Athaliah Overthrown
2 Chronicles 23In the seventh year, Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds—Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri—into a covenant with him. They went around in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers’ households of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. All the assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s house. Jehoiada+23:3 Hebrew said to them, “The king’s son will reign, as YHWH has spoken concerning the sons of David. This is what y’all are to do: a third of y’all priests and Levites who come in on the Sabbath, are to be gatekeepers of the thresholds. A third are to be at the king’s house, and a third are to be at the gate of the foundation. All the people will be in the courts of the house of YHWH. But let no one come into the house of YHWH except the priests and those who minister of the Levites. They are to come in, for they are holy, but all the people will follow YHWH’s instructions. The Levites are to surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes into the house, must be killed. Y’all are to be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out.”
So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. They each took his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest didn’t dismiss the shift. Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, bucklers, and shields that had been king David’s, which were in God’s house. He set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, near the altar and the house, around the king. Then they brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the covenant, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, “Long live the king!”
When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of YHWH. She looked, and there was the king, standing by his pillar at the entrance, with the captains and the trumpeters by the king. All the people of the land rejoiced and blew trumpets. The singers also played musical instruments, and led the singing of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and said, “Treason! treason!”
Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Y’all bring her outside the temple between the ranks, and whoever follows her, put to death with a sword.” For the priest said, “Y’all must not kill her in the house of YHWH.” So they made way for her. She went to the entrance of the horse gate to the king’s house, and they killed her there.
Jehoiada’s Reforms
Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, that they should be YHWH’s people. All the people went to the house of Baal, broke it down, broke his altars and his images in pieces, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. Jehoiada appointed the officers of the house of YHWH under the hand of the Levitical priests, whom David had distributed in the house of YHWH, to offer the burnt offerings of YHWH, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as David had ordered. He set the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of YHWH, that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in. He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from the house of YHWH. They came through the upper gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword.