Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 23
The high priest Joiada anoints Joas, aged seven, as king, slays Athalia his grandmother, who was reigning, restores the worship of God, and overthrows the altars and shrines of Baal.
1. And in the seventh year Joiada, being strengthened, took the centurions, Azarias the son of Jeroham, and Ismahel the son of Johanan, and Azarias the son of Obed, and Maasias the son of Adaias, and Elisaphat the son of Zechri: and made a covenant with them.
2. And they went about Juda, and gathered together the Levites out of all the cities of Juda, and the heads of the families of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
3. So all the multitude made a covenant in the house of God with the king: and Joiada said to them: Behold the king’s son shall reign, as the Lord hath spoken concerning the sons of David.
4. This therefore is the thing that you shall do:
5. A third part of you that come to the sabbath, of the priests, and of the Levites, and of the porters, shall be at the gates: and a third part at the king’s house: and a third at the gate which is called the Foundation: and let all the rest of the people be in the courts of the house of the Lord.
6. And let no other come into the house of the Lord, but the priests, and they that minister of the Levites: let them only go in, because they are sanctified: and let all the rest of the people keep the watches of the Lord.
7. And let the Levites surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hands: and if any other shall enter into the temple, let him be slain, and let them be with the king both coming in and going out.
8. So the Levites and all Juda did according to all that Joiada the high priest had commanded, and they took every man the men that were under them, and that came in by course on the sabbath, with them that had fulfilled the sabbath, and were to go out: for Joiada the high priest had not suffered the companies to depart, which were accustomed to succeed one another every week.
9. And Joiada the priest gave to the centurions the spears, and the shields, and the targets of king David, which he had consecrated in the house of the Lord.
10. And he set all the people with swords in their hands, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, before the altar, and the temple, round about the king.
11. And they brought out the king’s son, and put the diadem upon him, and the testimony, and put the law into his hand to hold, and made him king: and Joiada the high priest, and his sons anointed him: and they prayed for him, and said: God save the king.
12. And when Athalia heard it, the voice, that is, of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord,
13. And when she saw the king standing upon the step at the entrance, and the princes and companies about him, and all the people of the land rejoicing, and sounding trumpets, and singing with divers kinds of instruments, and the voice of them that praised, she rent her garments, and said: Treason, treason.
14. And Joiada the high priest going forth to the centurions, and captains of the army, said to them: Bring her forth without the precinct of the temple, and let her be slain without with the sword. And the priest commanded that she should not be killed in the house of the Lord.
15. And they laid hands on her neck: and when she was come to the gate of the horses of the king’s house, they slew her there.
16. And Joiada made a covenant between himself, and all the people, and the king, that they should be the people of the Lord.
17. And all the people went into the house of Baal, and destroyed it: and they broke his altars and images in pieces: they killed also Mathan the priest of Baal before the altars.
18. And Joiada appointed overseers in the house of the Lord, under the hands of the priests and the Levites, whom David distributed in the house of the Lord to offer holocausts to the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses, with joy and songs, according to the ordinance of David.
19. He appointed also porters in the gates of the house of the Lord, that the unclean in any thing might not enter in.
20. And he took the centurions, and the most valiant men, and the princes of the people, and all the common people of the land, and they made the king go down from the house of the Lord, and enter through the midst of the upper gate into the king’s house, and they set him on the royal throne.
21. And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: and Athalia was slain with the sword.
I explained this chapter in 4 Kings XI.
Verse 1. And in the seventh year Joiada, being strengthened (by God).—He was a priest of great spirit and virtue, who restored the royal stock to the kingdom, and lived 130 years, 2 Paralipomenon XXIV, 15. Some, with our Henry Salmeron in the Chronology, think that he was not the high priest, but the chief of the priests in the tribe of Juda, namely of those who were dispersed through the tribe of Juda, and had the care of them. Their reason is that in the Catalogue of the high priests, which is extant in 1 Paralipomenon VI, and 1 Esdras VII, 4, and in Josephus, Antiquities, book X, chapter XI, Joiada is not named. But the Chronicle of the Hebrews places Joiada in the number of the high priests. Again, Josephus calls him archiereus, and Scripture calls him the priest, and the head of the priests, that is, the high priest. There is the further reason that he restored king Joas to the kingdom and anointed the king: now this was the office of the high priest. Again, the commands and orders which he here gives to all the priests, Levites, and the whole people in guarding the king and the temple, argue that he was the supreme high priest of all. Moreover neither Josephus nor Scripture lists all the high priests, but omits some; for from king Josaphat to Josias, which was a space of 238 years, they number only four high priests, namely Achitob, Meraioth, Sadoc, and Sellum; each of whom would have had to hold the pontificate 59 years, which is incredible. Joiada therefore and some others have been omitted, because he was not of Eleazar the first son of Aaron, to whom by right of primogeniture the pontificate of his progenitor was due. Perhaps also Joiada, like many others, had another name. Whence some think that he who is placed by Josephus among the high priests and is called Sedeas is Joiada, and that the next, Julus, is Zacharias the son of Joiada. For Abulensis, Tornielli, and others hold that Zacharias succeeded his father Joiada in the pontificate, although the Chronicle of the Hebrews, which Genebrard and Salianus follow, asserts that Pedaias succeeded Joiada. Joiada therefore restored religion as well as the kingdom of Juda, and was therefore buried by king Joas after his death in the sepulchre of the kings. Whence this Chronicle gives Joiada an epitaph and eulogy: “Joiada grew old, full of days, and died when he was 130 years old. For when in the days of Solomon the ruin (of idolatry) was arising, Joiada was born at the same time to correct it.” For Joiada was born about the 35th year of the reign of Solomon, and died in the 28th year of Joas king of Juda. So Salianus.
of their week to serve in the temple; for the Jews began the week from the sabbath, as we from Sunday, and ended it at its return.
Verse 6. The rest of the people (both of the Levites and of the faithful people) keep the watches of the Lord—that is, let him discharge his office in the court of the house of the Lord, or of the temple; namely that if any tumult arise from the soldiers whom Athalia may send in to kill Joas, they may stop, hinder, and repel them. For therefore he had commanded in verse 5, saying: “Let all the rest of the people be in the courts of the house of the Lord,” that is, in the court, which was as it were the temple of the laity, and was divided into various smaller courts. For Joiada wished the young king to be guarded not only by the protection of the Levites, but also of the faithful people, lest any violence or fraud be done him by his impious grandmother Athalia.
Verse 20. The upper gate.—This was the gate of the temple which led to the king’s palace. It is called “upper” because the palace was higher, from which one went down to the lower place. The gate in verse 5 is called “of the foundation,” because it was erected on the very foundations of the temple, that is, in Mello; so Vilalpandus, p. 219; this gate was commanded to be guarded beyond the others, because through it Athalia from the palace came into the temple with her soldiers and guards, as is clear from 4 Kings XI, 6 and 19.