Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 11

ATHALIAH USURPS THE THRONE OF JUDAH, BUT IS DEPOSED AND SLAIN, AND HER GRANDSON JOASH CROWNED, THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE HIGH PRIEST JEHOIADA. (Compare to 2 Chronicles 22:10; 2 Chronicles 23:21.)

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 manuscripts omit it.)

As to Athaliah and her evil influence on her husband Jehoram, see 2 Kings 8:18; 2 Kings 8:26–27. By her ambition and her cruelty she now shows herself a worthy daughter of Jezebel.

Her son. —Ahaziah (2 Kings 9:27). The history of the Judean 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. Ahaziah’s brothers had been slain by the Arabs (2 Chronicles 21:17); and his “kinsmen” by Jehu (2 Kings 10:14). Those whom Athaliah slew would be for the most part Ahaziah’s own sons, though other relatives are not excluded by the term.

But Jehosheba ... sister of Ahaziah. —By a different mother (see Josephus). Athaliah would not have allowed her daughter to marry the high priest of Jehovah. (Compare 2 Kings 11:3 with 2 Chronicles 22:11.) This marriage with a sister of the king shows the almost royal dignity that belonged to the high priest’s office.

The king’s sons which were slain. —Rather, which were to be put to death. At the time when the order for slaying the princes had been given, Jehosheba (or Jehoshabeath; Chronicles) concealed the infant Joash. The fact of his infancy caused him to be overlooked. [The Hebrew text here reads by mistake a word meaning deaths (Jeremiah 16:4). Chronicles supports the Hebrew margin.]

And they hid him. —This clause is out of its place here. The Hebrew is, him and his nurse in the chamber of the beds; and they hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death. Clearly, the word “and she put,” supplied in Chronicles, has fallen out before this. The Targum and Syriac read, “and she hid him and his nurse,” etc.

In the bedchamber. — In the chamber of beds, i.e., the room in the palace where the mattresses and the coverlets were kept, according to a custom still prevalent in the East. This chamber, being unoccupied, was the nearest hiding-place at first. The babe was afterwards secretly conveyed within the Temple precincts.

And he was with her — that is, with Jehosheba his aunt. The words “in the house of the Lord” should immediately follow. The word “hid” is connected with “six years” in the Hebrew, and relates to the infant prince only.

Joash was with his aunt “in the house of the Lord”—that is, in one of the chambers allotted to the priests, perhaps even in the high priest’s residence, which may have been within the sacred precincts.

Thenius assumes that the statement of Chronicles, that Jehosheba was wife of the high priest, has no other ground than a “traditional interpretation” of these words; and asserts that Jehosheba was herself obliged to share the asylum of the infant prince to escape the vengeance of Athaliah. However, it is certain that the chronicler had better authority than mere tradition for his important additions to the history of the kings (See Note on 2 Chronicles 22:11).

Did reign. — Was reigning.

And the seventh year. —This was when perhaps discontent at Athaliah’s tyranny had reached a climax.

Jehoiada. —The high priest (2 Kings 11:9). The curious fact that his rank is not specified here upon the first mention of his name suggests the inference that in the original source of this narrative he had been mentioned as high priest, and husband of Jehosheba, at the beginning of the story, as in 2 Chronicles 22:11.

The rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard. —This should rather be, the centurions of the Carians and the Couriers—that is, the officers commanding the royal guard. The terms translated “Carians” and “Couriers” are obscure. Thenius prefers to translate the first “executioners.” (Compare Notes on 1 Kings 1:38; 2 Samuel 8:18; 2 Samuel 15:18; 2 Samuel 16:6; 1 Chronicles 18:17.)

Thenius argues against the idea that so patriotic and pious a king as David could have employed foreign and pagan soldiers as his bodyguard.

But did David not himself serve as a mercenary with Achish, king of Gath, and commit his parents to the care of the king of Moab? And would the mercenaries who enlisted in the guard of the Israelite sovereigns not adopt the religion of their new country? (Compare the case of Uriah the Hittite.)

Thenius explains the apparently gentilic ending of the words translated “Cherethites and Pelethites” in Samuel, and that translated “captains” in this place, as marking an adjective denoting position or class. It may be so, but sub judice lis est.

Made a covenant with them. —The chronicler gives the names of the centurions. His account of the whole transaction, while generally coinciding with the one given here, presents certain striking differences. The most salient of these is the prominence assigned to the priests and Levites in the matter.

These deviations are explicable on the assumption that the chronicler drew his information from a large historical compilation somewhat later than the Books of Kings. This compilation contained much more than the Books of Kings, though it was mainly based upon the same annalistic sources.

The compilers of the two canonical histories were guided in their choice of materials and manner of treatment by their individual aims and points of view, which differed considerably. (See the Introductions to Kings and Chronicles.) At the same time, it must not be forgotten that the account before us is the older and more original, and therefore the more valuable when regarded as mere history.

Three companies of the guards to be stationed at the three approaches to the palace.