2 Chronicles 23

1In the seventh year Jehoiada took courage and made a covenant with the commanders of hundreds: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri.

2They went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah and the heads of the ancestral houses of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

3The whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the king’s son! He is to reign, as Yahweh promised concerning the sons of David.

4This is what you are to do: a third of you priests and Levites who come on duty on the Sabbath are to be gatekeepers at the thresholds,

5a third are to be at the king’s house, and a third at the Foundation Gate, and all the people are to be in the courts of the house of Yahweh.

6No one is to enter the house of Yahweh except the priests and the Levites who serve. They may enter, for they are holy, but all the people must keep the charge Yahweh has given.

7The Levites are to surround the king on every side, each man with his weapons in his hand. 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 that Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each of them took his men, those who were coming on duty on the Sabbath and those who were going off duty on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest had not released the divisions.

9Jehoiada the priest gave the commanders of hundreds the spears and the large and small shields that had belonged to King David, which were in the house of God.

10He stationed all the people, each man with his weapon in his hand, from the south side of the temple to the north side, around the altar and the temple, surrounding the king.

11Then they brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony, and they made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they shouted, “Long live the king!”

12When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she went to the people at the house of Yahweh.

13She looked, and there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, with the commanders and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments leading the praise. Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, “Treason! Treason!”

14Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the commanders of hundreds who were in charge of the army and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks, and anyone who follows her is to be put to death with the sword.” For the priest had said, “Do not put her to death in the house of Yahweh.”

15So they seized her, and when she reached the entrance of the Horse Gate at the king’s house, they put her to death there.

16Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they would be Yahweh’s people.

17All the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed his altars and his images to pieces, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.

18Jehoiada put the oversight of the house of Yahweh in the hands of the Levitical priests, whom David had organized in divisions over the house of Yahweh, to offer the burnt offerings of Yahweh as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, as David had directed.

19He stationed the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of Yahweh, so that no one who was unclean in any way could enter.

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 went through the Upper Gate to the king’s house and seated the king on the royal throne.

21So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet, for they had put Athaliah to death with the sword.