way of the entry of the horses, and was killed there."

RENEWAL OF THE THEOCRATIC COVENANT AND ABOLITION OF BAAL-WORSHIP (verses 16—21). (16) A covenant between .. the king.-A slight but characteristic variation from 2 Kings xi. 17: "the covenant between Jehovah and the king and the people, that they should become a people for Jehovah."

Between him.- Or rather, himself. The high priest is thus regarded as representing Jehovah in the transaction; and the apparent irreverence of making the Deity a direct co-partner with men in a compact is avoided.

Be the Lord's people.-Literally, become a people for Jehovah. Kings adds: "and between the king and the people," a not unimportant clause, for it relates to certain limitations of the royal prerogative, which were usually agreed upon at the beginning of a reign (2 Sam. iii. 21, v. 3; 1 Sam. x. 25).

(17) Brake it down.-Pulled it down.

And brake.-And its altars, &c., they broke in pieces. Kings adds, "thoroughly." (See 2 Kings xi. 18.)

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(18) Also Jehoiada appointed. This and the next verse are a thoroughly characteristic expansion of the brief notice: "And the priest set officers over the house of the Lord" (Kings). Render, "And Jehoiada put the offices of the house of the Lord into the hand of the priests the Levites." Syriac, And Jehoiada made prefects (shallitone) in the house of the Lord, and the priests and Levites." The LXX. renders: "And Jehoiada the priest took in hand the works of the house of the Lord, by the hand of priests and Levites."

Whom David had distributed.-Divided into courses or classes (1 Chron. xxiii. 6, xxiv., xxv.). In the house.-For the house.

As it is written.-A reference to the Pentateuch. (Comp. Ezra iii. 2.)

With rejoicing and with singing, as it was ordained by David.-See the margin, and comp. the Notes on 1 Chron. xxv. 2, 6, xxiii. 5.

The meaning of all this is that the high priest now restored the regular services of the Temple, as arranged by David, which had been neglected or at least irregu larly conducted during the six years of Athaliah's usurpation.

(19) And he set.-Stationed, or appointed.

At the gates.-Or, over the gates. (See 1 Chron. xxiii. 5, xxvi. 1—19.)

That none which was unclean . . . should enter. Comp. verses 6, and Lev. v. 7; Num. v. 19; Deut. xxiv. 1-3, 10, 11.

(20) And he took.-See 2 Kings xi. 19.