18 And all the people of the land go in to the house of Baal, and break it down, its altars and its images they have thoroughly broken, and Mattan priest of Baal they have slain before the altars; and the priest setteth inspectors over the house of Jehovah,
and ye have broken down their altars, and shivered their standing pillars, and their shrines ye burn with fire, and graven images of their gods ye cut down, and have destroyed their name out of that place.
he hath turned aside the high places, and broken in pieces the standing-pillars, and cut down the shrine, and beaten down the brazen serpent that Moses made, for unto these days were the sons of Israel making perfume to it, and he calleth it `a piece of brass.'
And Elijah saith to them, `Catch ye the prophets of Baal; let not a man escape of them;' and they catch them, and Elijah bringeth them down unto the stream Kishon, and doth slaughter them there.
`And that prophet, or that dreamer of the dream, is put to death, for he hath spoken apostacy against Jehovah your God (who is bringing you out of the land of Egypt, and hath ransomed you out of a house of servants), to drive you out of the way in which Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee to walk, and thou hast put away the evil thing from thy midst.
And they break down before him the altars of the Baalim, and the images that `are' on high above them he hath cut down, and the shrines, and the graven images, and the molten images, he hath broken and beaten small, and streweth on the surface of the graves of those sacrificing to them,
And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, I cut off the names of the idols from the land, And they are not remembered any more, And also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I cause to pass away from the land. And it hath been, when one prophesieth again, That said unto him have his father and his mother, his parents, `Thou dost not live, For falsehood thou hast spoken in the name of Jehovah,' And pierced him through have his father and his mother, his parents, in his prophesying.
and he taketh the calf which they have made, and burneth `it' with fire, and grindeth until `it is' small, and scattereth on the face of the waters, and causeth the sons of Israel to drink.
and all the people enter the house of Baal, and break it down, yea, his altars and his images they have broken, and Mattan priest of Baal they have slain before the altars. And Jehoiada putteth the offices of the house of Jehovah into the hand of the priests the Levites whom David had apportioned over the house of Jehovah, to cause to ascend the burnt-offerings of Jehovah, as written in the law of Moses, with joy, and with singing, by the hands of David; and he stationeth the gatekeepers over the gates of the house of Jehovah, and the unclean in anything doth not go in. And he taketh the heads of the hundreds, and the honourable ones, and the rulers among the people, and all the people of the land, and bringeth down the king from the house of Jehovah, and they come in through the high gate to the house of the king, and cause the king to sit on the throne of the kingdom.
And he hath broken in pieces the standing-pillars, and cutteth down the shrines, and filleth their place with bones of men;
And he hath defiled Topheth, that `is' in the valley of the son of Hinnom, so that no man doth cause his son and his daughter to pass over through fire to Molech.
And the king commandeth Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out from the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that are made for Baal, and for the shrine, and for all the host of the heavens, and he burneth them at the outside of Jerusalem, in the fields of Kidron, and hath borne their ashes to Beth-El. And he hath caused to cease the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah have appointed, (and they make perfume in high places, in cities of Judah and suburbs of Jerusalem,) and those making perfume to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of the heavens. And he bringeth out the shrine from the house of Jehovah to the outside of Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burneth it at the brook Kidron, and beateth it small to dust, and casteth its dust on the grave of the sons of the people.
And `Jehu' saith unto Bidkar his captain, `Lift up, cast him into the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite -- for, remember, I and thou were riding together after Ahab his father, and Jehovah lifted upon him this burden: Have I not the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons seen yesternight -- the affirmation of Jehovah -- yea, I have recompensed to thee in this portion -- the affirmation of Jehovah; -- and now, lift up, cast him into the portion, according to the word of Jehovah.' And Ahaziah king of Judah hath seen, and fleeth the way of the garden-house, and Jehu pursueth after him, and saith, `Smite him -- also him -- in the chariot,' in the going up to Gur, that `is' Ibleam, and he fleeth to Megiddo, and dieth there, and his servants carry him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and bury him in his burying-place, with his fathers, in the city of David.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 2 Kings 11
Commentary on 2 Kings 11 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 11
2Ki 11:1-3. Jehoash Saved from Athaliah's Massacre.
1. Athaliah—(See on 2Ch 22:2). She had possessed great influence over her son, who, by her counsels, had ruled in the spirit of the house of Ahab.
destroyed all the seed royal—all connected with the royal family who might have urged a claim to the throne, and who had escaped the murderous hands of Jehu (2Ch 21:2-4; 22:1; 2Ki 10:13, 14). This massacre she was incited to perpetrate—partly from a determination not to let David's family outlive hers; partly as a measure of self-defense to secure herself against the violence of Jehu, who was bent on destroying the whole of Ahab's posterity to which she belonged (2Ki 8:18-26); but chiefly from personal ambition to rule, and a desire to establish the worship of Baal. Such was the sad fruit of the unequal alliance between the son of the pious Jehoshaphat and a daughter of the idolatrous and wicked house of Ahab.
2. Jehosheba—or Jehoshabeath (2Ch 22:11).
daughter of King Joram—not by Athaliah, but by a secondary wife.
stole him from among the king's sons which were slain—either from among the corpses, he being considered dead, or out of the palace nursery.
hid him … in the bedchamber—for the use of the priests, which was in some part of the temple (2Ki 11:3), and of which Jehoiada and his wife had the sole charge. What is called, however, the bedchamber in the East is not the kind of apartment that we understand by the name, but a small closet, into which are flung during the day the mattresses and other bedding materials spread on the floors or divans of the sitting-rooms by day. Such a slumber-room was well suited to be a convenient place for the recovery of his wounds, and a hiding-place for the royal infant and his nurse.
2Ki 11:4-12. He Is Made King.
4. the seventh year—namely, of the reign of Athaliah, and the rescue of Jehoash.
Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers, &c.—He could scarcely have obtained such a general convocation except at the time, or on pretext, of a public and solemn festival. Having revealed to them the secret of the young king's preservation and entered into a covenant with them for the overthrow of the tyrant, he then arranged with them the plan and time of carrying their plot into execution (see on 2Ch 22:10-23:21). The conduct of Jehoiada, who acted the leading and chief part in this conspiracy, admits of an easy and full justification; for, while Athaliah was a usurper, and belonged to a race destined by divine denunciation to destruction, even his own wife had a better and stronger claim to the throne; the sovereignty of Judah had been divinely appropriated to the family of David, and therefore the young prince on whom it was proposed to confer the crown, possessed an inherent right to it, of which a usurper could not deprive him. Moreover, Jehoiada was most probably the high priest, whose official duty it was to watch over the due execution of God's laws, and who in his present movement, was encouraged and aided by the countenance and support of the chief authorities, both civil and ecclesiastical, in the country. In addition to all these considerations, he seems to have been directed by an impulse of the Divine Spirit, through the counsels and exhortations of the prophets of the time.
2Ki 11:13-16. Athaliah Slain.
13. Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people—The profound secrecy with which the conspiracy had been conducted rendered the unusual acclamations of the vast assembled crowd the more startling and roused the suspicions of the tyrant.
she came … into the temple of the Lord—that is, the courts, which she was permitted to enter by Jehoiada's directions (2Ki 11:8) in order that she might be secured.
14. the king stood by a pillar—or on a platform, erected for that purpose (see on 2Ch 6:13).
15. without the ranges—that is, fences, that the sacred place might not be stained with human blood.
2Ki 11:17-20. Jehoiada Restores God's Worship.
17, 18. a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people—The covenant with the Lord was a renewal of the national covenant with Israel (Ex 19:1-24:18; "to be unto him a people of inheritance," De 4:6; 27:9). The covenant between the king and the people was the consequence of this, and by it the king bound himself to rule according to the divine law, while the people engaged to submit, to give him allegiance as the Lord's anointed. The immediate fruit of this renewal of the covenant was the destruction of the temple and the slaughter of the priests of Baal (see 2Ki 10:27); the restoration of the pure worship of God in all its ancient integrity; and the establishment of the young king on the hereditary throne of Judah [2Ki 11:19].