And Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, and she came to the people into the house of Jehovah.
Athaliah had held David's throne for six years. She did not know that the rightful heir was alive, hidden in the house of God. The first thing she learns of it is a sound — the noise of a crowd running and praising a king she believed she had killed.
The whole scene turns on someone else's move. For six years the king's son could do nothing. Jehoiada the priest acted instead. One writer sees a pattern in that:
When the seventh year came — the complete time according to the ways of God — "in the seventh year Jehoiada took courage" (older translations read "strengthened himself"). He was the priest. The priest is prominent while the king is hidden. How true this is now in our Lord's case. In His own Person He combines both the high priest who is acting now and the King He will be later.
No army warns Athaliah. No threat warns her. The sound of praise does.
Athaliah had been kept unaware of what was taking place until she heard the noise of people running and praising the king. This great celebration brought her to the temple. There she saw Joash standing, crowned, by the pillar, with leaders and trumpeters beside him.
She goes "into the house of the LORD" — the one building in Jerusalem she had no business entering:
So she comes to the people and to the temple of Jehovah. A strange place for her, the hater of Jehovah and the patron of idolatry in its worst form! She comes, and looks, and behold, the king stood by a pillar. The king! And this was all that her murderous policy had led to and ended in.
The same noise carried two verdicts, depending on which side of the hidden king a person had chosen to stand:
This was a day of great joy and gladness of heart to Joash, to Jerusalem, and to all who waited for his appearing. Faith was now answered, patience rewarded, and the promise fulfilled… It was a day of light and joy and rejoicing for Joash, and for all who had sided with him while he was rejected. It was a day of darkness, gloom, and terrible despair for Athaliah, and for all who had sided with her during her reign.
Joash had looked utterly helpless. One writer draws a lesson about trust from that:
There cannot be a more vivid proof of how completely we may trust Him. No one ever seemed more helpless than this young king Joash before Athaliah. The fortunes of a king of Judah were never at a lower ebb. But people have said, not untruly, that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." This only gives the occasion to show the supremacy of God. Nothing can hinder His purpose.
One writer looks from this scene to the day Christ appears:
What a day of confusion will that be for the enemies of the king! The wicked Athaliah hears the people running and praising the king. And what a sight meets her gaze! The one she thought she had destroyed and stripped of his throne now stands exalted on his platform. The princes and the people acclaim and praise him. But evil must be dealt with before peace and quiet can remain with God's people; the usurper must be brought low… So it will be in the day of Christ's coming.
The scene also honours those who spent six years with a king nobody else could see. One writer turns their patience into a lesson for us:
They had waited through a full cycle of years for the Lord's time to reveal His anointed. They did not let themselves grow discouraged. Impatience never pushed them into using human means to bring the king's cause to victory. Through these long years they had lived in secret with the precious object of their hope. At last they were receiving the glorious result of their faith. Let us imitate their patience. Our Joash is still in the secret place of the sanctuary. Let us there learn from day to day and from year to year to know Him better.
- Hidden. For six years the rightful king was alive but unseen. The priest carried the cause while the king waited — the pattern of Christ now.
- Heard. Athaliah's first news of him was praise. The sound of a rejoicing people, not a marching army, ended her reign.
- Exposed. She walks into the house of the God she hated and sees what all her murdering had come to: the king, standing, crowned.
- Divided. The same noise meant answered faith to those who had waited and despair to those who had sided with the usurper.
- Imitate. Those who lived with the unseen king through the waiting years were ready to rejoice when he appeared. So learn to know Him now.
And she looked, and behold, the king stood on his dais at the entrance, and the princes and the trumpets were by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets; and the singers [were there] with the instruments of music, and such as taught to sing praise. And Athaliah rent her garments, and said, Conspiracy! Conspiracy!
Athaliah had ruled Judah for years, sure that the royal line she tried to wipe out was gone. Then a noise from the temple drew her out, and she saw a crowned boy standing in the king's place.
Athaliah found out what had happened only from the noise it made.
Athaliah did not know what was going on until she heard the noise of people running and praising the king. This great celebration brought her to the temple. There she saw Joash standing, crowned, by the pillar, with leaders and trumpeters beside him. Trumpets and other instruments went with the singing of the many who were rejoicing at the crowning of the King (v. 13).
This account gives more detail than the parallel account in 2 Kings 11. One writer explains why.
The book of Chronicles is written from the point of view of the priests and Levites. That is why it gives more detail about Jehoiada the priest. Compare the two chapters carefully and you will find no contradictions.
Notice where she has to go to see the king. The house of the Lord was the last place she belonged.
Athaliah soon heard the uproar. So she comes out to the people and to the temple of the LORD. What a strange place for her, the hater of the LORD and the supporter of idolatry in its worst form! She comes, and looks, and there stands the king by a pillar. The king! And this was all that her murderous policy had led to and ended in.
Her accusation lands on the wrong person, and the cry itself has a family history.
"And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, 'Treason! Treason!'" It is the old voice — the voice of her mother before her, the voice of her son after her, and now her own. But the truth was that she was the traitor. She was the one who had tried to wipe the king off the throne, so she gets the just reward of a traitor.
She aimed the charge at the wrong person. It was also far too mild a word for her own record.
But Joash was the true king. Athaliah was guilty of far worse than treason — she was a mass murderer and a usurper who had no right to the throne.
One writer sees the pillar where Joash stood as the proof of a promise God had kept.
This was a day of great joy and gladness of heart to Joash, to Jerusalem, and to all who waited for his appearing. Faith was now answered, patience rewarded, and the promise fulfilled… It was a day of light and joy to Joash, and to all who had sided with him while he was rejected. But it was a day of darkness, gloom and terrible despair to Athaliah, and to all who had sided with her during her reign… The king stood at his pillar. The pillar of immovable promise. This was enough; the first glimpse of Joash filled her whole soul with the terrors of judgment.
Commentators read the scene as a picture of Christ's appearing.
The one Athaliah thought she had destroyed and stripped of his throne is exalted on his platform. The princes and the people cheer and praise him. But evil must be dealt with before God's people can have peace and quiet. The usurper must be brought low.
One writer connects those trumpets with a trumpet still to sound.
The day is approaching when the true Joash will be brought out of the Sanctuary where now He is hidden. He will assert His kingly rights, for He is the "Prince of the kings of the earth." But what is the answer on man's part? The seventh trumpet will sound, and that trumpet brings Him in. In heaven there is worship and His title is acknowledged. On earth there is fury.
- Hidden — The true king was out of sight in God's house while a usurper held the throne. God's promise held even when no one could see it.
- Revealed — Athaliah's confidence ended the moment she saw him. He stood crowned at his pillar, the living proof that God keeps His promise.
- Praised — Public joy is what gave him away: running feet, trumpets, singers, instruments. Praise no longer had to hide.
- Accused — Her shout of treason named her own crime. Whoever fights the true king calls his reign rebellion.
- Judged — One sight brought joy to those who waited and terror to those who sided against him. Commentators read Christ's appearing the same way: worship in heaven, fury on earth, the usurper brought down.
And Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of the hundreds that were set over the host, and said to them, Lead her forth without the ranks; and whosoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword; for the priest said, Ye shall not put her to death in the house of Jehovah.
Athaliah had seized Judah's throne and destroyed the royal line. One son escaped, hidden in God's house, and now that boy stands crowned while the people shout. She cries treason. Jehoiada answers with a command, and the command sets a limit: she must die, but not in the house of the LORD.
She shouted the accusation, yet the charge fitted only her. One writer shows where the guilt really lay, and how alone she was at the end.
The truth was, it was she who was the traitor. It was she who had tried to wipe the king off the throne; and so she meets with the just reward of a traitor... There was no one to follow. She was alone — not alone in her evil, but now her evil had not one sympathizer.
Nobody asks for evidence. Her record had already settled the matter.
She required no trial. Everyone knew her wickedness that demanded her death.
The person who gives the order is not a magistrate or a general. It is the priest, and a priest's work is sympathy with those who fail, not sentence on them.
Jehoiada the priest gave the orders, not a government official. He told the captains of the army to take Athaliah outside under guard and kill her there. The work of a priest is to have compassion on the ignorant who go astray (Hebrews 5:2), but in this case a priest was to proclaim sentence against an evildoer. In the same way, when the Lord Jesus is shown ready to judge the world, He wears priestly garments (Revelation 1:13). This shows that His judgment will not be only an act of righteous anger. It will be a judgment that fits His character of goodness and compassion. It is goodness that abhors what is evil and judges faithfully for God.
Jehoiada had set a line of guards between the temple and the palace, and Athaliah is marched out through them. One writer shows what that line was for, and why the priest kept her death outside.
He sets a line of bodyguards from the house of the Lord to the house of the king, from the sanctuary to the palace. Their job was to guard the king along the whole way from the one house to the other... Athaliah the usurper is then slain — but outside the precincts of the temple. Not even for the restoration of the king and the peace of the kingdom will the priest give up the holiness of the temple. A beautiful witness of the Lord maintaining all His glories in all His ways, never clouding one while another is shining.
Athaliah and the king leave and enter by different gates. One writer explains why the two routes had to stay apart, and contrasts the scene with Jehu's killing of Jezebel.
They lead Athaliah into the king's house by way of the horse gate, to put her to death there. Joash enters by another gate, that of the couriers, so that he might sit peacefully on the throne of David. The path to this throne must not be defiled by blood. It was not so for Jehu with Jezebel. Her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and Jehu, trampling her underfoot, went into the house to eat and drink (2 Kings 9:33-34). All this scene, though decreed by God, breathes "the fury" of the man who carried it out. In Judah, everything happens in solemn calm, in the awareness of God's presence that the high priest kept alive.
Removing Athaliah was not an extra to the coronation. The peace of God's people depended on it, and one writer sees the same pattern in the day of Christ.
But evil must be dealt with before peace and quiet can remain with God's people; the usurper must come down, and all who are linked with the evil one must fall. So the wicked Athaliah was killed. She had tried to set aside God's purpose and promise by destroying the royal line and the king's son, who had been hidden in the house of God. So shall it be in the day of Christ's coming.
- Traitor — She shouted treason, yet she was the only traitor there, and not one person followed her.
- Priest — The sentence comes from the man whose normal work is compassion. That is how judgment stays free of rage: goodness that hates evil and judges for God.
- Holiness — Restoring the king was urgent, but never urgent enough to stain the house of the Lord. God never dims one glory to let another shine.
- Route — She goes out by one gate and the king comes in by another. No blood stains the throne he takes, and calm before God, not fury, marks the work.
- Peace — Evil had to go before quiet could settle on the people. Usurper down, king enthroned, people at peace: that order is the shape of Christ's coming day.
And they made way for her, and she went through the entrance of the horse-gate into the king's house, and they put her to death there.
Athaliah has just cried "Treason!" inside the temple. Jehoiada answers with no argument and no trial, but with a sentence of death — and his men carry it out outside the house of the Lord. Two details here carry the weight: where she is not killed, and the gate they take her through.
Her own record answers her cry of treason. Commentators point out who the real traitor was:
When she comes out, she comes crying "Treason." But in truth she was the one guilty of both treason and murder, and guilty of them to the full. Still, we see the purpose of God. There could be no clearer proof of how fully we may trust Him. No one ever looked more helpless than this young king Joash before Athaliah. No king of Judah was ever at a lower point. But people have said, and truly, that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." This only gave the occasion to show God's supremacy. Nothing can hinder His purpose.
That her end came quickly, with no hearing and no defence, is itself the point:
She required no trial. Everyone knew her wickedness, and it demanded her death. A solemn end for this wicked daughter of a wicked couple!
Writers see a careful balance in how Jehoiada arranged the whole day:
No blood must stain the Temple. The wicked must be cut off in this day of righteous judgment, without mercy. And "the king's son" must be brought out of the house of the Lord. These three things must be watched with care on this great occasion. The king must take the throne, the wicked must be killed, but the Temple must be kept undefiled. All of it must be done according to God.
The verse names her route: the horse gate. One writer sets it beside the gate the young king used, and beside the way Jehu dealt with Jezebel:
They lead Athaliah into the king's house by way of the horse gate, and there they put her to death. Joash enters by another gate, the gate of the couriers, so that he may sit in peace on the throne of David. Blood must not defile the path to this throne. It was not so for Jehu with Jezebel. Her blood splashed the wall and the horses, and Jehu trampled her underfoot and went into the house to eat and drink. That whole scene, though God had decreed it, breathes "the fury" of the man behind it. In Judah, everything happens in solemn calm and in the sense of God's presence, which the high priest keeps alive.
The order comes from the man who serves in the sanctuary, not from an officer of state. Commentators weigh that against a priest's usual work, and against how fast the end came:
Jehoiada the priest gave the orders, not a government official. He told the captains of the army to take Athaliah outside under guard and kill her there. A priest's work is to have compassion on the ignorant who go astray. Here a priest had to pronounce sentence on an evildoer. In the same way, when the Lord Jesus is shown ready to judge the world, He wears priestly garments. This shows that His judgment will not come from righteous anger alone. It will be a judgment that fits His character of goodness and compassion. It is goodness that hates what is evil and judges faithfully for God. Athaliah's judgment came far more suddenly than she expected, but it proves the truth of Proverbs 29:1: "He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing."
Peace for God's people had to wait until evil was dealt with. Writers read the fall of this usurper as a picture of a greater fall still to come:
But evil must be dealt with before peace and quiet can remain with God's people; the usurper must be brought low, and all who are joined with the evil one must bite the dust. So the wicked Athaliah was slain, who had tried to set aside the counsel and promise of God by destroying the royal seed and the king's son, who had been hidden in the house of God. So shall it be in the day of Christ's coming. The false king, the antichrist, will meet his doom, as prophecy records: "the Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to nothing by the appearance of His coming."
- Usurper — Athaliah had no royal right and no defence. Her cry of treason named the one real traitor there: herself.
- Undefiled — three things had to hold at once: the king on the throne, the wicked killed, the house of God kept clean. Justice was done, but not inside the sanctuary.
- Unstained — she left by the horse gate; Joash entered by another. The road to David's throne was not to be marked by blood.
- Unruffled — a priest, not a statesman, passed the sentence. Judgment came in calm awareness of God's presence, not in fury.
- Undisturbed — peace and quiet came only after evil was dealt with. It is a picture of the day the true King appears and the false one meets his doom.
And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they should be the people of Jehovah.
Athaliah, the queen who tried to wipe out David's royal line, is dead, and the boy-king Joash is crowned in the temple. Jehoiada the priest acts first as a priest, binding the nation to God by covenant — so who are its parties, and what does it demand?
The king here is a child, so the lead falls to the man who had kept him hidden.
Jehoiada took the lead in making a covenant between himself, the people and the king. The king was a ward of Jehoiada, because he was so young (v. 16). The covenant stood against Athaliah's idolatry, and it agreed with the law of Moses. It stressed that Judah should be the Lord's people, not a people who worship idols.
The parallel record in 2 Kings 11:17 names the LORD as one party. One writer shows how the two sides bind each other.
"And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people, that they should be the LORD's people, and also between the king and the people" (v. 17). A covenant assumes two parties. Here, under the law, each side binds itself to the other: the Lord on one side, the king and the people on the other. It is as if the king answered for the people, and the people for the king. Before the Lord they form one whole. The covenant between the king and the people makes this promise even more solemn. Each side binds itself to walk the same path.
Earlier Jehoiada had bound only a few men by oath. This covenant reaches everyone.
And a larger covenant is now made. This is not just the priest taking an oath from a few men on behalf of the hidden Joash, and showing him only to them. Now the priest brings all the people, the king, and the LORD into holy, gracious covenant again, that they should be the Lord's people. Then he shows the rightful heir of all the glory, not to some, but to all the congregation of Israel.
Commentators differ on how far this applies today. One places the act in its own time instead of making it a pattern for believers now.
Jehoiada acted as a priest of God should act. He began by making a covenant between the Lord, the king and the people. This fitted the order of God's law, under which Israel lived at the time. Under grace today, vows and covenants are forbidden (Matthew 5:33-37). But Jehoiada sought to bring Israel back to the obedience of law, which was right at the time.
Words on their own settle nothing. The next verse shows the people acting on their pledge, and one writer makes this the test of any claimed revival.
The beginning was in a solemn covenant. This covenant bound the young ruler and the people together to be true to the LORD, as the LORD requires of His people. There was also a covenant between the king and the people (2 Kings 11:17). Under the priest's direction, the revival began with the destruction of the idols and false worship, and with a return to the LORD and the true worship of His Name. Every true revival must begin the same way. Measured by this standard, most revivals today fall short.
Another commentator puts the order plainly:
This work of tearing down was necessary, just as the execution of Athaliah was. It had to come before the true worship of God was set up, as verses 18-20 show.
Commentators read the pairing of priest and king here as a shadow of what is still ahead.
When the Lord Jesus comes out, He will be both priest and king. The offices of Jehoiada and Joash are both His. Zechariah 6 shows this: "He shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on His throne. And there shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." A new covenant will be made with Israel when the king comes out. One of its terms is "They shall be my people." Everything connected with idolatry will be set aside and removed for ever.
- Covenant — the agreement binds two sides. The LORD stands on one side, the king and people on the other. King and people also bind themselves to each other, so that all walk one path.
- Custodian — Jehoiada leads because the crowned king is a child in his care. The pledge he frames strikes at Athaliah's idolatry.
- Congregation — this goes wider than his earlier oath with a few men. It gathers the whole nation, and it shows the rightful heir to them all.
- Clearing — a real covenant shows itself by tearing down Baal first. Writers treat that removal as the test of any claimed revival. Only then comes the restored worship of verses 18-20.
- Coming King — the priest and the king together point on to Christ, who will hold both offices. A new covenant follows, and its term is that they shall be God's people, with idolatry gone for good.
And all the people went into the house of Baal, and broke it down; and they broke his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.
Athaliah has just been killed, and a covenant has just bound king and people to the LORD. What comes next is not a ceremony but a demolition: the people pull down the temple of Baal in Jerusalem, smash its altars and images, and kill Mattan his priest.
A vow to be the LORD's people could not stand alongside a working temple of Baal in the same city.
Such a covenant required the destruction of the temple of Baal. The people did it at once, breaking its altars and images in pieces and killing the priest of Baal (v. 17). This negative work was necessary, just as the execution of Athaliah was. It had to come before the positive work of setting up the true worship of God, which follows in verses 18-20.
Mattan, killed at the altars, was the priest of Baal, slain in the time of Jehoiada. The verse names no commander: the people themselves go in and break the temple down. One writer sets this beside Jehu's earlier campaign against Baal.
It is a community of zeal for God. There is no need for the subtlety and artifices of Jehu to wipe out Baal from Judah. Here you see the powerful action of the Spirit of God in a people. In the end that is much more blessed than the action of a single individual, even when he is in fact doing the will of God. Jehu had thought out his plan alone and handed its execution to guards and captains. Here the whole people wipe out Baal, his house and his worship. They claim their title as the people of the LORD, and they are closely bound to the king God had given them. For about 180 years, until the reign of ungodly Manasseh, this detestable idolatry disappears from the house of Judah.
The same writer draws a warning out of that comparison. A campaign against an idol can succeed and still leave the man himself unchanged.
Jehu's zeal destroyed Baal, but it had not re-established the covenant, and it goes no further than that. He rooted out the new idolatry, yet the old idolatry, Jeroboam's calves, still stands for him. It is always like this when the flesh has a part in reform. It cannot cure the abandoning of God that has marked it from the start. If it could, it would no longer be the flesh. The natural man may well root out an idol, whether it be wine or any other vice. But he only replaces it with the idolatry of self, his own self-righteousness, and his lack of conscience towards God. He throws these into sharper relief. All the while he pretends, like Jehu, to serve God with zeal.
The rubble of Baal's house lies between Athaliah's death and the king's peaceful enthronement.
Everything that offends and works wickedness is taken out of the way — the house, the altars, the images, and the priests of Baal. And at last the king passes through the line of bodyguards, all of them glad to attend him. Like a second Solomon, in peace and dignity, full of honour and of the people's gladness, he sits on the throne of the kingdom, the throne of the house of David.
One writer looks ahead from this scene. The smashing of Baal's temple is a small model of a far larger clearance still to come.
Everything connected with idolatry will be set aside and removed for ever. Once all that belonged to Baal was gone, Jehoiada sets everything in order for the worship of the LORD, "according to the directions of David." So it will be at the coming of Christ. God will perfectly express His original thoughts, which man had set aside.
- Covenant first. The demolition is the covenant taking physical form. A pledge to belong to God settles what has to go.
- Community, not celebrity. The whole people tear the temple down, and that shared zeal is more blessed than one gifted man's campaign.
- Thoroughness. House, altars, images and priest — they leave nothing of Baal standing to rebuild later.
- Clearing before building. This negative work had to come before the true worship of God took its place.
- Lasting, but not automatic. Baal stayed out of Judah for about 180 years. But zeal that never reaches the covenant only swaps one idol for the idolatry of self.
And Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of Jehovah under the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had set by classes over the house of Jehovah to offer up Jehovah's burnt-offerings, as it is written in the law of Moses, -- with rejoicing and with singing according to the directions of David.
Athaliah is dead, Baal's temple is rubble, and Joash sits on David's throne. Only now does Jehoiada turn to the house of the LORD itself, and that raises the question every recovery faces: what do you rebuild from?
Pulling down came first, and building up came second. One commentator sets the two side by side:
The people quickly destroyed the temple of Baal, breaking its altars and images in pieces and killing the priest of Baal (v. 17). This negative work was necessary, just as the execution of Athaliah was, before the true worship of God could be positively set up, as verses 18-20 show. Jehoiada the priest was a faithful man. He gave the oversight of the house of the LORD back into the hands of the priests and Levites, in line with David's assignment, and with his insistence that the offering of burnt sacrifices to the LORD should follow the law of Moses.
The ESV says Jehoiada "posted watchmen for the house of the LORD"; older translations read that he "appointed the offices" of the house. Either way, the priests and Levites had charge of it again.
Jehoiada was not working with a healthy nation. The royal line was all but gone, and he had only one ground to build on — God's own faithfulness:
Everything was in a very low state. To all appearances the house of David was finished, but the faithfulness of God did not fail. The throne has lost all its power, and the family of David is set aside; yet God raises up a man of faith, in the person of the high priest, to restore the whole. God's chastisement was complete. His judgment had overturned the whole order of the throne. Nothing was left but the faithfulness of God. Man was judged. He had no means of recovery left.
The verse rests on two written authorities: what Moses wrote, and what David arranged. One writer finds the same two at work in a later restoration in Israel:
It was a day of great joy and gladness. For directions about the altar, the sacrifices and the feasts, they had gone back to the word, "as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God." In the same way they turned to "the directions of David king of Israel" for guidance in their service of praise.
One writer lists this verse among the evidences that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible:
That Moses was the writer of these five inspired records is evident from the testimony of the books themselves (Deut. 31:9, 24), by Joshua (Joshua 1:7), by Samuel (1 Sam. 12:6-8), by David (1 Kings 2:3)… by Jehoiada (2 Chron. 23:16-18), by Hezekiah (2 Chron. 30:16), by Ezra (Ezra 7:6)…
Jehoiada did not copy recent practice; he went back to what was written. One commentator applies this to today:
Where people in our own day have departed from the truth of the Word of God, how vital it is that we should return. Not merely to what our fathers may have practiced, but to the truth the New Testament lays down about the character and practice of the Church of God. Israel was to return and recognize the beginning of their history under law. The Church should return and take in the character of its beginning under grace.
One writer sees Jehoiada's arrangement as a picture of what Christ will do when He comes:
Once everything belonging to Baal was gone, Jehoiada set everything in order for the worship of Jehovah, "according to the order of David." So it will be at the coming of Christ. God's original thoughts, which man set aside, will then find perfect expression.
What a revival is worth shows up after its leader is gone:
The revival during Joash's early reign had already lost its hold. It could not have been very deep, if they could turn aside to idols so soon after Jehoiada was gone.
- Cleared — Baal's altars came down before God's order went up. Judging the evil is the first half of every real restoration.
- Written — Jehoiada rebuilt from a text, not from memory: the law of Moses for the offerings, David's arrangement for the praise.
- Given back — oversight of the house went back to the men God had appointed to it, the priests and Levites.
- Joyful — the restored service came "with rejoicing and with singing." Going back to the Word brings gladness, not just correctness.
- Tested — worship that leans on one strong man falls when he dies. Only worship drawn straight from the Word outlasts him.
And he set the doorkeepers at the gates of the house of Jehovah, that no one unclean in anything should enter in.
Athaliah's six-year reign has just ended, and the young king is on the throne. The priest Jehoiada now sets the house of God in order — idols destroyed, true worship restored, and, as his last act, men posted at the doors, so that this revival ends with the question of who gets in.
The order of Jehoiada's work matters. Idols came down first, true worship went up, and only then were the doors manned — a sequence one writer treats as the test of every claimed renewal:
The revival under the priest's direction began with the destruction of the idols and false worship. It began with a return to the LORD and the true worship of His Name. Every true revival must begin the same way. Test the revivals of our day by this standard, and most fall short. "He stationed the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the LORD so that no one should enter who was in any way unclean." The guard kept everything unclean out of the house of the LORD. How different from the corruption that Christendom tolerates in what it calls "the house," the professing Church.
Another writer sets the gatekeepers beside the singing of the previous verse, and then draws the line to the church today:
It is good to see that when Jehoiada re-established order in the house of the Lord, this was accompanied by rejoicing and singing (v. 18). But also gatekeepers were set at the gates of the house of the Lord, to keep outside that which was unclean (v. 19). This godly care is important in the Church of God today also. Many may not appreciate such work, but we must not ignore it for that reason. We always need discernment about what should be let in and what must be refused. If the enemy once gets in, even in a small way, he will use that to gain more ground and corrupt the Christian testimony.
A doorkeeper's job was never only refusal. Writers describing the office at the temple give it two edges, and the second is as binding as the first:
The doorkeepers had charge of all the gates of the temple. They had to be able to drive back any attack on the house of God. They had to watch without letting up, so that no defiled person entered the courts of the Lord. But they also had to keep the doors open. No priest who had the right to enter the temple was to be shut out.
Jehoiada's men were stationed while the young king was still hidden in the house of God, and one writer reads their three posts as three trusts held during the present time, when Christ is not visible:
In 2 Chronicles 23 we find the gatekeepers are the royal guards of the hidden king… What a trust this is again in these days of the hidden King, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration! To guard the true rest of the saints in Christ; to guard the person of the hidden King of glory; to guard foundation-truth. This is a great trust, and many question it. In fact many deny it in practice, by holding that contact with those who teach what is false does not defile.
The verse bars anyone "unclean in any way." One writer applies that guard to the gate of the foundation — to what is taught, not only to how people behave:
If the enemy had been allowed into the foundations, what damage he would have done. Does this not have a voice for us in these days?… we are to watch over the foundations. We must let nothing in, in doctrine or in conduct, that will weaken or attack what has been laid in the hearts of the saints — the truth of God. Is it not failure along this line that has brought in all the weakness and the ruin of the present day in the house of God? Yet no amount of failure relieves us of the solemn responsibility of keeping guard on the gate of the foundation.
The reason given for such care is not fussiness but the way ground is lost:
We always need discernment as to what should be allowed in and what must be refused entry. For if the enemy once gains admittance, even in a small way, he will take advantage of this to gain further ground, causing corruption in the Christian testimony.
- Guarded. Jehoiada's restoration ends at a door: idols down, worship up, doors watched. That order tests every revival.
- Guarded two ways. The gatekeeper shuts out the defiled and keeps the door open for those with a right to enter. Shutting out the qualified fails the job as badly as letting in the unclean.
- Guarded for a King. Jehoiada set the guards while the king was still hidden. Their trust: the saints' rest, the person of the glorious King, and foundation-truth.
- Guarded at the foundation. The watch covers doctrine as well as behaviour, and the ruin already in the house does not cancel the duty.
- Guarded early. Let the enemy in even a little, and he uses the opening to take more ground. That is why the watch at the gate is worth its thanklessness.
And he took the captains of the hundreds, and the nobles, and the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought down the king from the house of Jehovah; and they came through the upper gate into the king's house, and set the king upon the throne of the kingdom.
Athaliah is dead, the Lord has His true place in Judah again, and the boy Joash has been kept safe inside the temple. This verse is his walk out: a guarded procession from God's house, through the upper gate, to the throne.
The same events appear in 2 Kings 11, and one writer notes what makes the second telling distinct.
Chronicles tells its history from the point of view of the priests and the Levites. That is why it gives more detail about Jehoiada the priest. Careful study and comparison of the two chapters will show that there are no contradictions.
The transfer happened step by step. One writer sees what that order says about the man who arranged it.
The Lord had now been given His true place in Judah. So the nobles and the governors of the people brought the king from the house of the Lord to the king's house, and set him on the throne of the kingdom (v. 20). These things were all done in good order, and that was a great credit to the faith of Jehoiada.
The guards were not decoration. Jehoiada gave them one job, and it ran the whole length of the route.
He lines up a row of bodyguards from the house of the Lord to the house of the king, from the sanctuary to the palace. Their job was to watch the king from his exit to his entrance, and all along the way from the one house to the other.
The king goes up through one gate. Athaliah had gone out through another, and one writer finds meaning in the contrast. (The parallel account in 2 Kings names the king's gate differently; here it is the upper gate.)
They lead Athaliah into the king's house through the horse gate, and there they put her to death. Joash enters by another gate, the gate of the couriers, so that he may sit peacefully on the throne of David. The path to this throne must not be defiled by blood.
One writer points out where Athaliah died.
Athaliah the usurper was then killed — but outside the temple area. Even to restore the king and bring peace to the kingdom, the priest will not sacrifice the sanctity of the temple. It is a beautiful witness: the Lord keeps all His glories in all His ways, and never dims one while another shines.
The verse names every rank: captains, nobles, governors, and all the people. One writer reads that full list as the point of the scene.
The scene closes beautifully. The captains, the nobles, the governors, and all the people set the king "upon the throne of His kingdom" — Christ has His rightful place from all.
Another writer follows the walk to its end.
At last the king passes through the line of bodyguards, and they are all joyful as they attend him. Like another Solomon, in peace and dignity, full of honour and of the gladness of the people, he sits on the throne of the kingdom, the throne of the house of David.
Commentators read this scene as a picture of Christ. The heir was hidden, then brought out and set on the throne.
The day is approaching when the true Joash will be brought out of the sanctuary where now He is hidden (2 Kings 11). He will assert His kingly rights, for He is the "Prince of the kings of the earth" (Rev. 1:5).
The picture has a practical side. Jehoiada and his wife had kept the boy safe through long years without forcing the moment.
They had waited patiently through a full cycle of years for the Lord's time to reveal His anointed one. They did not let themselves become discouraged. They did not let impatience push them into using human means to bring about the triumph of the king's cause… Our Joash is still in the secret place of the sanctuary. Let us learn there, day by day and year by year, to know Him better.
- Hidden. The heir spent long years in God's house while a usurper held the throne. The sanctuary sheltered him before it became his starting point.
- Escorted. Jehoiada lined the whole route from temple to palace. Guards watched the king from his exit to his entrance. He planned every step.
- Undefiled. Joash went out by one gate, Athaliah by another. The path to the throne stayed clear of blood, and the temple stayed undefiled.
- Enthroned. Captains, nobles, governors and all the people set him on the throne together. Every rank owned his right at once.
- Awaited. Commentators see Christ here, still hidden from view. So we wait with Jehoiada's patience. He took no human shortcut to hurry the king's day.
And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet; and they had slain Athaliah with the sword.
Second Chronicles 23 ends with David's heir on the throne, the usurping queen dead, and the city at rest. The quiet comes only at the end. The last line raises a question far bigger than Jerusalem: what has to happen before a city can be quiet?
The verse joins two facts, and the order matters. One writer presses on the word that links them:
What a solemn lesson we learn from these closing words! "All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet." When? AFTER they had killed Athaliah with the sword. When, oh when, will this groaning creation rejoice? When will the city of the whole earth be quiet? AFTER the judgment already pronounced has been carried out. AFTER the bowls of God's wrath have been poured out. But not until then. Could Joash have reigned in fellowship with Athaliah? Impossible! The scene must be cleared of the king's enemies before he sits on his throne.
One writer links the joy to two things: the faith of Jehoiada, and the end of a wicked ruler:
The Lord was now given His true place in Judah. So the nobles and governors of the people brought the king from the house of the Lord to the king's house, and set him on the throne of the kingdom (v. 20). The orderly way in which all these things were done was a great credit to the faith of Jehoiada. The people of the land responded with great joy, and the city was quiet. That was the opposite of the trouble Athaliah had caused. How instructive that when a wicked ruler dies the people rejoice!
Athaliah was killed, yet Jerusalem ends in peace. One writer sets the scene beside Jehu's killing of Jezebel in the northern kingdom:
Athaliah is led into the king's house by way of the horse gate, to be put to death there. Joash enters by another gate, that of the couriers, so that he might sit peacefully on the throne of David. The path to this throne must not be stained with blood. It was not so for Jehu with Jezebel… In Judah everything takes place in solemn calm, and in the awareness of God's presence. The high priest kept that awareness alive. Souls have to do with the Lord. They act for Him. They seek His honour. Without these motives there could never be purification or complete restoration… "All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet." Joy and peace are the portion of souls who have separated themselves from what dishonours Him, so that they may please God and serve Him.
The quiet is not only political. One writer traces it to what the priest filled the scene with:
And the land is now full of David again. The king's guard had been armed with the spears and shields of David. Those weapons had been kept apart and left, as it were, to rust from lack of use while the heir was hidden in the sanctuary. And now there is more: the ordinances of David and the music of David are kept and heard (2 Chr. 23:18). The priest is careful to fill the scene with memories of David. Baal and his servants are put away, and the God of Israel is in His place again… And so the city was quiet. The people of the land rejoice, the king sits on the throne, and he and the priest restore the service and worship of the God of Israel.
Writers read the end of the chapter as a small model of something still ahead:
A great revival followed. Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, "that they should be the LORD's people." Baal's altars and images are broken. The king sits on his throne. All these blessed results are faint foreshadowings of what is yet to be when the usurper is cast out, when the true King is crowned. Then Israel will truly be the LORD's people, idolatry will cease, the land and the people will rejoice, and the city will be quiet.
The same order holds there — judgment first, then the throne:
Christ's "hand will take hold on judgment" before He takes hold of the sceptre of righteousness… The whole scene must be cleared of His enemies. Satan must be bound. Then "the prince of the kings of the earth" will ascend His throne of righteousness, and rule with His sceptre of peace over a restored and delivered creation. "Behold, a king will reign in righteousness… and the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." Isaiah 32.
- After — The city's quiet is dated by a word: it came after Athaliah fell. Joash could not have reigned alongside her.
- Cleared — Judgment comes first, the throne second. That order never changes.
- Calm — Judah acted in solemn calm before God, not in fury. The aim was His honour.
- Restored — Baal's altars came down and David's songs returned. The throne and the worship were set right together, and the quiet came from that.
- Coming — Jerusalem's quiet is a faint sketch of a greater reign. There righteousness produces peace, and its effect is quietness forever.