<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Second Chronicles, Chapter XXIII].</TITLE>
<meta name="aesop" content="information">
<meta name="description" content=
"This site is for those friends and family members who may or may not know Our Lord Jesus Christ, and if not, they may come to know Our Lord through His Prophets."> <meta name="author" content="Brian Duncalfe">
<meta name="keywords" content=
"Prophecy, Rapture,hope,bible map,bible maps, God, tribulation,Second Coming,Christ,large print bible,commentary,complete">
</HEAD>
<body background="../sueback.jpg" bgproperties="fixed" >
<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible</h1>
<h3><a href="http://www.biblesnet.com" target="_blank">Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page</a>
</h3>
</center>
<HR>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">
[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
[<A HREF="MHC14022.HTM">Previous</A>]
[<A HREF="MHC14024.HTM">Next</A>]<BR>
<TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP">
Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1708)
</TD></TR></TABLE>
<HR>
<!-- (Begin Body) -->
<CENTER>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>S E C O N D C H R O N I C L E S</B></FONT>
<BR>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XXIII.</FONT>
<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
</CENTER>
<FONT SIZE=-1>
<P>
Six years bloody Athaliah had tyrannised; in this chapter we have her
deposed and slain, and Joash, the rightful heir, enthroned. We had the
story before nearly as it is here related,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+11:4-21">2 Kings xi. 4</A>,
&c.
I. Jehoiada prepared the people for the king, acquainted them with his
design, armed them, and appointed them their posts,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:1-10">ver. 1-10</A>.
II. He produced the king to the people, crowned him, and anointed him,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:11">ver. 11</A>.
III. He slew the usurper,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:12-15">ver. 12-15</A>.
IV. He reformed the kingdom, re-established religion, and restored the
civil government,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:16-21">ver. 16-21</A>.</P>
</FONT>
<A NAME="2Ch23_1"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_2"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_3"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_4"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_5"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_6"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_7"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_8"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_9"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_10"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_11"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Preparations to Restore Judah.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 878.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
<FONT SIZE=+1>1 And in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and
took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, and
Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and
Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri,
into covenant with him.
2 And they went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of
all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel,
and they came to Jerusalem.
3 And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the
house of God. And he said unto them, Behold, the king's son shall
reign, as the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> hath said of the sons of David.
4 This <I>is</I> the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you
entering on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites,
<I>shall be</I> porters of the doors;
5 And a third part <I>shall be</I> at the king's house; and a third
part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people <I>shall be</I>
in the courts of the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>.
6 But let none come into the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, save the
priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they shall go in,
for they <I>are</I> holy: but all the people shall keep the watch of
the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>.
7 And the Levites shall compass the king round about, every man
with his weapons in his hand; and whosoever <I>else</I> cometh into
the house, he shall be put to death: but be ye with the king when
he cometh in, and when he goeth out.
8 So the Levites and all Judah did according to all things that
Jehoiada the priest had commanded, and took every man his men
that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that were to go
<I>out</I> on the sabbath: for Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the
courses.
9 Moreover Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of
hundreds spears, and bucklers, and shields, that <I>had been</I> king
David's, which <I>were</I> in the house of God.
10 And he set all the people, every man having his weapon in
his hand, from the right side of the temple to the left side of
the temple, along by the altar and the temple, by the king round
about.
11 Then they brought out the king's son, and put upon him the
crown, and <I>gave him</I> the testimony, and made him king. And
Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king.
</FONT></P>
<P>
We may well imagine the bad posture of affairs in Jerusalem during
Athaliah's six years' usurpation, and may wonder that God permitted it
and his people bore it so long; but after such a dark and tedious night
the returning day in this revolution was the brighter and the more
welcome. The continuance of David's seed and throne was what God had
sworn by his holiness
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+89:35">Ps. lxxxix. 35</A>),
and an interruption was no defeasance; the stream of government here
runs again in the right channel. The instrument and chief manager of
the restoration is Jehoiada, who appears to have been,
1. A man of great prudence, who reserved the young prince for so many
years till he was fit to appear in public, and till the nation had
grown weary of the usurper, who prepared his work beforehand, and then
effected it with admirable secresy and expedition. When God has work to
do he will qualify and animate men for it.
2. A man of great interest. The captains joined with him,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>.
The Levites and the chief of the fathers of Israel came at his call to
Jerusalem
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>)
and were there ready to receive his orders. See what a command wisdom
and virtue will give men. <I>The Levites and all Judah did as Jehoiada
commanded</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>),
and, which is strange, all that were entrusted with the secret kept
their own counsel till it was executed. Thus <I>the words of the wise
are heard in quiet,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ec+9:17">Eccl. ix. 17</A>.
3. A man of great faith. It was not only common equity (much less his
wife's relation to the royal family) that put him upon this
undertaking, but a regard to the word of God, and the divine entail of
the crown
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>):
<I>The king's son shall reign,</I> must reign, <I>as the Lord hath
said.</I> His eye to the promise, and dependence upon that, added a
great deal of glory to this undertaking.
4. A man of great religion. This matter was to be done in the temple,
which might occasion some breach of rule, and the necessity of the case
might be thought to excuse it; but he gave special order that none of
the people should come into the house of the Lord, but the priests and
Levites only, who were holy, upon pain of death,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:6,7"><I>v.</I> 6, 7</A>.
Never let sacred things be profaned, no, not for the support of civil
rights.
5. A man of great resolution. When he had undertaken this business he
went through with it, <I>brought out the king, crowned him, and gave
him the testimony,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>.
He ventured his head, but it was in a good cause, and therefore he went
on boldly. It is here said that his sons joined with him in anointing
the young king. One of them, it is likely, was that Zechariah whom
Joash afterwards put to death for reproving him
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+24:20"><I>ch.</I> xxiv. 20</A>),
which was so much the more ungrateful because he bore a willing part in
anointing him.</P>
<A NAME="2Ch23_12"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_13"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_14"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_15"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_16"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_17"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_18"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_19"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_20"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ch23_21"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Joash Crowned and Athaliah Slain.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 878.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
<FONT SIZE=+1>12 Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and
praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the
L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>:
13 And she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at
the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king:
and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with
trumpets, also the singers with instruments of music, and such
as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and
said, Treason, Treason.
14 Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of
hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have
her forth of the ranges: and whoso followeth her, let him be
slain with the sword. For the priest said, Slay her not in the
house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>.
15 So they laid hands on her; and when she was come to the
entering of the horse gate by the king's house, they slew her
there.
16 And Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all
the people, and between the king, that they should be the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>'s
people.
17 Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it
down, and brake his altars and his images in pieces, and slew
Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.
18 Also Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>
by the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had
distributed in the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, to offer the burnt
offerings of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, as <I>it is</I> written in the law of Moses,
with rejoicing and with singing, <I>as it was ordained</I> by David.
19 And he set the porters at the gates of the house of the
L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, that none <I>which was</I> unclean in any thing should enter in.
20 And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and
the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and
brought down the king from the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>: and they came
through the high gate into the king's house, and set the king
upon the throne of the kingdom.
21 And all the people of the land rejoiced: and the city was
quiet, after that they had slain Athaliah with the sword.
</FONT></P>
<P>
Here we have,
I. The people pleased,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:12,13"><I>v.</I> 12, 13</A>.
When the king stood at his pillar, whose right it was to stand there,
<I>all the people of the land rejoiced to see a rod sprung out of the
stem of Jesse,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+11:1">Isa. xi. 1</A>.
When it seemed a withered root in a dry ground, to see what they
despaired of ever seeing--a king of the house of David, what a pleasing
surprise was it to them! They ran in transports of joy to see this
sight, praised the king, and praised God, for they had with them such
as <I>taught to sing praise.</I></P>
<P>
II. Athaliah slain. She ran upon the point of the sword of justice;
for, imagining her interest much better than it was, she ventured
<I>into the house of the Lord</I> at that time, and cried, <I>Treason,
treason!</I> But nobody seconded her, or sided with her. The pride of
her heart deceived her. She thought all her own, whereas none were
cordially so. Jehoiada, as protector in the king's minority, ordered
her to be slain
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>),
which was done immediately
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>),
only care was taken that she should not be <I>slain in the house of the
Lord,</I> that sacred place must not be so far disgraced, nor that
wicked woman so far honoured.</P>
<P>
III. The original contract agreed to,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>.
In the <I>Kings</I> it is said that Jehoiada made a covenant between
the <I>Lord,</I> the people, and the king,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+11:17">2 Kings xi. 17</A>.
Here it is said to be between <I>himself,</I> the people, and the king;
for he, as God's priest, was his representative in this transaction, or
a sort of mediator, as Moses was. The indenture was tripartite, but the
true intent and meaning of the whole was that <I>they should be the
Lord's people.</I> God covenanted by Jehoiada to take them for his
people; the king and people covenanted with him to be his; and then the
king covenanted with the people to govern them <I>as the people of
God,</I> and the people with the king to be subject to him <I>as the
Lord's people,</I> in his fear and for his sake. Let us look upon
ourselves and one another as <I>the Lord's people,</I> and this will
have a powerful influence upon us in the discharge of all our duty both
to God and man.</P>
<P>
IV. Baal destroyed,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.
They would not have done half their work if they had only destroyed the
usurper of the <I>king's</I> right, and not the usurper of <I>God's</I>
right--if they had asserted the honour of the throne, and not that of
the altar. The greatest grievance of Athaliah's reign was the bringing
in of the worship of Baal, and supporting of that; therefore that must
be abolished in the first place. Down with Baal's house, his altars,
his images; down with them all, and let the blood of his priests be
mingled with his sacrifices; for God had commanded that seducers to
idolatry should be put to death,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+13:5,6">Deut. xiii. 5, 6</A>.</P>
<P>
V. The temple service revived,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:18,19"><I>v.</I> 18, 19</A>.
This had been neglected in the last reigns, the priest and people
wanting either power or zeal to keep it up when they had princes that
were disaffected to it. But Jehoiada restored <I>the offices of the
house of the Lord,</I> which in the late times had been disturbed and
invaded, to the proper course and proper hands.
1. He appointed the priests to their courses, for the due offering of
sacrifices, according to the law of Moses.
2. The singers to theirs, according to the appointment of David. The
sacrifices (it should seem) were <I>offered with rejoicing and
singing,</I> and with good reason. We <I>joy in God</I> when we
<I>receive the atonement,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+5:11">Rom. v. 11</A>.
3. The porters were put in their respective posts as David ordered
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>),
and their office was to take care that none who were upon any account
ceremonially unclean should be admitted into the courts of the
temple.</P>
<P>
VI. The civil government re-established,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.
They brought the king in state to his own palace, and set him <I>upon
the throne of the kingdom,</I> to give law, and give judgment, either
in his own person or by Jehoiada his tutor. Thus was this happy
revolution perfected. The generality of the people rejoiced in it, and
the rest were quiet and made no opposition,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+23:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>.
When the Son of David is enthroned in the soul all is quiet and springs
of joy are opened.</P>
<!-- (End Body) -->
<HR>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">
[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
[<A HREF="MHC14022.HTM">Previous</A>]
[<A HREF="MHC14024.HTM">Next</A>]<BR>
<TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP">
Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1708)
</TABLE>
<HR>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD ALIGN="CENTER" VALIGN="BOTTOM">
<!--Matthew_Henry's_Commentary_on_the_Whole_Bible:_Second_Chronicles_XXIII.--><a href="http://www.biblesnet.com" target="_blank"><b>Back to Bibles Net . Com - Online Christian Library </b></a><br>
<a href="http://biblesnet.com/download.html" target="_blank"><br>
<b>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Free Download</b></a><br>
<br>
<A HREF="http://biblesnet.com/contactus.html" target="_blank"><strong>Contact Us </strong></A><br>
</TD></TR></TABLE>
<HR>
</BODY>
</HTML>