2 Chronicles 22:10-23:11

International Standard Version

Athaliah’s Revolt^(A)

¹⁰ As soon as Ahaziah’s mother Athaliah learned that her son had died, she set out to destroy the entire royal family of Judah. ¹¹ However, the king’s daughter Jehoshabeath took Ahaziah’s son Joash away from the king’s children who were about to be assassinated and hid him and his nurse in a bedroom. That’s how King Jehoram’s daughter Jehoshabeath, who was also the priest Jehoiada’s wife and Ahaziah’s sister, hid him from Athaliah. As a result, she was not able to kill him. ¹² Joash^[a] remained with them for six years, hidden in God’s Temple while Athaliah reigned over the land.

Jehoiada Establishes Joash as King^(B)

23 Seven years later, Jehoiada mustered up some courage and made a deal with the officers who commanded units of hundreds of soldiers, including Jehoram’s son Azariah, Jehochanan’s son Ishmael, Obed’s son Azariah, Adaiah’s son Maaseiah, and Zichri’s son Elishaphat. ² They traveled throughout Judah and gathered together the descendants of Levi from all the cities of Judah, along with the Israeli family leaders. ³ Everybody went to Jerusalem, and the whole group made a covenant with the king in God’s Temple, where Jehoiada^[b] addressed them:

⁸ What Jehoiada the priest ordered is precisely what the descendants of Levi and all of Judah did. Each of them took the men who were on duty on the Sabbath as well as those who were off duty. Jehoiada the priest did not release the divisions from service, ⁹ and Jehoiada the priest issued the spears and shields that King David had placed in storage in God’s Temple to the officers in charge of the units of hundreds. ¹⁰ He set the rest of the people to serve as guards for the king, and each one brandished weapons in his hand, from the south side of the Temple to the north side of the Temple, around the altar, and surrounding the palace. ¹¹ Then he brought out the king’s son, put a crown on him, and presented him with the Testimony,^[e]