And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead. 2 Kings 11 The history of Athaliah David Thomas, D. D. The blackest names in the long roll of the world's infamy are those of kings and queens, and amongst them Athaliah is not the least abhorrent. In this woman's life, as here sketched, we have — I. HEREDITARY DEPRAVITY. We find in this woman, Athaliah, the infernal tendencies of her father and her mother, Ahab and Jezebel. Though they had been swept as monsters from the earth, their hellish spirit lived and worked in this their daughter. We have an immortality in others, as well as in ourselves. In this fact we are reminded — 1. That the moral qualities of parents may become physical tendencies in the children. The man who voluntarily contracts habits of falsehood, dishonesty, profanity, incontinence, drunkenness, and general intemperance, transmits these to his children as physical tendencies. 2. That the evil moral qualities of parents, reappearing in their children in the form of physical tendencies, is no complete justification for the children's wickedness. This is clear(1) From the fact that God has endowed all with sufficient force to control all physical tendencies.(2) From the personal consciousness of every sinner.(3) From the Divine Word as found in the Scriptures. "Whatsoever good thing any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." "He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. The fact of hereditary depravity reminds us — 3. That the way to raise the human race is to improve their moral qualities. In this woman's life we see — II. OUTWITTED WICKEDNESS. No doubt this woman, who thought she had destroyed all the "seed royal," considered she had made her way to the throne clear and secure. For six long years she had no conception that one had escaped her bloody purpose. Now it was revealed to her, and her disappointment maddens her with vengeance, and excites the desperate cry, "Treason, treason!" It is ever so. "He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. History abounds with the examples of the bafflement of wrong. The conduct of Joseph's brethren, Ahithophel, Sanballat, Haman, and the Jewish Sanhedrim in relation to Christ, are instances. Craftiness uses lies as concealment and defence, but the eternal law of Providence makes them snares. In this woman's life we see — III. JUST RETRIBUTION. Those who plot the destruction of others often fall themselves. Here is(1) A terrible retribution.(2) A prompt retribution. It came on her there before she passed into the other world. Retribution is going on now and here. There is(3) A retribution administered by wicked men. God punishes the wicked by the wicked. The whole history of the world is an illustration of this. Truly "the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever Yea he shall be chased away as a vision of the night." ( David Thomas, D. D. ) Malign succession Christian Commonwealth. A wicked mother left behind her a wicked daughter. What else could be expected but that the demoniac Jezebel should be reflected and repeated, so far as character and conduct were concerned, in her daughter Athaliah? How very often such a malign succession is seen! Henry VIII. was terribly given to executing any of his subjects who opposed him. His elder daughter, Queen Mary, led the awful persecution against Protestants in which so many martyrs were burned, including Bishops Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, and Archbishop Cranmer . Had she had a gentler father her disposition might have been more merciful. ( Christian Commonwealth. ) Athaliah J. Parker, D. D. Observe a very strong peculiarity in human nature, as shown in the conduct of Athaliah. She went into the temple and saw the young Joash with a crown upon his head, and she shrieked out, "Treason, treason!" Poor innocent Athaliah! Who would not pity so gentle a dove, with a breast of feathers and a cruel dart rankling in it. Sweet woman, gentle loving creature, injured queen — her hands were perfectly clean; she was the victim of a cruel stratagem; she was outwitted by heads longer than hers; she, poor unsuspecting soul, had been brought into this condition, and all she could do was to cry in injured helplessness, "Treason, treason!" How moral we become under some circumstances! How very righteous we stand up to be under certain provocations! Who could but pity poor Athaliah, who had nursed her grandchildren with a wolf's care? We do this very self-same thing very often in our own lives. Where is the man who does not suppose that he has a right to do wrong? But let other people do wrong, and then hear him. Given a religious sect of any name whatsoever, that has the domination of any neighbourhood, and the probability is that that religious sect will use its supremacy somewhat mischievously in certain circumstances. It will not let anybody who opposes its tenets have an acre of ground in that neighbourhood, nor will it allow any sect that opposes its principles to build a church there. No, it takes a righteous view of the circumstances; it will not trifle with its responsibilities; it can allow no encroachment; it is charged with the spirit of stewardship, and must be faithful to its sacred obligations. So it cants and whines, whatever its name be: if it be the name we bear religiously so much the worse. We speak of no particular sect, or of any sect that may be placed in such peculiar circumstances as to claim the domination and supremacy in any neighbourhood. Now let any member of that sect leave that particular locality and go to live under a different set of circumstances, and apply for a furlong of ground, or for a house that he may occupy as tenant; then let it be found that his religious convictions are a bar to his entrance upon the enjoyment of local properties and liberties, he will call "Persecution, persecution!" How well it befits his lips. The very man who in one district persecuted to the death those who opposed him removes to another locality where a screw is applied to his own joints, and he cries out, "Persecution — persecution!" It is Athaliah's old trick, and will have Athaliah's poor reward. See how the cry of the wicked is unheeded. She was a woman, and by so much had a claim upon the sympathy of the strong. No man's heart went out towards her in loyal reverence. With what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged. With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. "As I have done," said a sufferer of old, "to others, so the Lord hath requited me." Though hand join in hand, yet the wicked shall not go unpunished. If you are treating any of your family, your wife or husband or child, with base cruelty, it will surely come home to you some other day. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Jehosheba... took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain. 2 Kings 11:2, 3 Stolen from death T. De Witt Talmage, D. D. Grandmothers are more lenient with their children's children than they were with their own. At forty years of age, if discipline be necessary, chastisement is used; but at seventy, the grandmother, looking upon the misbehaviour of the grandchild, is apologetic, and disposed to substitute confectionery for whip. There is nothing more beautiful than this mellowing of old age toward childhood But here we have a grandmother of a different hue. It is old Athaliah, the queenly murderess. She ought to have been honourable. Her father was a king. Her husband was a king. Her son was a king. And yet we find her plotting for the extermination of the. entire royal family, including her own grandchildren. But the six years expire, and it is time for young Joash to come forth and take the throne, and to push back into disgrace and death old Athaliah. The arrangements are all made for political revolution. The military come and take possession of the temple, swear loyalty to the boy Joash, and stand around for his defence. I. The first thought from this subject is, THAT THE EXTERMINATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS AN IMPOSSIBILITY. Superstition rises up and says: "I will just put an end to pure religion." Domitian slew forty thousand Christians, Diocletian slew eight hundred and forty-four thousand Christians. And the scythe of persecution has been swung through all the ages, and the flames hissed, and the auto da fe rattled, and the guillotine chopped, and the Bastile groaned; but did the foes of Christianity exterminate it? Did they exterminate Alban, the first British sacrifice; or Zuinglius, the Swiss reformer; or John Oldcastle, the Christian nobleman; or Abdallah, the Arabian martyr; or Anne Askew, or Sanders, or Cranmer? Great work of extermination they made of it. Just at the time when they thought they had slain all the royal family of Jesus, some Joash would spring up and out, and take the throne of power, and wield a very sceptre of Christian dominion. Infidelity says: " I'll just exterminate the Bible," and the Scriptures were thrown into the street for the mob to trample on, and they were piled up in the public squares and set on fire, and mountains of indignant contempt were hurled on them, and learned universities decreed the Bible out of existence. "In my Age of Reason I have annihilated the Scriptures," said Thomas Paine. "Your Washington is a pusillanimous Christian, but I am the foe of Bibles and of churches." O, how many assaults upon that Word. Said one man, in his infidel desperation, to his wife: "You must not be reading that Bible," and he snatched it away from her. And though in that Bible was a lock of hair of the dead child — the only child that God had ever given them — he pitched the book with its contents into the fire, and stirred it with the tongs, and spat on it, and cursed it, and said: "Susan, never have any more of that stuff here!" How many individual and organised attempts have been made to exterminate that Bible. Have they done it? Have they exterminated the Bible Society? Have they exterminated the thousands of Christian institutions whose only object it is to multiply copies of the Scriptures, and throw them broadcast around the world? Yea, if there should come a time of persecution in which all the known Bibles of the earth should be destroyed, all these lamps of life that blaze in our pulpits and in our families extinguished — in the very day that infidelity and sin should be holding jubilee over the universal extinction there would be in some closet of a backwoods church a secreted copy of the Bible, and this Joash of eternal literature would come out and come up and take the throne, and the Athaliah of infidelity and persecution would fly out the back door of the palace, and drop her miserable carcass under the hoofs of the horses of the king's stables. You cannot exterminate Christianity! You cannot kill Joash! II. The second thought from my subject is, THAT THERE ARE OPPORTUNITIES IN WHICH WE MAY SAVE ROYAL LIFE. You know that profane history is replete with stories of strangled monarchs and of young princes who have been put out of the way. Here is the story of a young king saved. But why should we spend our time in praising this bravery of expedition when God asks the same thing of you and me? all around us are the imperilled children of a great king. They are born of Almighty parentage, and will come to a throne or a crown, if permitted. But sin, the old Athaliah, goes forth to the massacre. Murderous temptations are out for the assassination. But sin is more terrific in its denunciation. It matters not how you spell your name, you come under its knife, under its sword, under its doom, unless there be some omnipotent relief brought to the rescue. But blessed be God, there is such a thing as delivering a royal soul. Who will snatch away Joash? This afternoon, in your Sabbathschool class, there will be a prince of God — some Cromwell to dissolve a Parliament, some Beethoven to touch the world's harp-strings, some John Howard to pour fresh air into the lazaretto, some Florence Nightingale to bandage the battle wounds, some Miss Dix to soothe the crazed brain, some John Frederick Oberlin to educate the besotted, some David Brainerd to change the Indian's war-whoop to a Sabbath song, some John Wesley to marshal three-fourths of Christendom, some John Knox to make queens turn pale, some Joash to demolish idolatry and strike for the kingdom of heaven. There are sleeping in your cradles by night, there are playing in your nurseries by day, imperial souls waiting for dominion, and whichever side the cradle they get out will decide the destiny of empires. III. The third thought from my text is, THAT THE CHURCH OF GOD IS A GOOD HIDING-PLACE. When Jehosheba rushes into the nursery of the king and picks up Joash, what shall she do with him? Shall she take him to some room in the palace? No; for the official desperadoes will hunt through every nook and corner of that building. Would God that we were all as wise as Jehosheba, and knew that the Church of God is the best hiding-place. O, men of the world, outside there, betrayed, caricatured, and cheated of the world, why do you not come in through the broad, wide open door of Christian communion? I wish I could act the part of Jehosheba to-day, and steal you away from your perils and hide you in the temple. How few of us appreciate the fact that the Church of God is a hiding-place. More than that, you yourself will want the Church for a hiding-place when the mortgage is foreclosed; when your daughter, just blooming into womanhood, suddenly clasps her hands in a slumber that knows no waking; when gaunt trouble walks through the parlour, and the sitting-room, and the dining-hall, and the nursery, you will want some shelter from the tempest. Ah, some of you have been run upon by misfortune, and trial; why do you not come into the shelter? I said to a widowed mother after she had buried her only son — months after, I said to her: "How do you get along now-a-days?" "Oh," she replied, "I get along tolerably well, except when the sun shines." I said: "What do you mean by that?" when she said: "I can't bear to see the sun shine; my heart is so dark that all the brightness of the natural world seems a mockery to me." Oh, darkened soul, oh, broken-hearted man, broken-hearted woman, why do you not come into the shelter? I swing the door wide open. I swing it from wall to wall. Come in! Come in! You want a place where your troubles shall be interpreted, where your burdens shall be unstrapped, where your tears shall be wiped away. ( T. De Witt Talmage, D. D. ) The fallacy of evil E. H. Chapin. The transaction with which the text is connected belongs to that series of bloody events which were involved with the destruction of the house of Ahab. Among those who were slain in the fierce onslaught of Jehu, was Ahaziah, King of Judah. Hearing of his death, his mother Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel — her daughter in disposition as well as by birth — resolved to secure the kingdom of Judah for herself; and to that end, she put to death, as she supposed, the entire brood of her own grandchildren; and having perpetrated this unnatural slaughter, she ascended the vacant throne. But the text informs us that to this wholesale murder there was one exception. Joash, the infant heir of Ahaziah, was by his aunt, Jehosheba, wife of Jehoiada the high priest, snatched from the fury of the usurping queen, and concealed in the temple. Athaliah maintained her guilty reign for six years. It was a cruel, oppressive, and idolatrous reign, sternly calculated to foment the opposition of all who were loyal to the legitimate government and the ancient religion, and to cement their union. At length Jehoiada, under oath, disclosed his secret to some of the chief men of the Jewish nation, and, having secured the alliance of the military and the priesthood, broke out with a successful revolution. Upon a day appointed, the guard and the people having assembled in the temple, Jehoiada brought the young Joash out before them. Having anointed and crowned him, the people clapped their hands, shouting, "God save the king!" This entire transaction suggests the fallacy of evil, the falsehood of sin. And so this incident of a very ancient time is applicable to all time. To some it may appear a very superfluous task to urge an argument against evil in itself. Up to this point it may seem that all argument is foreclosed. It may be thought that the very term "evil" suggests all the argument that is necessary. The moral sense of every man repudiates it. Nevertheless, evil prevails; not often, it is to be hoped, in such shapes of conspicuous and revolting wickedness as in the case of the Jewish queen, but in countless other shapes, both in public and in private. I. THE INSECURITY OF EVIL. This is very clearly illustrated in the incident before us. Athaliah's scheme was a sweeping one. It was summary in its execution. The argument which she employed was the sword; and it seemed as though all obstacles had gone down before it. But one point was left exposed, and through that point entered destruction. And it is wonderful how common such mistakes are, even in the most cunningly planned iniquity. When the evil-doer has arranged all his devices, and they seem to be turning out just as he would have them turn out, very often he seems smitten by judicial blindness, and he leaves some clew by him unperceived. Or we may say Providence gathers up some witness in its concealing folds, and lo! all at once it leaps out upon him. Take some of the grosser instances of iniquity. The thief, as he supposes, clears away every thread of detection; but, in the most unthought of way, the keen eye of justice picks out some slender filament of guilt, and presently the entire web is dragged into the light. The calumniator constructs his charge so-plausibly, that as it seems his victim can find no flaw for escape, when accidentally some minute test of truth is applied, and the lie shriven, and shows all its blackness. The murderer drops some bloody hint of his deed. He makes a footmark in the leaves, or babbles his secret in the revelations of a dream. But let us proceed to the consideration of less conspicuous instances. A man conducts business on a system of petty frauds. For a while they glide quite smoothly, and he secretly chuckles at his own practical demonstration that dishonesty is the best policy. But in time his meanness gets wind: custom drops off, and he sinks in credit. Or his good fortune, if good fortune he has, is tainted by his reputation, men will worship a golden calf for the sake of the gold; but there is apt to be a .polite sniffing at gilded carrion. Another finds it convenient, now and then, to oil the hinges of opportunity with a little lying. Quite likely he does so with very slight compunction or thought. It may serve his purpose. And yet it is just as possible that he will find a nest of trouble in it. Perhaps, in some unlucky moment, the truth strikes him flat in the face, and brings him to open shame. Or he has to fabricate a series of lies to support the first, until the chain breaks of its own weight, or tangles and trips him; and it turns out that it costs more to keep a set of lies in tune than it would to have told the truth in the outset. A man who cannot afford to lose money by speaking the truth, and who has enthroned himself on lies, is always likely to encounter some uncomfortable Joash that will bring him down. Then, again, there are some evil devices that one cannot carry out alone — they must be helped by other people; and this creates the insecurity of participated council. The confederate may be bribed to treachery, or become conscience-stricken. At least we may be quite sure that one who will connive at fraud or mischief can have but slight anchorage in principle; and no seal of "honour" so-called, or even of interest, is strong enough to assure the wrong-doer that he is not plotting with a town tattler or a State's evidence. The doctrine of consequences is a doctrine of secondary considerations, which a good man does not want, and which a bad man means to dodge. And that is a very ungodly sorrow which is only sorry for the exposure, Nevertheless this is one argument against evil: its methods and its instruments are insecure. Good men will make mistakes. Good men will commit oversights. Perhaps they are more likely to do so than those of the other class. Trusting simply to the right, they may not keep their wits so keenly on the alert. Men who undertake to engineer a bad enterprise are very apt to be what are called "smart men." There are not many downright wicked fools. It is quite possible, that, for a time, the knaves will foil mere righteousness; and, where cleverness is the only point in consideration, they may show themselves superior to those who are simple enough to trust in honesty. And throughout every department of human action, there is this essential difference between fraud and truth, treachery and loyalty — whatever exposure may take place, the good man has no reason to fear. The exposure may demonstrate that he was weak in judgment, or unskilful in execution; but the right motive will redeem his work. But the least slip may ruin the knave and unfrock the hypocrite. The short-sightedness of the right intention is an honest mistake; the oversight of the base purpose is a fatal error. Therefore, in the first instance insecurity means a very different thing from what it does in the last. Yes, life is an uncertain sea, and the good as well as the bad may suffer the shipwreck of their hopes. But the one has done the best he could. He has laid a well-intended course, studying his chart, and observing heaven. The other of his own accord has run his ship among quicksands and breakers. Both are liable to mistakes; but, I say once more, the insecurity of the good is not like the insecurity of the bad. II. There is another argument against evil in the fact, that in any wrong course there is an INTRINSIC INCONGRUITY. This truth, perhaps, is easier felt than expressed. But I may be able to convey some idea of my meaning by saying that evil does not tally with truth. It cannot profoundly and completely simulate the good. In one word, it is contrary to God. Now, I have already admitted that evil methods do sometimes — indeed, I must say do frequently — succeed. Nevertheless, I do not admit that this triumph is a final triumph. Very likely it will turn out that the consummated guilt does not set well. It wears a doubtful aspect. Suspicion warps it, although detection may not lay it open. It does not fit snug into the general order. I have spoken of a tainted reputation. And I ask, does not a bad man find it Somewhat difficult to hide his real character? The process is apt to develop undue clumsiness, or extra facility, too little heat, or too much zeal. The painting is over-coloured; or else it is quite evident that the face is wax and the eyes are glass. Some time since, I was examining a sample of ore that looked very much like gold: I was informed that the material has often been taken for gold. Perhaps in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand it would pass for gold. Is there, then, no test by which it may be distinguished from the nobler metal? Yes: it does not weigh quite so much as gold. So base-metal acts, that look like shining gold, may sometimes get weighed. So do the elements of sin sometimes burst their glittering disguises; guilty passion glares through all the proprieties; and in the witnessing presence of God's own universe the intrinsic incongruity of evil appears. Besides this, we must remember also that wrong always occupies the place of some right. It exists by repressing that right. Therefore it is exposed to the re-action of that right. Referring to instances that are important enough to remain visible above the horizon of time, we find, that, as the world moves, there goes on a rectifying process. Justice sifts and sifts, until the verdict abides with the right, even though "canonised bones" are stirred in their cerements, and the graves give up their dead. As we retreat from the past, the eternal disc of truth emerges from temporary obscurations, while on the great ecliptic of history everything fails into its proper posture. The schemes of wicked policy, and the idols of a deluded veneration, lie crushed and exposed. The memory of the tyrant blackens, and the martyr has his palm. No wrong can go down secure and compact through the ages. It does not assimilate with God's order, and it bears no fertility of blessedness in its bosom. The celestial movements may seem slow and wearisome: nevertheless, "the stars in their courses fight against Sisera." There is no peace for the wicked, though robed in the most splendid success. There is no security for the wrong, however sealed and established. Evil may seem to be as well as the good. But it is not as well. Like that guilty Jewish queen, it falsely occupies the throne; and sooner or later justice comes, like the lawful heir, and claims the birthright. III. But, after all, the great argument against evil is THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF EVIL. Suppose Athaliah, instead of being overtaken by that signal punishment, had kept the throne, and died in ripe old age, a crowned and successful sovereign. Would anyone really envy Athaliah's career? Would her position have been a desirable one? Would it have been really a success and a blessing? No. The essential evil in her case appears in what the guilty woman was in herself. Here, then, is the actual point. We must reject evil for what it is in itself; and, in this, all its sophistries are exposed. Surely there is no instance in which a man deliberately elects wickedness for itself alone, and as the final cause of his action. No man who employs fraud or falsehood maintains that his chief good is in the fraud or falsehood. They are his instruments. Hence, he defends them, or acquiesces in the use of them. Thus he lies and cheats, not for the heartfelt satisfaction of lying and cheating, but for the purposes of a worldly policy. He spins some dishonest scheme, because he thinks this the best way to secure his end. He would just as soon use the morality of the Ten Commandments if he thought the stock was as available. But, agreeably to his experience, falsehood makes the money stick to his fingers a little closer than clean-handed honesty will. And that is why he uses falsehood. But now here arises the consideration that evil does become an end, remains an end, when the object sought for has failed or vanished. The gains of the unscrupulous seeker may crumble, his pleasure may taste upon his lips like the lees of dead wine, and in the end of his ambition he may find only the arrows of calumny or the scoffings of popular change. But the evil itself does not desert him. The agent which he has cherished and used — the falsehood and the baseness — stick and abide in his soul, which he may have forgotten, but upon which at some time he must fall back. There, within, — in the elements of his own personality, — what meanness and accusation, what woe and ruin! All the capital that the guilty man possesses is this perishable stuff without, and within a world whose dark recesses he dares not fathom, in which lurk ugly memories and fearful thoughts, and where conscience rolls its low, deep thunder. ( E. H. Chapin. ) King David's spears and shields, that were in the temple of the Lord. 2 Kings 11:10 New use for old trophies When David had fought with an adversary, and overcome him, he took away his armour and his weapons, and as other victorious heroes were wont to do, he bore them home as mementoes of his prowess, the trophies of the battle. These were placed in the house of the Lord. Perhaps David at the same time dedicated in like manner the shield and the sword which he had himself used in battle. After Solomon had built the temple, these trophies, which seem to have been very numerous, were hung up there. So they adorned the wails. So they illustrated the valour of noble sires. So they served to kindle emulation, I doubt not, in the breasts of true.hearted sons. Thus it was while generations sprung up and passed away; till at length other days dawned, darker scenes transpired, and sadder things filled up the chronicles of the nation. I. IT IS WELL FOR US TO HANG ALL OUR TROPHIES IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. We, too, are warriors. Every genuine Christian has to fight. Every inch of the way between here and heaven we shall have to fight, for as hitherto every single step o our pilgrimage has been one prolonged conflict. Sometimes we have victories, a presage of that final victory, that perfect triumph we shall enjoy with our Great Captain for ever. When we have these victories it behoves us to be especially careful that in all good conscience we hang up the trophies thereof in the house of the Lord. The reason for this lies here: it is to the Lord that we owe any success we have ever achieved. We have been defeated when we have gone in our own strength; but when we have been victorious it has always been because the strength of the Lord was put forth for our deliverance. You never fought with a sin, with a temptation, or with a doubt, and overthrew it, except by the Spirit's aid. This will save us from pride and self-sufficiency. Scarcely can God trust us with a victory, lest we begin fingering it with our own hands, as if our own ingenuity, our own wisdom, or our own strength had done marvels. II. THESE TROPHIES MAY COME IN USEFUL AT SUCH TIMES AS WE CANNOT FORESEE, AND UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES AS WE WOT NOT OF. Little could David have thought when he gave Abiathar the sword of Goliath, that he would ever go to the priests of Gad and ask them to lend him a sword, and that they should say, We have no sword here, save the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. whom thou slewest in the Valley of Elah, behold it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. He gave it to God, but he did not think that he would ever have it back again with a priestly blessing on it, so that he should be able to say, "There is none like that: give it me." And when, in after years, he hung up the swords and shields which he had taken away from Philistine heroes, he did not surmise that one of his descendants, of the seed royal, would find the need to employ his own, his grandsire's, or, further back, from himself — his forefathers' trophies — in order to establish himself on the throne. We never know, when we praise God for mercies, hut what the very praises might come back into our bosoms, and the offerings we make to God in the way of thankfulness may be our own enrichment in the days to come. Did you ever have a personal, mental, moral conflict with some great dragon of besetting sin? If so be you have been enabled to smite it valiantly, and slay it utterly, I know you have gained trophies to hang up in the house of God. To do so will be of no small advantage to yourselves, because you can take them down and use them in future; and you will find they are footholds of your strength to fight with the next sin that comes upon you. The strength which God has educated and fostered in the last struggle will greatly assist you in the next. The man who gives way to one sin will very readily give way to another, but a man who through God's grace has won a very high vantage ground by mastering one sin, will be very likely to win another. The spoils taken from the last Philistine will help us to go forth and win more, and in the name of God we shall get the victory. Now it is a fine, a noble thing, when you have had a conflict in your own soul with some plausible heresy, some seductive perversion of the truth, and have put it to flight with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; it is a noble feat, I say, to capture the arms of your assailant and to use the very weapons of the adversary against him. You have detected his sophistry, you have found out devices, and now for the future you will not be so readily carried away with every wind of doctrine. This time,you are too old to be taken with his chaff. You were deceived once, but by God's grace you are not willing any longer to lend a ready ear to the fair speech which casts a mist over plain facts, hut you henceforth resolve to prove the spirits whether they be of God. So from the spoils of past conflicts you are made strong to win present victories. III. ANCIENT WEAPONS ARE GOOD FOR PRES

Benson Commentary 2 Kings 11:1 And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2 Kings 11:1 . And destroyed all the seed royal — All of the royal family that had not been cut off by Jehu and others, except one, mentioned 2 Kings 11:2 . To this wickedness she was impelled by many motives: 1st, By rage to see Ahab’s family destroyed, which made her resolve that the family of David should share the same fate. 2d, By ambition and desire of rule, to make way for which many persons have destroyed their nearest relations. 3d, By her zeal for idolatry and the worship of Baal, which she intended to establish, and to which she knew the house of David were implacable enemies. 4th, By a regard to her own defence, that, by getting into the throne, which she could not do without destroying the royal family, she might secure herself from Jehu’s fury, who, she understood, was resolved utterly to destroy all the branches of Ahab’s house, of which she was one. Possibly those whom she slew were Jehoram’s children by another wife. This was the fruit of Jehoshaphat’s marrying his son to a daughter of that idolatrous house of Ahab: and this dreadful judgment God permitted to come upon him and his, to show how much he abhors all such affinities. “The consideration of the fate,” says Dr. Dodd, “which attended these royal families, is sufficient to make one thankful to God for having been born of meaner parentage. The whole offspring of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab, was cut off for their idolatry; and the kings of Judah, having contracted an affinity with the house of Ahab, and being by them seduced into the same crime, were so destroyed, by three successive massacres, that there was but one left: for first Jehoram slew all his brethren, then Jehu all his brother’s children, and now Athaliah destroys all the rest that her executioners can meet with.” 2 Kings 11:2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 2 Kings 11:2 . But Jehosheba — Called Jehoshabeath, 2 Chronicles 22:11 ; the daughter of King Joram — Namely, by another wife, and not by this Athaliah: for Athaliah would not have suffered her daughter to be married to the high-priest of the true God, nor would he, in all likelihood, have married the daughter of such an idolatrous woman. Stole him from among the king’s sons, &c. — Either took him from among the slain, he happening not to be quite despatched; or else secretly conveyed him away, before the execution was done. And they hid him — Jehosheba and her husband Jehoiada. And his nurse, in the bed-chamber — Which, according to the next verse, was in the house of the Lord: so that it was one of those chambers adjoining to the temple, that were for the uses of the priests and Levites only, which made it more proper for this purpose. Now was the promise made to David bound up in one life, and yet it did not fail. Thus to the son of David will God, according to his promise, secure a spiritual seed; which, though sometimes reduced to a small number, brought very low, and seemingly lost, yet will be preserved to the end of time. It was a special providence, that Joram, though a king, a wicked king, married his daughter to Jehoiada, a priest, a holy priest: this some might think a disparagement to the royal family, but it saved the royal family from ruin; for Jehoiada’s interest in the temple gave her an opportunity to preserve the child, and her interest in the royal family gave him an opportunity of setting him on the throne. See what blessings they lay up in store for their families, who marry their children to those that are wise and good. 2 Kings 11:3 And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 2 Kings 11:3 . He was hid with her six years — Probably Athaliah thought they were dead; or, if she suspected this child was preserved, she supposed an infant could do her no great harm; and that she could so well establish herself in the possession of the kingdom within a few years, that she need not fear any such weak competitor. And Athaliah did reign over the land — Which she had the better opportunity of doing, because she was not only the late king’s wife, but also, probably, made queen-regent upon Joram’s going to Ramoth-gilead. 2 Kings 11:4 And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD, and shewed them the king's son. 2 Kings 11:4 . With the captains and the guard — The chief commanders of the soldiery, and those that had been the former king’s guard; for it is not likely that he would dare to call the guard of the present queen: and it is probable that the former could not well brook the dominion of a woman, and that woman a foreigner. And brought them into the house of the Lord — Into the courts of that house; for into the house itself, strictly speaking, none but the priests or Levites might enter. And showed them the king’s son — He discovered to them the true heir of the crown, and they entered into a covenant to restore him, which they confirmed with an oath. 2 Kings 11:5 And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house; 2 Kings 11:5-6 . A third part of you — Of the Levites, who were distributed into twenty-four courses, to minister in turns, each course consisting of about a thousand men for a week. That enter in, &c. — That come into the temple to attend your ministry. Shall be keepers of the king’s house — Of that part which led to the king’s palace, which Athaliah now possessed. A third part shall be at the gate of Sur — The chief gate of the temple, called the high gate, 2 Kings 15:35 ; the foundation gate, 2 Chronicles 23:5 ; the east gate, Jeremiah 19:2 ; the middle gate, Jeremiah 39:3 ; and the gate of entrance, Ezekiel 40:15 . A third part at the gate behind the guard — Either, 1st, The king’s guard: or, 2d, The guard of the temple; this gate was in the south side. So shall ye keep, &c. — So you shall guard all the gates or entrances into the temple, that neither Athaliah nor any of her soldiers may break in. 2 Kings 11:6 And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. 2 Kings 11:7 And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the LORD about the king. 2 Kings 11:7-8 . Two parts that go forth on the sabbath — Who, having finished their course, should have gone home, but were detained, 2 Chronicles 23:8 . Shall keep — While the rest guard the entrances into the temple, these shall have a special care of the king’s person. Ye shall compass the king, &c. — When you have set your watches and guards, all the rest of you shall draw near to the king, to preserve his royal person from all assaults and dangers. He that cometh within the ranges — Or fences, the walls wherewith the courts of the temple were environed; or your ranks. If any of Athaliah’s guard shall attempt to break in upon you, or come within your bounds. As he goeth out, and as he cometh in — Whether the king shall go out of the temple to assault and subdue his enemies, or retire hither to defend himself, do you always accompany him. 2 Kings 11:8 And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. 2 Kings 11:9 And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. 2 Kings 11:10 And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David's spears and shields, that were in the temple of the LORD. 2 Kings 11:10 . To the captains did the priest give King David’s spears and shields — Offensive and defensive weapons, both for themselves and for all their soldiers; for they had all come into the temple unarmed, to prevent suspicion. These are called David’s, either because they were such as he had taken from his enemies, and had dedicated to God, and laid up in the temple as monuments of God’s goodness to him; or because he had made a sacred armory in the temple, whence arms might be taken upon extraordinary occasions, for the defence of the temple or city of God. 2 Kings 11:11 And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. 2 Kings 11:11 . The guard stood from the right to the left corner of the temple — From the south-east to the north-east side. Along by the altar — Of burnt-offerings, which was by the great eastern gate of the temple. The meaning is, they defended the temple on all sides. 2 Kings 11:12 And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. 2 Kings 11:12 . And put the crown upon him — Having produced Joash, he put the crown on his head, which, it is likely, was kept in the sanctuary. And gave him the testimony — The book of the law, which he put into the king’s hand to remind him of his duty at his entrance upon his kingdom, which was to read and write out that holy book, ( Deuteronomy 17:18 ,) and to govern himself and his kingdom by it; the law of God being frequently and most properly called a testimony, because it is a witness of God’s will, and man’s duty. They made him king, and anointed him — As was wont to be done in doubtful cases, when there was any competition or question about the crown, as now there was. 2 Kings 11:13 And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the LORD. 2 Kings 11:13 . She came to the people — To inquire into the cause of this great noise; being hitherto kept in deep ignorance, because the affair was managed with so much secrecy, and in the temple; and because the people universally hated her, and wished her downfall. Into the temple of the Lord — That is, into the courts, into which, being a queen, she was permitted to enter, though contrary to the general order, 2 Kings 11:8 . She seems, in her fright, to have come alone, or with but few attendants. 2 Kings 11:14 And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was , and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason. 2 Kings 11:14 . Behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was — It is generally supposed that the royal throne was erected near one of the pillars, described 1 Kings 7:15 ; 1 Kings 7:21 , unless we may suppose that what is here called a pillar was that brazen scaffold five cubits long, &c., which Solomon made at first on his dedicating the temple, ( 2 Chronicles 6:13 ,) and which was afterward continued for the king to appear upon on solemn occasions, and where, doubtless, there was a throne of state. See Calmet. 2 Kings 11:15 But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD. 2 Kings 11:15 . Jehoiada commanded the officers of the host — Of those companies of Levites, who are elsewhere called the Lord’s host, and now were the king’s host. Have her forth without the ranges — Through which they had suffered her to come. If she will not go out of them of her own accord, force her out of them. And him that followeth her, kill with the sword — If any of the people that shall come hither on this occasion, shall stand up for her help, let them be slain. Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord — That is, in the court of the temple, lest it be polluted with her blood. 2 Kings 11:16 And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house: and there was she slain. 2 Kings 11:16 . They laid hands on her — The Hebrew, ????? ?? ???? , Jashimu lah jadaim, may be properly rendered, Then they gave her room, or left her a free passage to depart out of the temple. Thus Houbigant, after the Chaldee. And she went by the way, &c. — By the great public road, by which horses and chariots went to the palace. And there was she slain — In an ignominious place and manner, as her mother Jezebel had been. 2 Kings 11:17 And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD'S people; between the king also and the people. 2 Kings 11:17 . Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, &c. — A sacred covenant, whereby he solemnly engaged both the king and people, that they should be the Lord’s people — That they should renounce and root out all idolatry, and set up and maintain God’s true worship. Between the king also and the people — This was a civil covenant, whereby the king engaged himself to rule them justly, and in the fear of God; and the people obliged themselves to defend and obey him. Compare 2 Samuel 5:3 . 2 Kings 11:18 And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD. 2 Kings 11:18 . All the people went into the house of Baal — They began immediately to make good their covenant in part, by destroying the worship of Baal, which had been introduced in Judah by Jehoram, ( 2 Kings 8:18 ,) and was continued by Ahaziah, 2 Kings 8:27 . And slew the priest of Baal before the altars — To which possibly he fled for refuge, or rather he was brought thither as a fit sacrifice to his god. The priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord — To see that the service was regularly performed by the proper persons, in due time, and according to the instituted manner. See the margin. 2 Kings 11:19 And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king's house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. 2 Kings 11:19-20 . He took the rulers over hundreds, &c. — Brought them out of the temple, that they might conduct the king in state to the royal palace. By the way of the gate of the guard — By the gate of the royal palace, where the king’s guard stood. And he sat on the throne of the kings — Which was the accomplishment of his inauguration. And all the people rejoiced — Josephus says, they kept a feast of joy many days; making good Solomon’s observation: When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth, and when the wicked perish, there is shouting. 2 Kings 11:20 And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king's house. 2 Kings 11:21 Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign. 2 Kings 11:21 . Seven years old was Jehoash, &c. — Being so very young, he was very unfit for so weighty a charge; but he was under the direction of so excellent a counsellor, that, while Jehoiada lived, all things went well, and the nation was prosperous and happy. But after that good man was dead, he was seduced by some great men about him to idolatry, ( 2 Chronicles 24:17 ,) which shows him to have been a weak prince, who wanted judgment in things of the greatest moment. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Kings 11:1 And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. ATHALLAH (B.C. 842-836) JOASH BEN AHAZIAH OF JUDAH (B.C. 836-796) 2 Kings 11:1-21 ; 2 Kings 12:1-21 " Par cette fin terrible, et due a ses forfaits, Apprenez, Roi des Juifs, et n’oubliez jamais, Que les rois dans le ciel ont un juge severe, L’innocence un vengeur, et les orphelins un pere! " - RACINE, " Athalie ." "Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind’s sway, That, hushed in grim repose, expects its evening prey." - GRAY. BEFORE we follow the destinies of the House of Jehu we must revert to Judah, and watch the final consequences of ruin which came in the train of Ahab’s Tyrian marriage, and brought murder and idolatry into Judah, as well as into Israel. Athaliah, who, as queen-mother, was more powerful than the queen-consort ( malekkah ), was the true daughter of Jezebel. She exhibits the same undaunted fierceness, the same idolatrous fanaticism, the same swift resolution, the same cruel and unscrupulous wickedness. It might have been supposed that the miserable disease of her husband Jehoram, followed so speedily by the murder, after one year’s reign, of her son Ahaziah, might have exercised over her character the softening influence of misfortune. On the contrary, she only saw in these events a short path to the consummation of her ambition. Under Jehoram she had been queen: under Ahaziah she had exercised still more powerful influence as Gebirah , and had asserted her sway alike over her husband and over her son, whose counsellor she was to do wickedly. It was far from her intention tamely to sink from her commanding position into the abject nullity of an aged and despised dowager in a dull provincial seraglio. She even thought that "To reign is worth ambition though in hell Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." The royal family of the House of David, numerous and flourishing as it once was, had recently been decimated by cruel catastrophes. Jehoram, instigated probably by his heathen wife, had killed his six younger brothers. {2Ch 21:2-4} Later on, the Arabs and Philistines, in their insulting invasion, had not only plundered his palace, but had carried away his sons; so that, according to the Chronicler, "there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz [ i.e. , Ahaziah], the youngest of his sons." {2Ch 21:17} He may have had other sons after that invasion; and Ahaziah had left children, who must all, however, have been very young, ‘since he was only twenty-two or twenty-three when Jehu’s servants murdered him. Athaliah might naturally have hoped for the regency; but this did not content her. When she saw that her son Ahaziah was dead, "she arose and destroyed all the seed royal." In those days the life of a child was but little thought of; and it weighed less than nothing with Athaliah that these innocents were her grandchildren. She killed all of whose existence she was aware, and boldly seized the crown. No queen had ever reigned alone either in Israel or in Judah. Judah must have sunk very low, and the talents of Athaliah must have been commanding, or she could never have established a precedent hitherto undreamed of, by imposing on the people of David for six years the yoke of a woman, and that woman a half-Phoenician idolatress. Yet so it was! Athaliah, like her cousin Dido, felt herself strong enough to rule. But a woman’s ruthlessness was outwitted by a woman’s cunning. Ahaziah had a half-sister on the father’s side, the princess Jehosheba, or Jehoshabeath, who was then or afterwards (we are told) married to Jehoiada, the high priest. The secrets of harems are hidden deep, and Athaliah may have been purposely kept in ignorance of the birth to Ahaziah of a little babe whose mother was Zibiah of Beersheba, and who had received the name of Joash. If she knew of his existence, some ruse must have been palmed off upon her, and she must have been led to believe that he too had been killed. But he had not been killed. Jehosheba "stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain," and, with the connivance of his nurse, hid him from the murderers sent by Athaliah in the palace storeroom in which beds and couches were kept. Thence, at the first favorable moment, she transferred the child and nurse to one of the chambers in the three stories of chambers which ran round the Temple, and were variously used as wardrobes or as dwelling-rooms. The hiding-place was safe; for under Athaliah the Temple of Jehovah fell into neglect and disrepute, and its resident ministers would not be numerous. It would not have been difficult, in the seclusion of Eastern life, for Jehosheba to pass off the babe as her own child to all but the handful who knew the secret. Six years passed away, and the iron hand of Athaliah still kept the people in subjection. She had boldly set up in Judah her mother’s Baal worship. Baal had his temple not far from that of Jehovah; and though Athaliah did not imitate Jezebel in persecuting the worshippers of Jehovah, she made her own high priest, Mattan, a much more important person than Jehoiada for all who desired to propitiate the favors of the Court. Joash had now reached his seventh year, and a Jewish prince in his seventh year is regarded as something more than a mere child. Jehoiada thought that it was time to strike a blow in his favor, and to deliver him from the dreadful confinement which made it impossible for him to leave the Temple precincts. He began secretly to tamper with the guards both of the Temple and of the palace. Upon the Levitic guards, indignant at the intrusion of Baal-worship, he might securely count, and the Carites and queen’s runners were not likely to be very much devoted to the rule of the manlike and idolatrous alien queen. Taking an oath of them in secrecy, he bound them to allegiance to the little boy whom he produced from the Temple chamber as their lawful lord, and the son of their late king. The plot was well laid. There were five captains of the five hundred royal bodyguards, and the priest secretly enlisted them all in the service. The Chronicler says that he also sent round to all the chief Levites, and collected them in Jerusalem for the emergency. The arrangements of the Sabbath gave special facility to his plans; for on that day only one of the five divisions of guards mounted watch at the palace, and the others were set free for the service of the Temple. It had evidently been announced that some great ceremony would be held in the shrine of Jehovah; for all the people, we are told, were assembled in the courts of the house of the Lord. Jehoiada ordered one of the companies to guard the palace; another to be at the "gate Sur ," or the gate "of the Foundation"; another at the gate behind the barracks (?) of the palace-runners, to be a barrier against any incursion from the palace. Two more were to ensure the safety of the little king by watching the precincts of the Temple. The Levitic officers were to protect the king’s person with serried ranks. Jehoiada armed them with spears and shields, which David had placed as trophies in the porch; and if any one tried to force his way within their lines he was to be slain. The only danger to be apprehended was from any Carite mercenaries, or palace servants of the queen: among all others Jehoiada found a widespread defection. The people, the Levites, even the soldiers, all hated the Baal worshipping usurper. At the fateful moment the guards were arranged in two dense lines, beginning from either side of the porch, till their ranks met beyond the altar, so as to form a hedge round the royal boy. Into this triangular space the young prince was led by the high priest, and placed beside the m atstsebah -some prominent pillar in the Temple court, either one of Solomon’s pillars Jachin and Boaz, or some special erection of later days. Round him stood the princes of Judah, and there, in the midst of them, Jehoiada placed the crown upon his head, and in significant symbol also laid lightly upon it for a moment "The Testimony"-perhaps the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant-the most ancient fragment of the Pentateuch which was treasured up with the pot of manna inside or in front of the Ark. Then he poured on the child’s head the consecrated oil, and said, "Let the king live!" The completion of the ceremony was marked by the blare of the rams’ horns, the softer blast of the silver trumpets, and the answering shouts of the soldiers and the people. The tumult, or the news of it, reached the ears of Athaliah in the neighboring palace, and, with all the undaunted courage of her mother, she instantly summoned her escort, and went into the Temple to see for herself what was taking place. She probably mounted the ascent which Solomon had made from the palace to the Temple court, though it had long been robbed of its precious metals and scented woods. She led the way, and thought to overawe by her personal ascendency any irregularity which might be going on; for in the deathful hush to which she had reduced her subjects she does not seem to have dreamt of rebellion. No sooner had she entered than the guards closed behind her, excluding and menacing her escort. A glance was sufficient to reveal to her the significance of the whole scene. There, in royal robes, and crowned with the royal crown, stood her little unknown grandson beside the matstsebah , while round him were the leaders of the people and the trumpeters, and the multitudes were still rolling their tumult of acclamation from the court below. In that sight she read her doom. Rending her clothes, she turned to fly, shrieking, "Treason! treason!" Then the commands of the priest rang out: "Keep her between the ranks, till you have got her outside the area of the Temple; and if any of her guards follow or try to rescue her, kill him with the sword. But let not the sacred courts be polluted with her blood." So they made way for her, and as she could not escape she passed between the rows of Levites and soldiers till she had reached the private chariot-road by which the kings drove to the precincts. There the sword of vengeance fell. Athaliah disappears from history, and with her the dark race of Jezebel. But her story lives in the music of Handel and the verse of Racine. This is the only recorded revolution in the history of Judah. In two later cases a king of Judah was murdered, but in both instances "the people of the land" restored the Davidic heir. Life in Judah was less dramatic and exciting than in Israel, but far more stable; and this, together with comparative immunity from foreign invasions, constituted an immense advantage. Jehoiada, of course, became regent for the young king, and continued to be his guide for many years, so that even the king’s two wives were selected by his advice. As the nation had been distracted with idolatries, he made the covenant between the king and the people that they should be loyal to each other, and between Jehoiada and the king and the people that they should be Jehovah’s people. Such covenants were not infrequent in Jewish history. Such a covenant had been made by Asa {2Ch 15:9-15} after Abijam’s apostasy, as it was afterwards made by Hezekiah {2Ch 29:10} and by Josiah. {2Ch 29:31} The new covenant, and the sense of awakenment from the dream of guilty apostasy, evoked an outburst of spontaneous enthusiasm in the hearts of the populace. Of their own impulse they rushed to the temple of Baal which Athaliah had reared, dismantled it, and smashed to pieces his altars and images. The riot was only stained by a single murder. They slew Mattan, Athaliah’s Baal priest, before the altars of his god. With Jehoiada begins the title of "high priest." Hitherto no higher name than "the priest" had been given even to Aaron, or Eli, or Zadok; but thenceforth the title of "chief priest" is given to his successors, among whom he inaugurated a new epoch. It was now Jehoiada’s object to restore such splendor and solemnity as he could to the neglected worship of the Temple, which had suffered in every way from Baal’s encroachments. He did this before the king’s second solemn inauguration. Even the porters had been done away with, so that the Temple could at any time be polluted by the presence of the unclean, and the whole service of priests and Levites had fallen into desuetude. Then he took the captains, and the Carians, and the princes, and conducted the boy-king, amid throngs of his shouting and rejoicing people, from the Temple to his own palace. There he seated him on the lion-throne of Solomon his father, in the great hall of justice, and the city was quiet and the land had rest. According to the historian, "Joash did right all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him." The stock addition that "howbeit the bamoth were not removed, and the people still sacrificed and offered incense there," is no derogation from the merits of Joash, and perhaps not even of Jehoiada, since if the law against the bamoth then existed, it had become absolutely unknown, and these local sanctuaries were held to be conducive to true religion. It was natural that the child of the Temple should have at heart the interests of the Temple in which he had spent his early days, and to the shelter of which he owed his life and throne. The sacred house had been insulted and plundered by persons whom the Chronicler calls "the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman," {2Ch 24:7} meaning, probably, her adherents. Not only had its treasures been robbed to enrich the house of Baal, but it had been suffered to fall into complete disrepair. Breaches gaped in the outer walls, and the very foundations were insecure. The necessity for restoring it occurred, not, as we should have expected, to the priests who lived at its altar, but to the boy-king. He issued an order to the priests that they should take charge of all the money presented to the Temple for the hallowed things, all the money paid in current coin, and all the assessments for various fines and vows, together with every freewill contribution. They were to have this revenue entirely at their disposal, and to make themselves responsible for the necessary repairs. According to the Chronicler, they were further to raise a subscription throughout the country from all their personal friends. The king’s command had been urgent. Money had at first come in, but nothing was done. Joash had reached the twenty-third year of his reign, and was thirty years old; but the Temple remained in its old sordid condition. The matter is passed over by the king as lightly, courteously, and considerately as he could; but if he does not charge the priests with downright embezzlement, he does reproach them for most reprehensible neglect. They were the appointed guardians of the house: why did they suffer its dilapidations to remain untouched year after year, while they continued to receive the golden stream which poured-but now, owing to the disgust of the people, in diminished volume-into their coffers? "Take no more money, therefore," he said, "from your acquaintances, but deliver it for the breaches of the house." For what they had already received he does not call them to account, but henceforth takes the whole matter into his own hands. The neglectful priests were to receive no more contributions, and not to be responsible for the repairs. Joash, however, ordered Jehoiada to take a chest and put it beside the altar on the right. All contributions were to be dropped into this chest. When it was full, it was carried by the Levites unopened into the palace, {2Ch 24:11} and there the king’s chancellor and the high priest had the ingots weighed and the money counted; its value was added up, and it was handed over immediately to the architects, who paid it to the carpenters and masons. The priests were left in possession of the money for the guilt-offerings, and for the sin-offerings, but with the rest of the funds they had nothing to do. In this way was restored the confidence which the management of the hierarchy had evidently forfeited, and with renewed confidence in the administration fresh gifts poured in. Even in the cautious narrative of the Chronicler it is clear that the priests hardly came out of these transactions with flying colors. If their honesty is not formally impugned, at least their torpor is obvious, as is the fact that they had wholly failed to inspire the zeal of the people till the young king took the affair into his own hands. The long reign of Joash ended in eclipse and murder. If the later tradition be correct, it was also darkened with atrocious ingratitude and crime. For, according to the Chronicler, Jehoiada died at the advanced age of one hundred and thirty, and was buried, as an unwonted honor, in the sepulchers of the kings. When he was dead, the princes of Judah came to Joash, who had now been king for many years, and with a strange suddenness tempted the zealous repairer of the Temple of Jehovah into idolatrous apostasy. With soft speech they seduced him into the worship of Asherim. It was marvelous indeed if the child of the Temple became its foe, and he who had made a covenant with Jehovah fell away to Baalim. But worse followed. Prophets reproved him, and he paid them no heed, in spite of "the greatness of the burdens"- i.e. , the multitude of the menaces-laid upon him. {2Ch 24:27} The stern, denunciative harangues were despised. At last Zechariah, the son of his benefactor Jehoiada, rebuked king and people. He cried aloud from some eminence in the court of the Temple, that "since they had transgressed the commandments of Jehovah they could not prosper: they had forsaken Him, and He would forsake them." Infuriated by this prophecy of woe, the guilty people, at the command of their guiltier king, stoned him to death. As he lay dying, he exclaimed, "The Lord look upon it, and require it!" The entire silence of the elder and better authority might lead us to hope that there may be room for doubt as to the accuracy of the much later tradition. Yet there certainly was a persistent belief that Zechariah had been thus martyred. A wild legend, related, in the Talmud, tells us that when Nebuzaradan conquered Jerusalem and entered the Temple he saw blood bubbling up from the floor of the court, and slaughtered ninety-four myriads, so that the blood flowed till it touched the blood of Zechariah, that it might be fulfilled which is said, {Hos 4:2} "Blood toucheth blood." When he saw the blood of Zechariah, and noticed that it was boiling and agitated, he asked, "What is this?" and was told that it was the spilled blood of the sacrifices. Finding this to be false, he threatened to comb the flesh of the priests with iron currycombs if they did not tell the truth. Then they confessed that it was the blood of the murdered Zechariah. "Well," he said, "I will pacify him." First he slaughtered the greater and lesser Sanhedrin: but the blood did not rest. Then he sacrificed young men and maidens: but the blood still bubbled: At last he cried, "Zechariah, Zechariah, must I then slay them all?" Then the blood was still, and Nebuzaradan, thinking how much blood he had shed, fled, repented, and became a Jewish proselyte! Perhaps the worst feature of the story against Joash might have been susceptible of a less shocking coloring. He had naturally all his life been under the influence of priestly domination. The ascendency which Jehoiada had acquired as priest-regent had been maintained till long after the young king had arrived at full manhood. At last, however, he had come into collision with the priestly body. He was in the right; they were transparently in the wrong. The Chronicler, and even the older historians, soften the story against the priests as much as they can; but in both their narratives it is plain that Jehoiada and the whole hierarchy had been more careful of their own interests than of those of the Temple, of which they were the appointed guardians. Even if they can be acquitted of potential malfeasance, they had been guilty of reprehensible carelessness. It is clear that in this matter they did not command the confidence of the people; for so long as they had the management of affairs the sources of munificence were either dried up or only flowed in scanty streams, whereas they were poured forth with glad abundance when the administration of the funds was placed mainly in the hands of laymen under the king’s chancellor. It is probable that when Jehoiada was dead Joash thought it right to assert his royal authority in greater independence of the priestly party; and that party was headed by Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. The Chronicler says that he prophesied: that, however, would not necessarily constitute him a prophet, any more than it constituted Caiaphas. If he was a prophet, and was yet at the head of the priests, he furnishes an all but solitary instance of such a position. The position of a prophet, occupied in the great work of moral reformation, was so essentially antithetic to that of priests, absorbed in ritual ceremonies, that there is no body of men in Scripture of whom, as a whole, we have a more pitiful record than of the Jewish priests. From Aaron, who made the golden calf, to Urijah, who sanctioned the idolatrous altar of Ahaz, and so down to Annas and Caiaphas, who crucified the Lord of glory, they rendered few signal services to true religion. They opposed Uzziah when he invaded their functions, but they acquiesced in all the idolatries and abominations of Rehoboam, Abijah, Ahaziah, Ahaz, and many other kings, without a syllable of recorded protest. When a prophet did spring from their ranks, they set their faces with one consent, and were confederate against him. They mocked and ridiculed Isaiah. When Jeremiah rose among them, the priest Pashur smote him on the cheek, and the whole body persecuted him to death, leaving him to be protected only by the pity of eunuchs and courtiers. Ezekiel was the priestliest of the prophets, and yet he was forced to denounce the apostasies which they permitted in the very temple. The pages of the prophets ring with denunciations of their priestly contemporaries. {Isa 24:2; Jer 5:31; Jer 23:11; Eze 7:26; Eze 22:26; Hos 4:9; Mic 3:11, etc .} We do not know enough of Zechariah to say much about his character; but priests in every age have shown themselves the most unscrupulous and the most implacable of enemies. Joash probably stood to him in the same relation that Henry II stood to Thomas a Becket. The priest’s murder may have been due to an outburst of passion on the part of the king’s friends, or of the king himself-gentle as his character seems to have been-without being the act of black ingratitude which late traditions represented it to be. The legend about Zechariah’s blood represents the priest’s spirit as so ruthlessly unforgiving as to awaken the astonishment and even the rebukes of the Babylonian idolater. Such a legend could hardly have arisen in the case of a man who was other than a most formidable opponent. The murder of Joash may have been, in its turn, a final outcome of the revenge of the priestly party. The details of the story must be left to inference and conjecture, especially as they are not even mentioned in the earlier and more impartial annalists. It is at least singular that while Joash, the king, is blamed for continuing the worship at the bamoth , Jehoiada, the high priest, is not blamed, though they continued throughout his long and powerful regency. Further, we have an instance of the priest-regent’s autocracy which can hardly be regarded as redounding to his credit. It is preserved in an accidental allusion on the page of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 29:26 we read his reproof and doom of the lying prophecy of the priest Shemaiah the Nehelamite, because as a priest he had sent a letter to the chief priest Zephaniah and all the priests, urging them as the successors of Jehoiada to follow the ruling of Jehoiada, which was to put Jeremiah in a collar. For Jehoiada, he said, "had ordered the priests, as officers [ pakidim ] in the house of Jehovah, to put in the stocks every one that is mad and maketh himself a prophet. {Jer 29:24-32} If, then, the Jehoiada referred to is the priest-regent, as seems undoubtedly to be the case, we see that he hated all interference of Jehovah’s prophets with his rule. That the prophets were usually regarded by the world and by priests as "mad," we see from the fact that the title is given by Jehu’s captains to Elisha’s emissary; {2Ki 9:11} and that this continued to be the case we see from the fact that the priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem said of John the Baptist that he had a devil, and of Christ that He was a Samaritan, and that He, too, had a devil. If Joash was in opposition to the priestly party, he was in the same position as all God’s greatest saints and reformers have ever been from the days of Moses to the days of John Wesley. The dominance of priestcraft is the invariable and inevitable death of true, as apart from functional, religion. Priests are always apt to concentrate their attention upon their temples, altars, religious practices and rites-in a word, upon the externals of religion. If they gain a complete ascendency over their fellow-believers, the faithful become their absolute slaves, religion degenerates into formalism, "and the life of the soul is choked by the observance of the ceremonial law." It was a misfortune for the Chosen People that, except among the prophets and the wise men, the external worship was thought much more of than the moral law. "To the ordinary man," says Wellhausen, "it was not moral but liturgical acts which seemed to be religious." This accounts for the monotonous iteration of judgments on the character of kings, based primarily, not upon their essential character, but on their relation to the bamoth and the calves. Although the historian of the Kings gives no hint of this dark story of Zechariah’s murder, or of the apostasy of Joash, and indeed narrates no other event of the long reign of forty years, he tells us of the deplorable close. Hazael’s ambition had been fatal to Israel; and now, in the cessation of Assyrian inroads upon Aram, he extended his arms towards Judah. He went up against Gath and took it, and cherished designs against Jerusalem. Apparently he did not head the expedition in person, and the historian implies that Joash bought off the attack of his "general." But the Chronicler makes things far worse. He says that the Syrian host marched to Jerusalem, destroyed all the princes of the people, plundered the city, and sent the spoil to Hazael, who was at Damascus. Judah, he says, had assembled a vast army to resist the small force of the Syrian raid; but Joash was ignominiously defeated, and was driven to pay blackmail to the invader. As to this defeat in battle the historian is silent; but he mentions what the Chronicler omits-namely, that the only way in which Joash could raise the requisite bribe was by once more stripping the Temple and the palace, and sending to Damascus all the treasures which his three predecessors had consecrated, -though we are surprised to learn that after so many strippings and plunderings any of them could still be left. The anguish and mortification of mind caused by these disasters, and perhaps the wounds he had received in the defeat of his army, threw Joash into "great diseases." But he was not suffered to die of these. His servants-perhaps, if that story be authentic, to avenge the slain son of Jehoiada, but doubtless also in disgust at the national humiliation-rose in conspiracy against him, and smote him at Beth-Millo, where he was lying sick. The Septuagint, in 2 Chronicles 24:27 , adds the dark fact that all his sons joined in the conspiracy. This cannot be true of Amaziah, who put the murderer to death. Such, however, was the deplorable end of the king who had stood by the Temple pillar in his fair childhood, amid the shouts and trumpet-blasts of a rejoicing people. At that time all things seemed full of promise and of hope. Who could have anticipated that the boy whose head had been touched with the sacred oil and over-shadowed with the Testimony-the young king who had made a covenant with Jehovah, and had initiated the task of restoring the ruined Temple to its pristine beauty-would end his reign in earthquake and eclipse? If indeed he had been guilty of the black ingratitude and murderous apostasy which tradition laid to his charge, we see in his end the nemesis of his ill-doing; yet we cannot but pity one who, after so long a reign, perished amid the spoliation of his people, and was not even allowed to end his days by the sore sickness into which he had fallen, but was hurried into the next world by the assassin’s knife. It is impossible not to hope that his deeds were less black than the Chronicler painted. He had made the priests feel his power and resentment, and their Levitic recorder was not likely to take a lenient view of his offences. He says that though Joash was buried in the City of David, he was not buried in the sepulchers of his fathers. The historian of the Kings, however, expressly says that "they buried him with his fathers in the City of David," and he was peaceably succeeded by Amaziah his son. There is a curious, though it may be an accidental, circumstance about the name of the two conspirators who slew him. They are called "Jozacar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer, his servants." The names mean "Jehovah remembers," the son of "Hearer," and "Jehovah awards," the son of "Watcher"; and this strangely recalls the last words attributed in the Book of Chronicles to the martyred Zechariah. "Jehovah look upon it, and require it!" The Chronicler turns the names into "Zabad, the son of Shimeath, an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad, the son of Shimrith, a Moabitess." Does he record this to account for their murderous deed by the blood of hated nations which ran in their veins? The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.