2 Kings 11:14-21

14 Astonished, she saw the king standing beside the throne, flanked by the captains and heralds, with everybody beside themselves with joy, trumpets blaring. Athaliah ripped her robes in dismay and shouted, "Treason! Treason!"
15 Jehoiada the priest ordered the military officers, "Drag her outside and kill anyone who tries to follow her!" (The priest had said, "Don't kill her inside The Temple of God.")
16 So they dragged her out to the palace's horse corral; there they killed her.
17 Jehoiada now made a covenant between God and the king and the people: They were God's people. Another covenant was made between the king and the people.
18 The people poured into the temple of Baal and tore it down, smashing altar and images to smithereens. They killed Mattan the priest in front of the altar.
19 He arranged for the officers of the bodyguard and the palace security, along with the people themselves, to escort the king down from The Temple of God through the Gate of the Guards and into the palace. There he sat on the royal throne.
20 Everybody celebrated the event. And the city was safe and undisturbed - they had killed Athaliah with the royal sword.
21 Joash was seven years old when he became king.

2 Kings 11:14-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 11

This chapter relates how that Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, being hid and preserved, when his grandmother murdered all the seed royal, after six years was produced, 2Ki 11:1-3, when Jehoiada the priest set a sufficient guard about him, and the king's house, and anointed him king, 2Ki 11:4-12, and Athaliah his grandmother, who had reigned six years, was put to death by the order of the priest, 2Ki 10:13-16, and then a covenant was made between the Lord, and the king, and the people, and between the king and the people; and he was placed on the throne, to the satisfaction of the people, and the quiet thereof, 2Ki 10:17-21.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.