2 Chronicles 23

Joash Crowned King of Judah

23In ^athe seventh year ^bJehoiada strengthened himself, and made a covenant with the captains of hundreds: Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of ^cObed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri. ²And they went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the ^dchief fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

³Then all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, “Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as the Lord has ^esaid of the sons of David. ⁴This is what you shall do: One-third of you ^fentering on the Sabbath, of the priests and the Levites, shall be keeping watch over the doors; ⁵one-third shall be at the king’s house; and one-third at the Gate of the Foundation. All the people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶But let no one come into the house of the Lord except the priests and ^gthose of the Levites who serve. They may go in, for they are holy; but all the people shall keep the watch of the Lord. ⁷And the Levites shall surround the king on all sides, every man with his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes into the house, let him be put to death. You are to be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out.”

⁸So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And each man took his men who were to be on duty on the Sabbath, with those who were going off duty on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed ^hthe divisions. ⁹And Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains of hundreds the spears and the large and small ⁱshields which had belonged to King David, that were in the temple of God. ¹⁰Then he set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, along by the altar and by the temple, all around the king. ¹¹And they brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, ^jgave him the ¹Testimony, and made him king. Then Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, “Long live the king!”

Death of Athaliah

¹²Now when ^kAthaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people in the temple of the Lord. ¹³When she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance; and the leaders and the trumpeters were by the king. All the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets, also the singers with musical instruments, and ^lthose who led in praise. So Athaliah tore her clothes and said, ^m“Treason! Treason!”

¹⁴And Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Take her outside under guard, and slay with the sword whoever follows her.” For the priest had said, “Do not kill her in the house of the Lord.”

¹⁵So they seized her; and she went by way of the entrance ⁿof the Horse Gate into the king’s house, and they killed her there.

¹⁶Then Jehoiada made a ^ocovenant between himself, the people, and the king, that they should be the Lord’s people. ¹⁷And all the people went to the ²temple of Baal, and tore it down. They broke in pieces its altars and images, and ^pkilled Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. ¹⁸Also Jehoiada appointed the oversight of the house of the Lord to the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had ^qassigned in the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the ^rLaw of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as it was established by David. ¹⁹And he set the ^sgatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord, so that no one who was in any way unclean should enter.

^20tThen he took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from the house of the Lord; and they went through the Upper Gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom. ²¹So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet, for they had slain Athaliah with the sword.