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2 Kings 11
New English Translation

Athaliah is Eliminated

11 When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she was determined to destroy the entire royal line.[a] 2 So Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram[b] and sister of Ahaziah, took Ahaziah’s son Joash and stole him away from the rest of the royal descendants who were to be executed. She hid him and his nurse in the room where the bed covers were stored.[c] So he was hidden from Athaliah and escaped execution.[d] 3 He hid out with his nurse in the Lord’s temple[e] for six years, while Athaliah was ruling over the land.

4 In the seventh year Jehoiada summoned[f] the officers of the units of hundreds of the Carians[g] and the royal bodyguard.[h] He met with them[i] in the Lord’s temple. He made an agreement[j] with them and made them swear an oath of allegiance in the Lord’s temple. Then he showed them the king’s son. 5 He ordered them, “This is what you must do. One third of the unit that is on duty during the Sabbath will guard the royal palace. 6 Another third of you will be stationed at the Foundation[k] Gate. Still another third of you will be stationed at the gate behind the royal guard.[l] You will take turns guarding the palace.[m] 7 The two units who are off duty on the Sabbath will guard the Lord’s temple and protect the king.[n] 8 You must surround the king. Each of you must hold his weapon in his hand. Whoever approaches your ranks must be killed. You must accompany the king wherever he goes.”[o]

9 The officers of the units of hundreds did just as[p] Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each of them took his men, those who were on duty during the Sabbath as well as those who were off duty on the Sabbath, and reported[q] to Jehoiada the priest. 10 The priest gave to the officers of the units of hundreds King David’s spears and the shields that were kept in the Lord’s temple. 11 The royal bodyguard[r] took their stations, each holding his weapon in his hand. They lined up from the south side of the temple to the north side and stood near the altar and the temple, surrounding the king.[s] 12 Jehoiada[t] led out the king’s son and placed on him the crown and the royal insignia.[u] They proclaimed him king and poured olive oil on his head.[v] They clapped their hands and cried out, “Long live the king!”

13 When Athaliah heard the royal guard[w] shout, she joined the crowd[x] at the Lord’s temple. 14 Then she saw[y] the king standing by the pillar, according to custom. The officers stood beside the king with their trumpets, and all the people of the land were celebrating and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason, treason!”[z] 15 Jehoiada the priest ordered the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army,[aa] “Bring her outside the temple to the guards.[ab] Put to death by the sword anyone who follows her.” The priest gave this order because he had decided she should not be executed in the Lord’s temple.[ac] 16 They seized her and took her into the precincts of the royal palace through the horses’ entrance.[ad] There she was executed.

17 Jehoiada then drew up a covenant between the Lord and the king and people, stipulating that they should be loyal to the Lord.[ae] 18 All the people of the land went and demolished[af] the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols[ag] to bits.[ah] They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altar. Jehoiada the priest[ai] then placed guards at the Lord’s temple. 19 He took the officers of the units of hundreds, the Carians, the royal bodyguard, and all the people of the land, and together they led the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the royal palace through the Gate of the Royal Bodyguard,[aj] and the king[ak] sat down on the royal throne. 20 All the people of the land celebrated, for the city had rest now that they had killed Athaliah with the sword in the royal palace.

Joash’s Reign over Judah

21 (12:1)[al] Jehoash[am] was seven years old when he began to reign.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 11:1 tn Heb “she arose and she destroyed all the royal offspring.” The verb קוּם (qum) “arise,” is here used in an auxiliary sense to indicate that she embarked on a campaign to destroy the royal offspring. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 125.
  2. 2 Kings 11:2 tn Heb “Joram,” which is a short form of the name Jehoram.
  3. 2 Kings 11:2 tn Heb “him and his nurse in an inner room of beds.” The verb is missing in the Hebrew text. The parallel passage in 2 Chr 22:11 has “and she put” at the beginning of the clause. M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 126) regard the Chronicles passage as an editorial attempt to clarify the difficulty of the original text. They prefer to take “him and his nurse” as objects of the verb “stole” and understand “in the bedroom” as the place where the royal descendants were executed. The phrase בַּחֲדַר הַמִּטּוֹת (bakhadar hammittot), “an inner room of beds,” is sometimes understood as referring to a bedroom (HALOT 293 s.v. חֶדֶר), though some prefer to see here a “room where the covers and cloths were kept” for the beds (HALOT 573 s.v. מִטָּת). In either case, it may have been a temporary hideout, for v. 3 indicates that the child hid at the temple for six years.
  4. 2 Kings 11:2 tn Heb “and they hid him from Athaliah and he was not put to death.” The subject of the plural verb (“they hid”) is probably indefinite.
  5. 2 Kings 11:3 tn Heb “and he was with her [in] the house of the Lord hiding.”
  6. 2 Kings 11:4 tn Heb “Jehoiada sent and took.”
  7. 2 Kings 11:4 sn The Carians were apparently a bodyguard, probably comprised of foreigners. See HALOT 497 s.v. כָּרִי and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 126.
  8. 2 Kings 11:4 tn Heb “the runners.”
  9. 2 Kings 11:4 tn Heb “he brought them to himself.”
  10. 2 Kings 11:4 tn Or “covenant.”
  11. 2 Kings 11:6 tn Heb “the gate of Sur” (followed by many English versions) but no such gate is mentioned elsewhere in the OT. The parallel account in 2 Chr 23:5 has “Foundation Gate.” סוּר (sur), “Sur,” may need to be emended to יְסוֹד (yesod) “foundation,” involving in part dalet-resh confusion.
  12. 2 Kings 11:6 tn Heb “the runners.”
  13. 2 Kings 11:6 tn The meaning of מַסָּח (massakh) is not certain. The translation above, rather than understanding it as a genitive modifying “house,” takes it as an adverb describing how the groups will guard the palace. See HALOT 605 s.v. מַסָּח for the proposed meaning “alternating” (i.e., “in turns”).
  14. 2 Kings 11:7 tn Verses 5b-7 read literally, “the third of you, the ones entering [on] the Sabbath and the ones guarding the guard of the house of the king, and the third in the gate of Sur, and the third in the gate behind the runners, and you will guard the guard of the house, alternating. And the two units of you, all the ones going out [on] the Sabbath, and they will guard the guard of the house of the Lord for the king.” The precise meaning of this text is impossible to determine. It would appear that the Carians and royal bodyguard were divided into three units. One unit would serve during the Sabbath; the other two would be off duty on the Sabbath. Jehoiada divided the first unit into three groups and assigned them different locations. The two off duty units were assigned the task of guarding the king.
  15. 2 Kings 11:8 tn Heb “and be with the king in his going out and in his coming in.”
  16. 2 Kings 11:9 tn Heb “according to all that.”
  17. 2 Kings 11:9 tn Heb “came.”
  18. 2 Kings 11:11 tn Heb “the runners” (also in v. 19).
  19. 2 Kings 11:11 tn Heb “and the runners stood, each with his weapons in his hand, from the south shoulder of the house to the north shoulder of the house, at the altar and at the house, near the king all around.”
  20. 2 Kings 11:12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiada) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  21. 2 Kings 11:12 tn The Hebrew term עֵדוּת (ʿedut) normally means “witness” or “testimony.” Here it probably refers to some tangible symbol of kingship, perhaps a piece of jewelry such as an amulet or neck chain. See the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 128. Some suggest that a document is in view, perhaps a copy of the royal protocol or of the stipulations of the Davidic covenant. See HALOT 790-91 s.v. עֵדוּת.
  22. 2 Kings 11:12 tn Or “they made him king and anointed him.”
  23. 2 Kings 11:13 tc The MT reads, “and Athaliah heard the sound of the runners, the people.” The term הָעָם (haʿam), “the people,” is probably a scribal addition anticipating the reference to the people later in the verse and in v. 14.
  24. 2 Kings 11:13 tn Heb “she came to the people.”
  25. 2 Kings 11:14 tn Heb “and she saw, and look.”
  26. 2 Kings 11:14 tn Or “conspiracy, conspiracy.”
  27. 2 Kings 11:15 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and said to them.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated.
  28. 2 Kings 11:15 tn Heb “ranks.”
  29. 2 Kings 11:15 tn Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Let her not be put to death in the house of the Lord.’”
  30. 2 Kings 11:16 tn Heb “and they placed hands on her, and she went the way of the entrance of the horses [into] the house of the king.”
  31. 2 Kings 11:17 tn Heb “and Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and [between] the king and [between] the people, to become a people for the Lord, and between the king and [between] the people.” The final words of the verse (“and between the king and [between] the people”) are probably accidentally repeated from earlier in the verse. They do not appear in the parallel account in 2 Chr 23:16. If retained, they probably point to an agreement governing how the king and people should relate to one another.
  32. 2 Kings 11:18 tn Or “tore down.”
  33. 2 Kings 11:18 tn Or “images.”
  34. 2 Kings 11:18 tn The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute (הֵיטֵב [hetev], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר (shavar), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.
  35. 2 Kings 11:18 tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.
  36. 2 Kings 11:19 tn Heb “the Gate of the Runners of the House of the King.”
  37. 2 Kings 11:19 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  38. 2 Kings 11:21 sn Beginning with 11:21, the verse numbers through 12:21 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 11:21 ET = 12:1 HT, 12:1 ET = 12:2 HT, 12:2 ET = 12:3 HT, etc., through 12:21 ET = 12:22 HT. With 13:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
  39. 2 Kings 11:21 tn Heb “Jehoash”; Jehoash is an alternate version of the name Joash (see 11:2) used through 12:18 in the Hebrew text. The name Joash reappears in 12:19.
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2 Kings 11
New American Standard Bible

Athaliah Queen of Judah

11 (A)When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and eliminated all the royal [a]children. 2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, (B)took Joash the son of Ahaziah and abducted him from among the king’s sons who were being put to death, and put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So they hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death. 3 So he was kept hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years, while Athaliah was reigning over the land.

4 (C)Now in the seventh year Jehoiada sent orders and brought the captains of hundreds of (D)the Carites and of the [b]guards, and brought them to himself at the house of the Lord. Then he made a covenant with them and put them under oath at the house of the Lord, and showed them the king’s son. 5 And he commanded them, saying, “This is the thing that you shall do: (E)a third of you, who come in on the Sabbath and keep watch over the king’s house 6 (a third also shall be at the gate Sur, and a third at the gate behind the [c]guards), [d]shall keep watch over the house [e]for defense. 7 And two parts of you, all who go out on the Sabbath, shall also keep watch over the house of the Lord for the king. 8 Then you shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes within the ranks shall be put to death. And (F)you are to be with the king when he goes out and when he comes in.”

9 So the captains of hundreds (G)acted in accordance with everything that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And each one of them took his men who were to come in on the Sabbath, along with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, and they came to Jehoiada the priest. 10 Then (H)the priest gave the captains of hundreds the spears and shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of the Lord. 11 The [f]guards stood, each with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, by the altar and by the house, around the king. 12 Then he brought the king’s son out, and (I)put the crown on him and gave him (J)the testimony; and they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, “(K)Long live the king!”

13 (L)When Athaliah heard the noise of the guards and of the people, she came to the people at the house of the Lord. 14 And she looked, and behold, the king was standing (M)by the pillar according to the custom, with the captains and the [g]trumpeters beside the king; and (N)all the people of the land were joyful and were blowing trumpets. Then Athaliah (O)tore her clothes and cried out, “(P)Conspiracy! Conspiracy!” 15 And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were appointed over the army and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks, and whoever follows her, put to death with the sword!” For the priest said, “She is not to be put to death at the house of the Lord.” 16 So they [h]seized her, and when [i]they brought her to the horses’ entrance of the king’s house, she was (Q)put to death there.

17 Then (R)Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people, that they would be the Lord’s people, and (S)between the king and the people. 18 And all the people of the land came to (T)the house of Baal and tore it down; they thoroughly smashed (U)his altars and his images in pieces, and they (V)killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. Then the priest appointed sentries over the house of the Lord. 19 And he took the captains of hundreds and the (W)Carites, and the [j]guards and all the people of the land; and they brought the king down from the house of the Lord, and came by way of (X)the gate of the [k]guards to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. 20 So (Y)all the people of the land rejoiced and the city was [l]peaceful. For they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the king’s house.

21 [m](Z)Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 11:1 Lit seed
  2. 2 Kings 11:4 Lit runners
  3. 2 Kings 11:6 Lit runners
  4. 2 Kings 11:6 Lit and shall
  5. 2 Kings 11:6 Or possibly in shifts
  6. 2 Kings 11:11 Lit runners
  7. 2 Kings 11:14 Lit trumpets
  8. 2 Kings 11:16 Lit laid hands on her
  9. 2 Kings 11:16 Lit she entered
  10. 2 Kings 11:19 Lit runners
  11. 2 Kings 11:19 Lit runners
  12. 2 Kings 11:20 Or quiet
  13. 2 Kings 11:21 Ch 12:1 in Heb; Jehoash is another spelling of Joash in Heb
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