The Covenant of Jehoiada
1In the seventh year Jehoiada took courage and brought the commanders of hundreds into a covenant with him: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah and Elishaphat son of Zichri. 2They travelled round Judah, gathering the Levites from all the cities of Judah and the heads of Israel’s ancestral houses, and they came to Jerusalem. 3The whole assembly cut a covenant with the king in the house of God. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the king’s son. He will reign, exactly as Yahweh promised concerning the sons of David. 4This is what you are to do. A third of you priests and Levites coming on duty on the Sabbath will be gatekeepers at the thresholds, 5a third at the king’s house, and a third at the Foundation Gate; and all the people will be in the courtyards of the house of Yahweh. 6No one is to enter the house of Yahweh except the priests and the Levites on duty — they may enter, for they are holy — while all the people keep the charge of Yahweh. 7The Levites are to encircle the king, each with his weapon in hand, and anyone who enters the house is to be put to death. Stay with the king wherever he goes.” 8The Levites and all Judah did everything Jehoiada the priest had commanded. Each of them took his men, those coming on duty on the Sabbath together with those going off duty, for Jehoiada the priest had not released the divisions. 9Jehoiada the priest handed the commanders of hundreds the spears and the large and small shields that had belonged to King David and were kept in the house of God. 10He posted all the people, each man with his weapon in hand, from the right flank of the house to the left flank, along the altar and the house, surrounding the king. 11Then they brought out the king’s son, placed the crown on him, gave him the testimony and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they shouted, “Long live the king!”
The End of Athaliah
12When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and cheering the king, she came to the people at the house of Yahweh. 13She looked, and there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, with the officers and the trumpeters beside him, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers with their instruments leading the praise. Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, “Conspiracy! Conspiracy!” 14Jehoiada the priest brought out the commanders of hundreds, the officers of the army, and told them, “Take her out between the ranks, and whoever follows her is to die by the sword.” For the priest had said, “Do not put her to death in the house of Yahweh.” 15So they laid hands on her, and when she reached the entrance of the Horse Gate at the king’s house, they killed her there. 16Jehoiada cut a covenant between himself, all the people and the king, that they would be a people belonging to Yahweh. 17Then all the people went to the house of Baal and pulled it down; they smashed its altars and its images, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. 18Jehoiada placed the oversight of the house of Yahweh in the hands of the Levitical priests, whom David had assigned to the house of Yahweh, to offer up the burnt offerings of Yahweh as written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with song, as David had arranged it. 19He stationed gatekeepers at the gates of the house of Yahweh, so that no one unclean in any way could go in. 20He took the commanders of hundreds, the nobles, the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of Yahweh; they came through the Upper Gate into the king’s house and seated the king on the royal throne. 21All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been put to death by the sword.
