¹⁶ Jehoiada then made a covenant^(A) that he, the people and the king^[a] would be the Lord’s people. ¹⁷ All the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed^(B) Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.

¹⁸ Then Jehoiada placed the oversight of the temple of the Lord in the hands of the Levitical priests,^(C) to whom David had made assignments in the temple,^(D) to present the burnt offerings of the Lord as written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, as David had ordered. ¹⁹ He also stationed gatekeepers^(E) at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that no one who was in any way unclean might enter.

²⁰ He took with him the commanders of hundreds, the nobles, the rulers of the people and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the temple of the Lord. They went into the palace through the Upper Gate^(F) and seated the king on the royal throne. ²¹ All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword.^(G)