(2 Chron. xxiii. 18, 19) explains this state- placed Joash :,n the roynl throne of hie iin• ment. ·we ere there told that "Jehoiade. cestors, in tile gron.t throne-room of the appointed the offices of the houee of the palace, was Jehoiada content with the work Lord by the he.nd of the priests the Levites, of the day. . . . to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord Ver. 20.-And all the people of the le.nd ae it is written in the Law of Moses, with rejoiced. " All the people of the land " has rejoicing e.nd with singing, ae it was ordainc>d here, perhaps, e. wider signification than in byDand. And he set the porters e.t the g-ates vers. 18 iind 19. The whole land we.e con- of the house of the Lord, tho.t none which tent with the revolution that he.d taken was unclean in anything should enter in." place. No opposition showed itself. Ewnld During Athe.lie.h's reign the temple service has no ground for his statement that the he.d ceased ; breaches had been broken in heathenizing party wns strong iu Jerusalem, the outer walls; and neither the priests nor and that the worshippers of Jehovnh "had the porters he.d scr'l"ed in their r,·gular for e. long time to keep wo.toh in the temple, order ; there had been no morning or to preveut surprise by the heathenizing evening 11e.crifice, and no antiphonal psalm- party" (' History of Israel,' vol. iv. p. 13u, singing. Jehoie.dn re-established the re- note 3). He has mistaken the intention of gular courses e.nd the worship. the last clause of ver. 18. If anything is \"er. 19.-And he took the rulers-lite- clenr from the entire narrative of tho early rally, princes-over hundreds-i.e. the firn reign of Joash (eh. xi. 3-21; xii. 1-16; centurions of 2 Chron. xxiii. 2-e.nd the 2 Chron. xxiii. 1-21; xxiv. 1-14), it is ce.ptains-re.ther, and the Oarites (see the tho.t there was no henthenizing party in comment on ver. 4)-e.nd the gue.rd-i.e. Jerusalem, or none that dared to show itself, the "runners," the other division of the until e.fter the dcnth of the high priest Je- guard-and e.ll the people of the le.nd- hoia.da, which we.s later than the twenty- thosc who he.d :flocked to his standard either third year of Joash. And the city-i.e. originally (2 Chron. =iii. 2) or since-and Jerusalem-was in quiet: and they slew- they brought down the king from the honse it might he translated, when th,ey had slain of the Lord. They escorted Joash from the -Athaliah with the sword beside the king'■ temple to the pe.le.ce, first bringing him house. The intention of the writer is to do1on into the valley of the Tyropreon, and connect the period of tronqnillity with the then oondneting him up the opposite, or removal of Athaliah, e.nd therefore to point western hill, on which the palace stood. her out as the ea.use of disturbance pre- And oame by the way of the gate of the vionsly. guard to the king's honse. The "gate of Ver. 21.-Sevon yea.re old we.a 1ehoa.sh- the gua.rd" is probably that called in ver. 6 or, Joculi-when he began to reign (comp. "the gate behind the guard." We may vere. 3 and 4 and 2 Chron. x.xiv. l). The presume that it was the me.in entrance to clause would be better placed e.t the begin• tlie pa.lace on the ea.stern side. And he sat ning of the next ohapter cm ihe throne of the kings. Not till he had
HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-3 and 14-16.-.Athaliah and Jezebel, the wicked daughter tmd the tJJieked mother. It has often been noted that., while women are, as a general rule, better than men, in the ca.ses where they enter upon evil courses their wickedness exceeds th_at of their male associates. The character of Lady Macbeth is true to nature. Wicked women are more thorough-going than wicked men, more bloody, more de.ring, more unscrupulous. In Atbaliah we have a sort of repetition of Jezebel-a. second picture on the same lines-the picture of a :fierce, ambitious, utterly unscrupulous woman, occupying much the same station as her mother, equally powerful, equally unsparing, and equally remorseless. Both women are represented as- I. DEVOTEES OF THE SAME SENSUOUS AND JM.MORAL CULT, Jezebel introduces the Baal and Ashtoreth worship into Israel; Athaliah into Judah. Each defiles the capital of her adopted country with a temple to Baal-a temple where images of Baal are set up, altars erected to him, and sacrifices offered to him. Each brings with her into her new home the Baal priesthood, and instals it in power, II. OPEN ANTAGOl!TISTB OF JEHOVAH. Jezebel. perhecutes the Jehovistic prophets, slaying as many as she can, and threatening the life even of Elijah (1 Kings xv:iii, 4; xix. 2). Athaliah stops the temple-worship at Jerusalem, has breaches made ID the temple walls, and gives to Baal the offerings which properly belong to Jehovah (2 Chron. x.x.iv. 7). on. :xt. 1-21.) 'l'HE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 233
III. MuBDEREBBEB, Jezebel, of Ne.both (1 Kings xxi. 8-14) and of th"l Jehovistio prophets (1 Kings xviii. 4); Athaliah, of "a.II the seed royal of the house of Judah" (2 Chron. xxii. 10). ~v. EAGER T? G~ASP AND "'.IELD B?VEREIGN POWER. :J'ezebel governs Ahab (1 Kings xx1. 26), ~ses his s1g:net (1 KmgA xx1. 8), orders__execut1ons (1 Kings xvi ii. 4; xxi. 10), and the hke. Athahah governs Jehoram (eh. v111. 18) and Ahaziah (2 Cbron. xxii. 3), and then seizes the royal power, and actually rules Judrea (eh. xi. 3). Athaliah is, on _the whole, the_ bolde_r of the two, and the more unscrupulf)ns; since tn destroy the entire seed royal, mcludmg several of her own grandchildren was a more a_trocio_us and unnatural deed than :i,ny ~ommitted by Jezebel; and the actual assump- tion ot the royal name and power, m spite of her sex, was a more audacious proceediu" than any on which her mother ventured. But her audacity ver:;ed on rashness, which cannot be said of Jezebel. She brought her fate upon herself; Jezebel succumbed to an inevitable stroke of adverse fortune. There was weakness in Athaliah's half- mensures after she became queen, in her suffering Jehoiada to retain so much liberty and so much power, and still greater weakness in her unsuspiciousness. 'vVe cannot imagine Jezebel, if she had ever been actual queen, allowing herself to be put down in the way that Athaliah was. She would at least have made a fight for her life, instead of walking straight into a trap, which was what Athaliah did. Quem Deus vult perders prius dementat is an old saying. Athaliah's folly at the last can only be accounted for by an infatuation, which may have been a Divine judgment on her.