'And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead,
she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2. But Jehosheba, the
daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of
Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king'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. 3. And he was with her hid in the
house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 4.
And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over
hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him
into the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an
oath of them in the house of the Lord, and shewed them the king's son.
5. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do;
A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers
of the watch of the king's house; 6. And a third part shall be at the
gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall
ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. 7. And two
parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep
the watch of the house of the Lord about the king. 8. And ye shall
compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand:
and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with
the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. 9. And the captains over
the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest
commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the
sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to
Jehoiada the priest. 10, And to the captains over hundreds did the
priest give king David's spears and shields, that were in the temple
of the Lord. 11. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in
his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to
the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. 12.
And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and
gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and
they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. 13. And when
Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to
the people into the temple of the Lord. 14. And 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. 15. But 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. 16. And they laid hands on her; and she went by
the way by the which the horses came into the king's house: and there
was she slain.'--2 KINGS xi. 1-16.
The king of Judah has been killed, his alliance with the king of
Israel having involved him in the latter's fate. Jehu had also
murdered 'the brethren of Ahaziah,' forty-two in number. Next,
Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah and a daughter of Ahab, killed all the
males of the royal family, and planted herself on the throne. She had
Jezebel's force of character, unscrupulousness and disregard of human
life. She was a tigress of a woman, and, no doubt, her six years'
usurpation was stained with blood and with the nameless abominations
of Baal worship. Never had the kingdom of Judah been at a lower ebb.
One infant was all that was left of David's descendants. The whole
promises of God seemed to depend for fulfilment on one little, feeble
life. The tree had been cut down, and there was but this one sucker
pushing forth a tiny shoot from 'the root of Jesse.'
We have in the passage, first, the six years of hiding in the temple.
It is a pathetic picture, that of the infant rescued by his brave aunt
from the blood-bath, and stowed away in the storeroom where the mats
and cushions which served for beds were kept when not in use, watched
over by two loving and courageous women, and taught infantile lessons
by the husband of his aunt, Jehoiada the high priest. Many must have
been aware of his existence, and there must have been loyal guarding
of the secret, or Athaliah's sword would have been reddened with the
baby's blood. Like the child Samuel, he had the Temple for his home,
and his first impressions would be of daily sacrifices and white-robed
priests. It was a better school for him than if he had been in the
palace close by. The opening flower would have been soon besmirched
there, but in the holy calm of the Temple courts it unfolded
unstained. A Christian home should breathe the same atmosphere as
surrounded Joash, and it, too, should be a temple, where holy peace
rules, and where the first impressions printed on plastic little minds
are of God and His service.
We have next the disclosure and coronation of the boy king. The
narrative here has to be supplemented from that in 2 Chron. xxiii.,
which does not contradict that in this passage, as is often said, but
completes it. It informs us that before the final scene in the Temple,
Jehoiada had in Jerusalem assembled a large force of Levites and of
the 'heads of the fathers' houses' from all the kingdom. That
statement implies that the revolution was mainly religious in its
motive, and was national in its extent. Obviously Jehoiada would have
been courting destruction for Joash and himself unless he had made
sure of a strong backing before he hoisted the standard of the house
of David. There must, therefore, have been long preparation and much
stir; and all the while the foreign woman was sitting in the palace,
close by the Temple, and not a whisper reached her. Evidently she had
no party in Judah, and held her own only by her indomitable will and
by the help of foreign troops. Anybody who remembers how the Austrians
in Italy were shunned, will understand how Athaliah heard nothing of
the plot that was rapidly developing a stone's throw from her isolated
throne. Strange delusion, to covet such a seat, yet no stranger than
many another mistaking of serpents for fish, into which we fall!
Jehoiada's caution was as great as his daring. He does not appear to
have given the Levites and elders any inkling of his purpose till he
had them safe in the Temple, and then he opened his mind, swore them
to stand by him, and 'showed them the king's son.' What a scene that
would be--the seven-year-old child there among all these strange men,
the joyful surprise flashing in their eyes, the exultation of the
faithful women that had watched him so lovingly, the stern facing of
the dangers ahead. Most of the assembly must have thought that none of
David's house remained, and that thought would have had much to do
with their submitting to Athaliah's usurpation. Now that they saw the
true heir, they could not hesitate to risk their lives to set him on
his throne. Show a man his true king, and many a tyranny submitted to
before becomes at once intolerable. The boy Joash makes Athaliah look
very ugly.
Jehoiada's plans are somewhat difficult to understand, owing to our
ignorance of the details as to the usual arrangements of the guards of
the palace, but the general drift of them is plain enough. The main
thing was to secure the person of the king, and, for that purpose, the
two companies of priests who were relieved on the Sabbath were for
once kept on duty, and their numbers augmented by the company that
would, in the ordinary course, have relieved them. This augmented
force was so disposed as, first, to secure the Temple from attack;
and, second, to 'compass the king'--in his chamber, that is. We learn
from 2 Chronicles that it consisted of priests and Levites, and some
would see in that statement a tampering with the account in this
passage, in the interests of a later conception of the sanctity of the
Temple and of the priestly order. Our narrative is said to make the
foreign mercenaries of the palace guard the persons referred to; but
surely that cannot be maintained in the face of the plain statement of
verse 7, that they kept the watch of the Temple, for that was the
office of the priests. Besides, how should foreign soldiers have
needed to be armed from the Temple armoury? And is it probable on the
face of it that the palace guard, who were Athaliah's men, and
therefore antagonistic to Joash, and Baal worshippers, should have
been gained over to his side, or should have been the guards of the
house of Jehovah? If, however, we understand that these guards were
Levites, all is plain, and the arming of them with 'the spears and
shields that had been king David's' becomes intelligible, and would
rouse them to enthusiasm and daring.
Not till all these dispositions for the boy king's safety, and for
preventing an assault on the Temple, had been carried out, did the
prudent Jehoiada venture to bring Joash out from his place of
concealment. Note that in verse 12 he is not called 'the king,' as in
the previous verses, but, as in verse 4, 'the king's son.' He was king
by right, but not technically, till he had been presented to, and
accepted by, the representatives of the people, had had 'the
testimony' placed in his hands, and been anointed by the high-priest.
So 'they _made_ him king.' The three parts of the ceremony were
all significant. The delivering of 'the testimony' (the Book of the
Law--Deut. xvii 18, 19) taught him that he was no despot to rule by
his own pleasure and for his own glory, but the viceroy of the true
King of Judah, and himself subject to law. The people's making him
king taught him and them that a true royalty rules over willing
subjects, and both guarded the rights of the nation and set limits to
the power of the ruler. The priest's anointing witnessed to the divine
appointment of the monarch and the divine endowment with fitness for
his office. Would that these truths were more recognised and felt by
all rulers! What a different thing the page of history would be!
The vigilance of the tigress had been eluded, and Athaliah had a rude
awakening. But she had her mother's courage, and as soon as she heard
in the palace the shouts, she dashed to the Temple, alone as she was,
and fronted the crowd. The sight might have made the boldest quail.
Who was that child standing in the royal place? Where had he come
from? How had he been hidden all these years? What was all this frenzy
of rejoicing, this blare of trumpets, these ranks of grim men with
weapons in their hands? The stunning truth fell on her; but, though
she felt that all was lost, not a whit did she blench, but fronted
them all as proudly as ever. One cannot but admire the dauntless
woman, 'magnificent in sin.' But her cry of 'Treason! treason!'
brought none to her side. As she stood solitary there, she must have
felt that her day was over, and that nothing remained but to die like
a queen. Proudly as ever, she passed down the ranks and not a face
looked pity on her, nor a voice blessed her. She was reaping what she
had sown, and she who had killed without compunction the innocents who
stood between her and her ambitions, was pitilessly slain, and all the
land rejoiced at her death.
So ended the all but bloodless revolution which crushed Baal worship
in Judah. It had been begun by Elijah and Elisha, but it was completed
by a high priest. It was religious even more than political. It was a
national movement, though Jehoiada's courage and wisdom engineered it
to its triumph. It teaches us how God watches over His purposes and
their instruments when they seem nearest to failure, for one poor
infant was all that was left of the seed of David; and how, therefore,
we are never to despair, even in the darkest hour, of the fulfilment
of His promises. It teaches us how much one brave, good man and woman
can do to change the whole face of things, and how often there needs
but one man to direct and voice the thoughts and acts of the silent
multitude, and to light a fire that consumes evil.