2 Kings 11:2

2 But Ahaziah’s sister Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Ahaziah’s infant son, Joash, and stole him away from among the rest of the king’s children, who were about to be killed. She put Joash and his nurse in a bedroom, and they hid him from Athaliah, so the child was not murdered.

2 Kings 11:2 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 11:2

But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram
Not by Athaliah, but another woman; for an high priest, as her husband was, would not have married the daughter of such an idolatrous woman, nor would she have married her to him:

sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from
among the king's sons which were slain:
among whom he lay; either being cast there by the murderer, or her associates, supposed to be dead, or by his nurse, that he might be thought to be so, who acquainting his aunt with it, went and privately took him away:

and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from
Athaliah, so that he was not slain;
that is, Jehosheba and her husband hid him and his nurse in a bedchamber; or "chamber of beds" ^F25, in which there were more beds than one; one of the chambers of the priests and Levites in the temple, that is, which were adjoining to it; for into the sanctuary itself it was not usual to bring beds ^F26; wherefore

the house of the Lord,
in the next verse, must be understood largely as including all the appendages of it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 (twjmh rdxb) "in cubiculo lectorum", Pagninus, Montanus. So Sept. &c.
F26 T. Bab. Tamid, c. 1. fol. 26. 2.

2 Kings 11:2 In-Context

1 When Athaliah, the mother of King Ahaziah of Judah, learned that her son was dead, she began to destroy the rest of the royal family.

2 But Ahaziah’s sister Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Ahaziah’s infant son, Joash, and stole him away from among the rest of the king’s children, who were about to be killed. She put Joash and his nurse in a bedroom, and they hid him from Athaliah, so the child was not murdered.

3 Joash remained hidden in the Temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled over the land.

4 In the seventh year of Athaliah’s reign, Jehoiada the priest summoned the commanders, the Carite mercenaries, and the palace guards to come to the Temple of the LORD . He made a solemn pact with them and made them swear an oath of loyalty there in the LORD ’s Temple; then he showed them the king’s son.

5 Jehoiada told them, “This is what you must do. A third of you who are on duty on the Sabbath are to guard the royal palace itself.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew Joram, a variant spelling of Jehoram.