Although the text says that ‘Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah’, 2 Kings 11:1 / 2 Chronicles 22:10, we must remember that sometimes daughters were called ‘mother’.
In 2 Kings, we find that Athaliah was actually the daughter of Ahab, 2 Kings 8:18 / 2 Kings 8:26. She reigned as queen of Judah in the south from 853 to 841 B.C. When Athaliah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah, 2 Kings 11:1 / 2 Chronicles 22:10.
It appears that because she was Ahab’s daughter, her husband Jehoram didn’t get involved with Jehu when he was killing the descendants of Ahab, 2 Kings 11:1-3 / 2 Chronicles 22:10-23:21.
To make sure Athaliah remained in power, she killed all the sons of Jehoram, not the sons of Athaliah, 2 Kings 11:1-3. The royal seed would include the descendants of Jehoshaphat of the Davidic line.
Whilst she killed all the sons of Jeroham, Jehosheba, who was Jehoiada’s wife and Joash’s aunt, took Joash away from Athaliah and hid him, her nephew, 2 Kings 11:2 / 2 Chronicles 22:11, for six years in the temple, 2 Chronicles 22:12 / 2 Kings 11:3.
It was during these six years that Athaliah reigned as queen of Judah, not knowing that Joash lived in secret in the temple not far from where she resided, 2 Kings 11:3 / 2 Chronicles 22:11.
This is clearly God working through Jehosheba, 2 Kings 11:2 / 2 Chronicles 22:11, as He was preserving the seedline of David. God had promised that through David, one would come to sit on his throne, 2 Samuel 7:13.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Nothing but the miraculous intervention of the Divine providence could have saved the line of David at this time, and preserved the prophecy relative to the Messiah. The whole truth of that prophecy, and the salvation of the world, appeared to be now suspended on the brittle thread of the life of an infant of a year old, 2 Chronicles 24:1, to destroy whom was the interest of the reigning power! But God can save by few as well as by many. He had purposed, and vain were the counter-exertions of earth and hell.’
Jehoiada sent for the commanders of units of a hundred, the Carites and the guards and had them brought to him at the temple of God, 2 Kings 11:4. The Carites were also known as the Kerethites, 1 Kings 1:38; they were basically soldiers who were employed by kings as their protectors.
They were Philistine soldiers who were very loyal to David and David’s dynasty, 2 Samuel 15:18 / 1 Samuel 30:14 / Ezekiel 25:16 / Zephaniah 2:5. Jehoiada comes up with a great plan on how he can overthrow Athaliah.
He hid Joash until he was older, and he went on to secure the loyalty of the commanders and the palace guard by making a covenant with them, 2 Kings 11:4 / 2 Chronicles 23:1. Jehoiada made a covenant with them and put them under oath, and then he showed them the king’s son.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following concerning the names mentioned in 2 Chronicles 23:1.
‘The five names do not occur in Kings, only, and incidentally, the five divisions of the royal guard, 2 Kings 11:5.’
He commanded them and tells them they who are in the three companies that are going on duty on the Sabbath, a third of them guarding the royal palace, a third at the Sur Gate, and a third at the gate behind the guard, who take turns guarding the temple and they who are in the other two companies that normally go off Sabbath duty are all to guard the temple for the king, 2 Kings 11:5-7 / 2 Chronicles 23:4-6.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It appears that Jehoiada chose the Sabbath day to proclaim the young king, because as that was a day of public concourse, the gathering together of the people who were in this secret would not be noticed and it is likely that they all came unarmed, and were supplied by Jehoiada with the spears and shields which David had laid up in the temple, 2 Kings 11:10.’
He then tells them to station themselves around the king, with weapons, and anyone who approaches them is to be put to death, 2 Kings 11:8 / 2 Chronicles 23:7. He tells them to stay close to the king wherever he goes, 2 Kings 11:8 / 2 Chronicles 23:7.
The Levites and the men of Judah do as Jehoiada commanded, 2 Kings 11:9 / 2 Chronicles 23:8. He plans to overthrow the Baal worship with which Athaliah was involved, and because of this, he was easily able to secure the loyalty of the priests of Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 23:4.
The priests wouldn’t normally have had weapons, but the text tells us that the weapons had been stored in the tabernacle by David, 2 Kings 11:10-11 / 2 Chronicles 23:9-10, and later placed in the temple by Solomon.
When the day came for the anointing of Joash as king, he was anointed by the High Priest and an official announcement was made with the approval of the people, 2 Kings 11:12 / 2 Chronicles 23:11, and so, Joash was made king at the time, seven years old, 2 Kings 11:21 / 2 Chronicles 24:1.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Book of the Law’, which was kept in the ark of the covenant, Deuteronomy 31:26. This Jehoiada placed on the king’s head at the moment of coronation, perhaps to indicate that the king was not to be above, but under, the direction of the Law of his country.’
When queen Athaliah heard the noise, she knew what was happening, 2 Kings 11:13-14 / 2 Chronicles 23:12-13, but wasn’t very happy, she tore her robes and cried out ‘treason, treason’, 2 Kings 11:14 / 2 Chronicles 23:13. It’s clear that she was caught totally off guard and as a result, everything she did to try and stop Jehoiada from establishing the kingship of Joash was useless.
In order to keep the temple from becoming desecrated, she is taken outside the temple and killed, 2 Kings 11:15-16 / 2 Chronicles 23:14-15. Athaliah was very much like her parents, Ahab and Jezebel; she was a murderer and promoted idolatry, Ezekiel 18:4.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘They probably brought her out near the king’s stables. It has been supposed, from Ezekiel 46:1-2, that the east gate of the inner court was that by which the king entered on the Sabbath day, whereas on all other days he entered by the south gate.
And there was another gate, called the horse gate, in the wall of the city, Jeremiah 31:40, for the king’s horses to go out at from the stables at Millo, which is therefore called, 2 Chronicles 23:15, the horse gate toward the king’s house.’
The covenant that Jehoiada made with the Lord, the king, and the people was simply a renewal of that covenant which the Lord had made with Israel through Moses, 2 Kings 11:17 / 2 Chronicles 23:16 / Exodus 34:1-27.
Even though Solomon had built a temple to God, it appears that Baal became so popular that the people demanded that temples be built in order to worship Baal.
Here, the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down, 2 Kings 11:17-18 / 2 Chronicles 23:17 / 2 Chronicles 24:7. In 2 Kings 10, Jehu oversaw the destruction of the temple of Baal in Samaria, but here the temple of Baal in Jerusalem was destroyed by the people. Notice also that they destroyed the sacred objects dedicated to Baal, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, 2 Chronicles 23:16 / Deuteronomy 13:5-10.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The temple worship having been discontinued during Athaliah’s rule, it devolved on Jehoiada now to re-establish it. He had already summoned the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, 2 Chronicles 23:2, and had made use of them in the events of the day. He therefore proceeded at once to assign the custody of the temple to a particular course, before conducting the young king to the palace.’
Jehoiada placed the oversight of the temple of the LORD in the hands of the Levitical priests, to whom David had made assignments in the temple, to present the burnt offerings of the LORD as written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, as David had ordered, 2 Chronicles 23:18.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It was the duty of the priests alone to offer the burnt offerings, Numbers 18:1-7, and of the Levites alone to praise God with singing and music, 1 Chronicles 23:5 / 1 Chronicles 25:1-7.’
He also stationed gatekeepers at the gates of the LORD’s temple so that no one who was in any way unclean might enter, 2 Chronicles 23:19. Jehoiada posted guards at the temple of God and he took with him the commanders of hundreds, the Carites, the guards and all the people of the land, and together they brought the king down from the temple of God and went into the palace, entering by way of the gate of the guards, 2 Chronicles 23:20 / 2 Kings 11:18-19.
Joash then took his place on the royal throne, 2 Kings 11:19. All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the palace, 2 Kings 11:20 / 2 Chronicles 23:21 / 2 Kings 11:16.
Selman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The people’s rejoicing augmented the joy of temple worship, and sounded a note unheard since the days of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:27.
That the city was quiet was a sign of God’s blessing, which often followed special acts of faith and obedience, 1 Chronicles 4:40 / 1 Chronicles 22:9 / 2 Chronicles 13:23 / 2 Chronicles 14:4-5 / 2 Chronicles 20:30.’ Joash was now king at the age of seven, 2 Kings 11:21; however, he was under the wise guidance of Jehoiada, and he was a good ruler as long as Jehoiada lived.