2 Chronicles 23
A Priest Who Put the Rightful King on the Throne
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Jehoiada Makes a Covenant with the Commanders
23:1In the seventh year Jehoiada grew strong and took the commanders of hundreds with him into a house: Azarias son of Joram, Ismael son of Joanan, Azarias son of Obed, Maasaias son of Adaia, and Elisaphan son of Zacharias.
23:2They went around Judah and gathered the Levites from all Judah’s cities and the ancestral rulers of Israel. They came to Jerusalem.
23:3The whole assembly of Judah made a covenant with the king in God’s house. He showed them the king’s son and said to them, “Look, let the king’s son reign, as the Lord spoke concerning David’s house.
23:4Now this is what you shall do: let a third of you, from the priests and Levites, enter on the Sabbath, at the gates of the entrances;
23:5a third shall be in the king’s house, and a third at the Middle Gate. All the people shall be in the courtyards of the Lord’s house.
23:6Let no one enter the Lord’s house except the priests, the Levites, and the ministering Levites. They may enter, because they are holy. Let all the people keep the Lord’s charges.
23:7The Levites shall surround the king, each man’s weapon in his hand. Anyone entering the house will die. They shall be with the king when he enters and leaves.”
23:8The Levites and all Judah did everything Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each took his men from the beginning of the Sabbath until the Sabbath’s departure, because Jehoiada had not dismissed the divisions.
23:9He gave the swords, large shields, and weapons that had belonged to King David, in God’s house.
23:10He stationed all the people, each with his weapons, from the house’s right side to the left side of the altar and the house, surrounding the king.
Joash Crowned King
23:11He brought out the king’s son and placed the royal crown and the testimonies upon him. Jehoiada and his sons made him king and anointed him, and said, “Long live the king!”
The Death of Athaliah
23:12Athaliah heard the sound of the people running, giving thanks, and praising the king, and she came to the king in the Lord’s house.
23:13She looked: there was the king at his station, and at the entrance were the rulers and trumpets around the king. All the people rejoiced and blew trumpets, and the singers with instruments were singing and hymning praise. Athaliah tore her robe, cried out, and said, “You are attacking! You are attacking!”
23:14Jehoiada the priest went out and commanded the commanders of hundreds and the leaders of the army: “Throw her outside the house and go in after her, and let her die by the sword.” For the priest had said, “Do not let her die in the Lord’s house.”
23:15They gave her room, and she passed through the Gate of the Horsemen at the king’s house. They put her to death there.
The Covenant and the Pulling Down of Baal’s House
23:16Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, the people, and the king, that they should be the Lord’s people.
23:17All the people of the land entered Baal’s house and pulled it down. They ground its altars and idols fine, and put Matthan the priest of Baal to death before its altars.
23:18Jehoiada the priest entrusted the work of the Lord’s house to priests and Levites and established the divisions of priests and Levites that David had arranged over the Lord’s house, to offer burnt offerings to the Lord as written in Moses’ law, with rejoicing and songs according to David’s direction.
23:19The gatekeepers stood at the gates of the Lord’s house, and no one unclean in any respect shall enter.
23:20He took the ancestral rulers, the powerful men, the people’s rulers, and all the people of the land. They brought the king up into the Lord’s house, and he entered the king’s house through the Inner Gate. They seated the king on the royal throne.
23:21All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had put Athaliah to death with the sword.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.