Through My Bible Yr 01 – November 14

Athaliah Seizes Control

2 Kings 11

¹ When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she went into action and destroyed all the royal heirs. ^[1]2 But Jehosheba, King Joram’s daughter and Ahaziah’s sister, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah. She stole him away from among the king’s sons, who were to be killed. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom. He was kept hidden from Athaliah so that he was not killed. ³ He was kept hidden with her in the House of the Lord for six years while Athaliah was ruling over the land.

Jehoiada Makes Joash King

⁴ In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent a message and summoned the officers in charge of the units ^[2] of the Carians ^[3] and the guards to meet him at the House of the Lord. He made a covenant with them and had them swear an oath in the House of the Lord. Then he showed them the king’s son.

⁵ He commanded them, “This is how you will deploy: A third of you who are coming on duty on the Sabbath are to guard the palace of the king. ⁶ Another third will be stationed at the Sur Gate, ^[4] and the final third at the gate behind the guards who take turns protecting this temple. ^{[5] 7} The two divisions of you who are going off duty on the Sabbath will protect the House of the Lord, together with the king. ^{[6] 8} You will surround the king on all sides, every man with his weapons in his hand. Anyone who comes into the ranks will be put to death. You will accompany the king when he goes out and when he comes in.”

⁹ So the officers of the companies did just as Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each one took his men, those coming on duty on the Sabbath with those going off duty on the Sabbath, and they came to Jehoiada the priest. ¹⁰ The priest gave the officers in charge of the units the spears and shields which had belonged to King David and which were in the House of the Lord. ¹¹ So the guards, each one with his weapon in his hand, stood around the king from the south side of the temple to the north side, near the altar of the temple. ¹² Then Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and set the crown on him and gave him the Testimony, ^[7] and they made him king. They anointed him and clapped their hands and said, “Long live the king!”

Athaliah’s Death

¹³ When Athaliah heard the noise of the guards and the people, she went to them in the House of the Lord. ¹⁴ She looked, and there was the king standing beside the pillar according to the custom, and the officers and the trumpeters were in front of the king, and all the people of the land were celebrating and blowing trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁵ Then Jehoiada the priest commanded the officers in charge of the units of the army, “Bring her out between the ranks! Anyone who follows her is to be put to death with the sword!”

Because the priest had said, “She is not to be killed in the House of the Lord,” ¹⁶ they laid hands on her as she was going through the passageway where the horses enter the king’s palace, and they killed her there.

¹⁷ Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people that they would be the Lord’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. ¹⁸ Then all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed its altar and its idols till they were dust. They also killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. Then the priest posted a watch over the House of the Lord.

¹⁹ Then he took the officers of the companies and the Carians and the guards and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the House of the Lord. They entered the king’s palace through the gate of the guards. Then he sat on the throne of the kings. ²⁰ All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. Athaliah had been put to death with the sword in the king’s palace.

²¹ Joash was seven years old when he became king.

Jehoash (Joash) Son of Ahaziah, King of Judah, Repairs the House of the Lord

2 Kings 12

¹ In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash ^[8] became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba. ^[9]

² Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord during the whole time that Jehoiada the priest instructed him, ³ but the high places were still not removed. The people were making sacrifices and burning incense on the high places.

⁴ Jehoash said to the priests, “All the silver from the sacred offerings which is brought into the House of the Lord—the redemption money which is assessed to each man in the census, all the money from the redemption of dedicated things, and all the money which any man brings to the House of the Lord as a gift from his heart— ⁵ the priests are to take it from the donor ^[10] and repair whatever damage is found in the temple.” ^[11]

⁶ But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not repaired the damage to the temple. ⁷ So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and he said to them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage to the temple? Do not accept any more silver from those who are handing it in to you. Instead, put it toward repairing the damage to the temple.”

⁸ So the priests agreed that they would not take any silver from the people and that they themselves would not do the work of repairing the damage to the temple.

⁹ But Jehoiada the priest took a box, drilled a hole in its lid, and placed it at the right side of the altar as one entered the House of the Lord. Then the priests who were guarding the threshold put all the money which came into the House of the Lord there. ¹⁰ When they saw that there was a large quantity of silver in the box, the king’s secretary and the high priest went up and tied it in bags and tallied ^[12] the silver which was found in the House of the Lord.

¹¹ Then they gave the silver which had been weighed out to those who were overseeing the work on the House of the Lord. They paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who were working on the House of the Lord, ¹² and to the bricklayers and the stonemasons, who used it to buy wood and stone from the quarry to repair the damage to the House of the Lord and to meet all the expenses for repairing the building.

¹³ But the silver basins, snuffers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, and all the gold and silver articles for the House of the Lord were not made from this silver which was brought into the House of the Lord. ¹⁴ Rather they paid it to the ones who were doing the work, and they repaired the House of the Lord with it. ¹⁵ They did not audit the men to whom they gave the silver to do the work, because they were acting honestly. ¹⁶ The silver from the restitution offerings and the silver from the sin offerings was not brought into the House of the Lord. It belonged to the priests.

Hazael Attacks Jerusalem

¹⁷ Then Hazael king of Aram came up and attacked Gath and captured it. Hazael turned to go up against Jerusalem. ¹⁸ So Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred articles which his fathers Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had dedicated, as well as the sacred articles that he himself had given and all the gold which was found in the treasuries of the House of the Lord and in the king’s palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael left Jerusalem.

The Wickedness and Death of Jehoash

¹⁹ As for the rest of the acts of Jehoash ^[13] and all the things he did, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah? ²⁰ His servants conspired against him and killed Jehoash at Beth Millo, along the road down to Silla. ²¹ His servants Jozabad ^[14] son of Shimath and Jehozabad son of Shomer struck him down, and he died. They buried him with his fathers in the City of David. Then his son Amaziah became king in his place.