2 Kings 11

1 destroyed all the seed royal. Athaliah determined to seize the royal power; and her daring measures unwittingly fulfilled a part of the sentence (see ix. 8) against the house of Ahab which Jehu would not execute; for through her the taint of Ahab’s blood had been given to the house of David.

2. Jehosheba. The wife of Jehoiada the priest (2 Chron. xxii. 11).

4. And the seventh year, etc. A fuller account is given in 2 Chron. xxiii.

the captains and the guard. R.V., “the Carites and the guard,” answering to David’s “Cherethites and Pelethites,” “executioners and runners.”

8 within the ranges. That is, within the ranks of the guards set outside the Temple.

9 every man his men, etc. The priests had been divided by David into courses, which attended at the Temple by turns. Upon this occasion those whose weekly term of service was ended were retained, in addition to those whose week of duty was beginning. So that two courses of priests, singers and porters were in the court of the Temple together; see 2 Chron. xxiii. 8.

12 the testimony. i.e., The Book of the Law. The words “gave him” are not in the Hebrew, which runs “he put the crown upon him and the testimony,” i.e., laid it on his head, to show that he was to be “not above but beneath, the law of his country” (Dean Stanley: Jewish Church, ii. 397).

God save the king. Literally, “Let the king live.”

16 they laid hands on her. Some render, “they made way for her” (R.V.).

the way by the which the horses came, etc. R.V., “by the way of the horses’ entry into the king’s house,” i.e., the gate leading to the stables of the palace: not the Horse gate of the city (Jer. xxxi. 40).

17. Jehoiada made a covenant. As the people had, under the preceding kings, openly forsaken Jehovah and worshipped Baal, it was necessary to renew the covenant, which both king and people had violated. At the same time the king engaged to govern the people according to the law of the Lord; and the people engaged to obey the king whom the Lord placed over them.