Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871)

2 Kings 11 Athaliah and Joash

Classic verse-by-verse commentary on 2 Kings 11 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: Jehoash saved from athaliah's massacre; He is made king; Athaliah slain; Jehoiada restores God's worship.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871)
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Jehoash saved from athaliah's massacre

1And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, 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 kingโ€™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. 3And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 2 Kings 11:1-3 ยท KJV
1
Athaliah โ€” (See on 2Ch 22:2). She had possessed great influence over her son, who, by her counsels, had ruled in the spirit of the house of Ahab. destroyed all the seed royal โ€” all connected with the royal family who might have urged a claim to the throne, and who had escaped the murderous hands of Jehu (2Ch 21:2-4; 22:1; 2Ki 10:13, 14). This massacre she was incited to perpetrate โ€” partly from a determination not to let David's family outlive hers; partly as a measure of self-defense to secure herself against the violence of Jehu, who was bent on destroying the whole of Ahab's posterity to which she belonged (2Ki 8:18-26); but chiefly from personal ambition to rule, and a desire to establish the worship of Baal. Such was the sad fruit of the unequal alliance between the son of the pious Jehoshaphat and a daughter of the idolatrous and wicked house of Ahab.
2
Jehosheba โ€” or Jehoshabeath (2Ch 22:11). daughter of King Joram โ€” not by Athaliah, but by a secondary wife. stole him from among the king's sons which were slain โ€” either from among the corpses, he being considered dead, or out of the palace nursery. hid him... in the bedchamber โ€” for the use of the priests, which was in some part of the temple (2Ki 11:3), and of which Jehoiada and his wife had the sole charge. What is called, however, the bedchamber in the East is not the kind of apartment that we understand by the name, but a small closet, into which are flung during the day the mattresses and other bedding materials spread on the floors or divans of the sitting-rooms by day. Such a slumber-room was well suited to be a convenient place for the recovery of his wounds, and a hiding-place for the royal infant and his nurse.

He is made king

4. the seventh year โ€” namely, of the reign of Athaliah, and the rescue of Jehoash. Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers, &c. โ€” He could scarcely have obtained such a general convocation except at the time, or on pretext, of a public and solemn festival. Having revealed to them the secret of the young king's preservation and entered into a covenant with them for the overthrow of the tyrant, he then arranged with them the plan and time of carrying their plot into execution (see on 2Ch 22:10-23:21). The conduct of Jehoiada, who acted the leading and chief part in this conspiracy, admits of an easy and full justification; for, while Athaliah was a usurper, and belonged to a race destined by divine denunciation to destruction, even his own wife had a better and stronger claim to the throne; the sovereignty of Judah had been divinely appropriated to the family of David, and therefore the young prince on whom it was proposed to confer the crown, possessed an inherent right to it, of which a usurper could not deprive him. Moreover, Jehoiada was most probably the high priest, whose official duty it was to watch over the due execution of God's laws, and who in his present movement, was encouraged and aided by the countenance and support of the chief authorities, both civil and ecclesiastical, in the country. In addition to all these considerations, he seems to have been directed by an impulse of the Divine Spirit, through the counsels and exhortations of the prophets of the time.

Athaliah slain

13And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the LORD. 14And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason. 15But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD. 16And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the kingโ€™s house: and there was she slain. 2 Kings 11:13-16 ยท KJV
13
Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people โ€” The profound secrecy with which the conspiracy had been conducted rendered the unusual acclamations of the vast assembled crowd the more startling and roused the suspicions of the tyrant. she came... into the temple of the Lord โ€” that is, the courts, which she was permitted to enter by Jehoiada's directions (2Ki 11:8) in order that she might be secured.
14
the king stood by a pillar โ€” or on a platform, erected for that purpose (see on 2Ch 6:13).
15
without the ranges โ€” that is, fences, that the sacred place might not be stained with human blood.

Jehoiada restores God's worship

17And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORDโ€™s 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 to the kingโ€™s 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 they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the kingโ€™s house. 2 Kings 11:17-20 ยท KJV

17, 18. a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people โ€” The covenant with the Lord was a renewal of the national covenant with Israel (Ex 19:1-24:18; "to be unto him a people of inheritance," De 4:6; 27:9). The covenant between the king and the people was the consequence of this, and by it the king bound himself to rule according to the divine law, while the people engaged to submit, to give him allegiance as the Lord's anointed. The immediate fruit of this renewal of the covenant was the destruction of the temple and the slaughter of the priests of Baal (see 2Ki 10:27); the restoration of the pure worship of God in all its ancient integrity; and the establishment of the young king on the hereditary throne of Judah [2Ki 11:19].

Commentary text from Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871), a public-domain work, offered freely for personal study. Scripture quotations are from the public-domain King James Version.