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From: 2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20

Athaliah, queen of Judah (842-836)

[1] Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she
arose and destroyed all the royal family. [2] But Jehosheba, the daughter of
King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him a-
way from among the king’s sons who were about to be slain, and she put him
and his nurse in a bedchamber. Thus she hid him from Athaliah, so that he was
not slain; [3] and he remained with her six years, hid in the house of the Lord,
while Athaliah reigned over the land.

Joash anointed king of Judah

[4] But in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of the Ca-
rites and of the guards, and had them come to him in the house of the Lord;
and had them come to him in the house of the Lord; and he made a covenant
with them and put them under oath in the house of the Lord, and he showed
them the king’s son.

[9] The captains did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and
each brought his men who were to go off duty on the Sabbath, with those who
were to come on duty on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. [10]
And the priest delivered to the captains the spears and shields that had been
King David’s, which were in the house of the Lord; [11] and the guards stood,
every man with his weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to
the north side of the house, around the altar and the house. [12] Then he
brought out the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testi-
mony; and they proclaimed him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their
hands, and said, “Long live the king!”

Death of Athaliah

[13] When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went in-
to the house of the Lord to the people; [14] and when she looked, there was the
king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the
trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing
trumpets. And Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!” [15] Then
Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains who were set over the army, “Bring
her out between the ranks; and slay with the sword any one who follow her.” For
the priest said, “Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord.” [16] So they laid
hands on her; and she went through the horses’ entrance to the king’s house,
and there she was slain.

Joash takes up his throne

[20] So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet after Athaliah
had been slain with the sword at the king’s house.

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Commentary:

11:1-12:22. Through the sons of Ahab, worship of Baal began to be practised
not only in Israel but also in Judah through King Joram’s marriage to Athaliah,
of the house of Ahab (cf. 8:25-27). This meant that Judah, too, had to undergo
the same sort of cleansing as Jehu had forced on the Northern kingdom. Chap-
ters 11 and 12, in this sense, parallel the preceding ones. But in Judah there
was to be no change of dynasty: the line of David must continue, in keeping
with the promise of 2 Samuel 7:1-17. Therefore, God steers events in another
way – through the providential rescue of a son of the king (vv. 1-3), who is anoin-
ted (v. 12) in the temple, and after the death of the idolatrous queen, through the
renewal of the Covenant (vv. 17-18) and the enthronement of David’s descendant
(vv. 19-20).

11:1-3. Athaliah acts out of greed for power: she wants no rivals for the throne.
But eliminating the house of David was at odds with God’s plan (cf. 2 Sam 7:1-
17). The temple of Jerusalem and its priesthood symbolized divine protection of
the Jehoash. According to 2 Chronicles 22:11 Jeho-shabe-ath was the wife of the
chief priest, Jehoiada, and, although the daughter of King Jehoram, she would
have been the daughter of another wife of the king; that is, she and Athaliah would
have been half-sisters. The account in the book of Chronicles (which pays closer
attention than Kings to temple affairs) has more to say about the family of Jeho-
ram (cf. 2 Chron 21-22).

11:4-12. It is significant that Jehoiada begins to take action in the seventh year,
for this was a jubilee year, a year of rest, redemption and deliverance (cf. Lev
25:2-7). The Carites were mercenaries who took service with whomever paid
them; they may have been the Cherethites mentioned in 1 Kings 1:38. The “tes-
timony” (v. 12), interpreted as “royal insignia” in the Septuagint, is more likely to
have been a list of royal titles belonging to the anointed, or a copy of the ten com-
mandments (described in Exodus 25:16 as “testimonies”), or, more likely still, a
document listing the king’s duties towards the Covenant established with God in
Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Anyway, the theme of the Covenant is present in the
narrative (cf. v. 17).

11:13-16. The house of the Lord is sacred, and therefore blood may not be spilt
within it. The sacred writer records this detail, possibly drawing a contrast with
what happened in the temple of Baal in Samaria where Jehu killed the priests
(cf. 10:25).

11:17-18. Following on the religious infidelity and social changes imposed by
the recent kings of Judah, the Covenant with the Lord needed to be renewed; the
people needed to commit itself to being the people of God, as it had been done
at other key points (cf. Ex 24; Jn 24). There was also need to re-establish the
relationship between king and people in line with the traditional pact described
in 2 Samuel 5:3. Idolatry must have made big inroads in Jerusalem if there was
a temple of Baal in the city (Athaliah’s doing, no doubt).

11:19-20. Following the death of Athaliah comes this little item which seems to
be from a different tradition from that in v. 16. The sacred writer does not count
Athaliah as a monarch of Judah, as one can see from the fact that the account
ends without the usual summary of her reign.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.