The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 187

done successfully, and, ns it would seem, and his seed, not to the house of Ahe.b. without in nny way rousing the suspicions And showed them the king's son. Having of Athaliah. A day was fixed for proclaim- bound the centurions by a solemn oovenant ing Joash king; the guard and the Levites to the cause of the young king, J ehoie.da in- were sl.-ilfully disposed about the temple troduced them into his presence. He he.d, no doubt, previously sworn them to secreoy. and the palnce ; the king wM brought up, Ver. 5.-And he commanded them, nying, crowned, anointed, e.nd saluted e.s monarch, This is the thing that ye shell do. It is with noisy nccle.mations (ver. 12). The evident, from 2 Chronicles e.nd from Jose- noise was heard in the pnlaoe, and Athaliab phus, that a considerable interve.l of time went forth, with a few attendants, to inquire separe.tes the events of ver. 5 from those of ver. 4. The immediate arrangement made the reason of it. Following the sound, she between Jehoiada and the centurions was came to the temple, and entered it, when the.t they should "g'J throughout the whole she saw wha.t was going on, and cried out, land" (Josephus, • Ant. Jnd.,' ix. 7. § 2), "Treiu!on I treason!" By Jehoiada's order visit "all the cities of Jude.h"(2 Chron. xxiii. the guards seized her, conducted her out of 2), e.nd gather out of them e. strong force of Levites and priests (Josephus), together the temple, and slew her (vers. 13-16). with a certain number of other representa- tive Israelites, whioh force they should bring Ver. 4.-And the seventh year-literally, with them to Jerusalem, and place at his and in the Be'Denth year; i.e. in the course of it dispose.I. To accomplish this must have --1ehoiada sent and fetohed the rulers over taken some weeks. When the force had hundreds, with the ca:pte.ins e.nd the guard; e.rrived, Jehoinda summoned it to meet him rather, tl&e captains o'Der hundreds ( or, cen- in the courts of the temple, e.nd swore it to turions) of the Oarit.es and the guard (see e. similar covenant to that which he had the Revised Version). The" Carites," here made with the centurions. He then bided first named, are generally regarded as iden- his time, completed his e.rre.ngements, uti- tical with the CberethiteR of earlier times lized the store of arms le.id up in the temple (2 Sam. viii. 18 ; 1 Kings i. 38; 1 Chron. armoury (ver. 10), and finally gave two xviii. 17). They were undoubtedly a pa.r- charges-one to the centurions, which is ticular portion of the royal guard, e.nd me.y, given here (vers. 5-8), e.nd the other to the perhaps, as many suppose, have been "Ca- force collected from the cities of Judah, rian " mercenaries, though we have no which is given in Chronicles (2 Chron. other evidence that the Carie.ns had adopted xxiii. 4-7). The orders given to the two the meroenary life so early as the time of forces were very siutile.r, but not identical. Ath.e.lia.h. Still, as their devotion to it had A third pa.rt of you that enter in on the pessod into a proverb when Archilochus sabbe.th. The royal body-gue.rd consisted wrote (B.c. 700-660), it is quite possible of five divisions, each probably of a hundred ih&t they had begun the practice a centwy men, and each comme.nded by its own or two earlier. When Jehoiade. is said to captain (2 Chron. xxiii. 1). It was usual have "sent e.nd fetched" the centurions, on the sabbe.th for three divisions out of we must nndersland the.t he secretly in- the five to mount guard at the royal po.lace, vited them, and that thev consented to come. while two were engaged outside, keeping He could not possibly have any authority order in the city, e.nd especially e.t the over them, so as to require their attendance. temple. We do not know the ordinary dis- The names of the five centurions, together position of the guard, either inside or out- with their fathers' names, were put on record side the palace. On this occasion J ehoie.da by the writer of Chronicles (2 Chron. xxiii. commanded that the pe.le.ce-gue.rd should 1), whose account of the revolution is in be disposed as follows: one division at the many respects faller than that in Kings. palace proper, in the courts and halls and And brought them to him into the honse of antechambers; a second at one of the issues the Lord-as the safest place for an inter- from the palace, known as " the ge.te of view which had to be kept secret from the Sur; " and a third at an issue called " the q ueen-e.nd made a oovene.nt with them, and gate of the guard," which we.s certainly took an oath of them in the honse of the towards the east, where tho pa.le.co fronted Lord. We can easily underotand that the tho temple. The object was to secure the eoldiers, who had been willing to serve palace, bnt not to prevent the queen from Atlialiah uu<ler the notion that the house leaving it. Shall even be keepers of the of Davin was extinct, might waver in their watoh of the king's house; i.e. of the royal all.,gianc" so soon as they hce.rd that a palace. BCion of the old royal stock survived, and Ver. 6.-And a third po.rt shall be at the ecmld be produced at a moment's noti(',e. gate of Snr. The "gate of Sur" is not Their trnditioas woulrl attach them to David elsewhere mentioned. It seems to be ea.lied OR, XI, 1-21.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE K CNGS.