2 Chronicleschapter 23
21 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and the king and the people that they would be the LORD’s people.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 2 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a community whose daily life was ordered by the temple and its duty roster. It tells how a priest ended six years of a usurper's rule. The plan depends on things every first hearer knew, such as when the temple guards changed and where the old weapons were kept. Listen for how carefully the holy places are protected even in the middle of a coup. Watch who is allowed into the house and who is taken out of it. The chapter closes with a covenant the returned exiles would one day renew for themselves.
Context
- Who
- A community for whom the priestly duty roster was daily life
- What
- Jehoiada the priest's plan to crown the hidden prince Joash, the death of Athaliah, and the covenant that follows.
- Where
- The temple courts in Jerusalem, and then the king's house.
- When
- About 835 BC, in the seventh year of Athaliah's rule.
- Why
- To show the line of David restored to the throne and the nation bound again to the LORD through His priests.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Jehoiada the priest, who had hidden the king's son for six years and who acts here in the seventh. Thiele's reconstruction places the rising at about 835 BC.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The place is the temple itself, its courts, its gates and its weekly duty roster.
The occasion is a throne held by a usurper and an heir old enough to be shown. Jehoiada bound the commanders of hundreds by covenant first, then gathered Levites and heads of families from all the towns of Judah, so the rising had national backing before a sword was drawn.
A first hearer knew the roster the plan runs on. The priests and Levites served in weekly courses, one coming on duty each Sabbath as another went off, so armed Levites in the courts that day surprised nobody and Jehoiada ordered both shifts to stay.
The spears and shields of King David were kept in the house of God, because sanctuaries doubled as armouries across the ancient world.
A first hearer knew, last, why the queen was taken outside before she was killed, and why only the priests and the ministering Levites entered the house. That is the same rule the first hearers lived under.
Significance
A priest saved the line of David by knowing the duty roster. That is the sort of detail this book keeps, because the roster was the structure that held the nation together when the throne failed.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The covenant Jehoiada then makes, that they would be the LORD's people, is the same three-cornered agreement the returned community renewed under Nehemiah.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon, and the annual cycle of Torah portions and their Haftarot draws on other books. A Jewish reader meets this chapter in study rather than in a reading appointed for a Sabbath or a feast, and the site's own reading data records the same for every chapter.
The coup is built on the Temple rota, and Rashi explains the rota itself. The watches of priests and Levites changed on the Sabbath, one going out and one coming in (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:4:1, citing Taanith 2:6 and 2:7). Jehoiada held the outgoing watch back with the incoming one and divided the whole body into three (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:4:1, and 23:8:1). Rashi notes that the guards of the chambers were exempt from other work in the court, because guarding it day and night was itself their service.
Two further customs stand in the chapter. Rashi identifies the crown set on the boy king as the crown David took from Rabbah of the children of Ammon, worn by the kings of Judah from that time (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:11:1). He explains the king's standing place from Solomon's laver. He adds that the custom held in his own day, when a king or a duke stands high so that people can see and hear him (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:13:1).
How it is read
The chapter is read as an ordered operation rather than a rising. Rashi assigns each third its task, one to guard the palace against assassins and the others to hold the house (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:5:1). He reads the charge to the people as a guard on the sanctuary, that none of them enter it (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:6:1). The appointees of the eighteenth verse he takes as officers set over the burnt offerings (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:18:1). The gatekeepers of the nineteenth are officers set to keep any unclean person out of the court (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:19:1).
Rashi also marks the limit of his own knowledge. On the word for the ranks he reports the reading from Kings and Jonathan's rendering as rows, and says plainly that he does not know where the word comes from (Rashi on II Chronicles 23:14:1).
Malbim comments at 23:1:1 and 23:20:1, Metzudat David at 23:1:1, 23:3:1, 23:9:1, 23:12:1 and 23:21:1, and Radak at 23:4:1 and 23:6:1. The corpus holds no English text for any of them, so all three stand cited and unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries eight locators on this chapter and holds the locator alone for each. The Talmud carries it at Avodah Zarah 44a:17 and Jerusalem Talmud Eruvin 5:1:15. The Rabbah collections carry it at Bereshit Rabbah 52:2 and 52:3 and Kohelet Rabbah 4:9:1. The rest are Seder Olam Rabbah 18:2, Aggadat Bereshit 41:3 and Otzar Midrashim Midrash Gadol u'Gedolah 18.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Chronicles, the Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg (Sefaria, CC-BY); Malbim, Malbim on II Chronicles 23, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Chronicles 23, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; Radak, Radak on II Chronicles 23, cited by ref from the Sefaria corpus, which holds no English version of it; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-chronicles/23.json, fetched 2026-09-19; The reading data of this site, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed in this lane: 2-chronicles parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, hasSynagogueReading true for 0 of 36 chapters.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Jehoiada's covenant with the captains, and the king's son crowned
2 Chronicles 23:1-2
Jehoiada strengthened himself: Chronicles opens the coup where 2 Kings 11 does, but the muster differs. The commanders gather “the Levites from all the cities of Judah and the heads of the families of Israel”. The priestly order stands where the parallel account names palace troops, the men David had organized into divisions.
2 Chronicles 23:1
“And in the seventh year - See on 2Ki 11:4 (note), etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Chronicles 23:1
“The five names do not occur in Kings; only, and incidentally, the five divisions of the royal guard (2Ki 11:5 note).”
gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah: The captains carry the plan through the country. Barnes observes that Jehoiada wanted a strong body of Levites and family heads beside the royal guard. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown suggest the gathering was timed for one of the annual feasts, when crowds coming to Jerusalem would draw no notice.
2 Chronicles 23:2
“Jehoiada was unwilling to trust the success of the revolution wholly and entirely to the royal body-guard. Accordingly, the captains collected from the cities of Judah a strong body of Levites and the chief of the fathers of Israel (i. e. “Judah,” see 2Ch 20:34 note) who were brought up to Jerusalem.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 23:2
“Having cautiously entrusted the secret of the young prince's preservation to all the leading men in the kingdom, he enlisted their interest in the royal cause and got their pledge to support it by a secret oath of fidelity. they came to Jerusalem--The time chosen for the grand discovery was, probably, one of the annual festivals, when there was a general concourse of the nation at the capital.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
just as the LORD promised concerning: The whole assembly makes “a covenant with the king in the house of God”. Jehoiada states its ground: “He must reign, just as the LORD promised concerning the descendants of David”. The claim reaches back to the covenant of 1 Chronicles 17, where the throne is called the LORD's own.
2 Chronicles 23:3
“By “all the congregation” here is meant the persons referred to in 2Ch 23:2.”
2 Chronicles 23:4-7
shall keep watch at the doors: Jehoiada's plan turns on one restriction the parallel in Kings does not carry. “No one is to enter the house of the LORD except the priests and those Levites who serve”, since “they are consecrated”. Chronicles builds it around the temple's line between holy and common ground.
2 Chronicles 23:4
“The writer of Chronicles relates the orders that were given to the Levites, the author of Kings those received by the royal body-guard (2Ki 11:5 note).”
a third at the Foundation Gate: The watch is split three ways: one company at the royal palace, one at the Foundation Gate, and the rest in the temple courts. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the division as a guard for the king's person, with the other bodies holding the doors and gates.
all the people are to obey the requirement of the LORD: The crowd stays in the courts while only priests and serving Levites enter the house. The command gives the people a duty of their own. Barnes takes “the requirement of the LORD” to mean guard duty, holding the courts against any attempt by Baal's worshipers to push through.
2 Chronicles 23:6
“Keep the watch of the Lord - i. e. guard against any attempt that might be made by the Baal-worshippers to force their way through the courts into the temple.”
The Levites form a ring around the king with weapons in hand, and any intruder into the temple is to be killed. Barnes compares 2 Kings 11:8, where the royal guard holds the same post, and judges that soldiers and Levites stood mixed in about equal numbers.
2 Chronicles 23:7
“Compare 2Ki 11:8, 2Ki 11:11. The soldiers and the Levites in the temple were probably intermixed in about equal proportions.”
2 Chronicles 23:8-9
not released any of the divisions: The Levites and all Judah do everything Jehoiada ordered. He “had not released any of the divisions”, so the outgoing and incoming weekly shifts stay armed together and double the guard. The spears and shields the commanders receive had belonged to David and were kept in the house of God.
2 Chronicles 23:8
“And took every man his men ... - i. e. the relief, already organized by Jehoiada into three bodies 2Ch 23:4-5, was further strengthened by the members of the outgoing “course,” who were associated in the work to be done.”
the spears and the large and small shields of King David: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown suggest the captains came unarmed so as to raise no suspicion, and were armed only once inside. They take the store as the place where David laid up the trophies of his wars. Clarke points to the same issue of arms at 2 Kings 11:10.
2 Chronicles 23:9
“Spears and bucklers - See on 2Ki 11:10 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 23:10-11
with their weapons in hand: Jehoiada and his sons “put the crown on him, presented him with the Testimony, and proclaimed him king”. The Testimony is the copy of the law a king was to keep under Deuteronomy 17:18-20, so crown and law come to him. They anoint him and shout, “Long live the king”.
presented him with the Testimony: The shout is the acclamation Israel raised at the choosing of Saul in 1 Samuel 10:24. Clarke gives its sense as a wish that the king may live. For the one son of Ahaziah left alive after 22:10-11, the cry is a prayer for the line of David itself.
2 Chronicles 23:11
“God save the king - May the king live! See on 2Ki 11:12 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 23:11
“18 Also Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the L ORD by the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the L ORD , to offer the burnt offerings of the L ORD , as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as it was ordained by David.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Treason! Athaliah dragged out to the horse gate
2 Chronicles 23:12-13
the noise of the people running: Athaliah hears the noise and goes out in the house of the LORD to find the coronation finished. Chronicles names one detail Kings lacks here: “the singers with musical instruments were leading the praises”, the temple singers David founded joining the acclamation. Athaliah tears her clothes and cries, “Treason, treason”.
2 Chronicles 23:12
“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 taught to sing praise.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 23:12
“She might have flattered herself that, having slain all the royal family, she was in perfect security; but it is just as likely that, finding on reflection, one had escaped her murderous hands, she might not deem it expedient to institute any enquiries; but the very idea would keep her constantly in a state of jealous suspicion and irritation.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the singers with musical instruments were leading the praises: Matthew Henry pictures the joy of a people who had given up hope of seeing a king of David's house on the throne again. Her cry of treason, with her clothes torn, comes from the woman who had seized the throne by destroying the royal family at 22:10.
2 Chronicles 23:13
“Slay her not in the house of the Lord . . . and when she was come to the entering of the horse gate by the king's house, they slew her there--The high priest ordered her immediately to be taken out of the temple grounds and put to death. "And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which horses came into the king's house: and there was she slain" (2Ki 11:16).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 23:13
“At the entering in - i. e. at, or near, the opening from the main chamber of the temple into the holy of holies.”
2 Chronicles 23:14-15
Jehoiada has Athaliah taken away from the temple. The priest had said, “She must not be put to death in the house of the LORD”. She is put to death at “the entrance of the Horse Gate to the palace grounds”, outside the boundary the whole chapter has guarded.
2 Chronicles 23:14
“And whoso followeth her, let him be slain with the sword - He who takes her part, or endeavors to prevent the present revolution, let him be immediately slain.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the entrance of the Horse Gate: Athaliah dies at “the entrance of the Horse Gate to the palace grounds”. Second Kings 11:16 describes it as the way the horses entered the palace, and Clarke points the reader to that account. The usurper of six years dies outside the temple, the ground she had defiled.
2 Chronicles 23:15
“Of the horse-gate - See on 2Ki 11:16 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Baal's altars broken and the city made quiet again
2 Chronicles 23:16-18
would be the LORD’s people: Jehoiada makes “a covenant between himself and the king and the people”, where Kings names the LORD, the king and the people as its parties. Jehoiada returns the temple's oversight to the Levitical priests David had appointed, with burnt offerings by the Law of Moses and song as David ordained.
2 Chronicles 23:16
“In the Kings it is said that Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the people, and the king, 2 Kings xi. Here it is said to be between himself, 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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars: Matthew Henry reads the death of Mattan by the law of Deuteronomy 13, which sentences to death anyone who leads Israel after other gods. Clarke notes that the Targum refuses Mattan the Hebrew word for priest and uses a term kept for the priests of idols.
2 Chronicles 23:17
“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, Deut. xiii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
whom David had appointed over the house of the LORD: Jehoiada puts the temple service back into the hands that David's order assigned. Barnes follows the ancient versions in reading the priests and the Levites as two groups. Matthew Henry notes that the verse restores the law of Moses and the order of David together.
2 Chronicles 23:18
“He appointed the priests to their courses, for the due offering of sacrifices, according to the law of Moses. The singers to theirs, according to the appointment of David. The sacrifices (it should seem) were offered with rejoicing and singing, and with good reason.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
2 Chronicles 23:18
“The priests the Levites - Rather, with the versions, “the priests and the Levites.” It was the duty of the priests alone to offer the burnt offerings Num 18:1-7, and of the Levites alone to praise God with singing and music 1Ch 23:5; 1Ch 25:1-7.”
2 Chronicles 23:19-21
so that nothing unclean could enter: Jehoiada stations gatekeepers at the temple gates “so that nothing unclean could enter for any reason”, the purity line the chapter drew at verse 6. Joash is seated on the royal throne. Six years under a usurper end in one day with no breach of the temple's holiness.
entered the royal palace through the Upper Gate: The procession takes Joash down from the house of the LORD to the royal palace. The whole order of the land walks with him: commanders, nobles, rulers and people. Joash is seven years old at 24:1, and Matthew Henry notes he would give judgment through Jehoiada as his guardian.
2 Chronicles 23:20
“They brought the king in state to his own palace, and set him upon the throne of the kingdom, to give law, and give judgment, either in his own person or by Jehoiada his tutor. Thus was this happy revolution perfected.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
And the city was quiet: The land rejoices while the city stays quiet, and Wesley reads the two words as two groups: most of the people glad, the rest silent. Clarke reports a Targum tradition that the crown placed on Joash was the one David took from the king of Ammon at 2 Samuel 12:30.
2 Chronicles 23:21
“The city was quiet - There was no attempt at a counter-revolution. Concerning the coronation of Joash, there is a curious circumstance mentioned by the Targumist on 2Ch 23:11, it is as follows: - “And they brought forth the son of the king, and put on him the royal crown which David took from the head of the king of the children of Ammon.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Historical narrative of a coup planned inside the temple and carried out by the priestly courses, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The line the coup would not cross | The restriction opens the plan at verse 6, where none may enter the house but the priests and the ministering Levites. It holds at verse 14, where Athaliah is taken out before she is killed. It becomes a standing office at verse 19, with gatekeepers set so that nothing unclean can enter. Keil and Delitzsch read the whole chapter as organised around that line.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Chronicles, on 2 Chronicles 23:4. | 2 Chronicles 23:6, 2 Chronicles 23:14, 2 Chronicles 23:19 |
| A third, a third, a third | Verses 4 and 5 divide the incoming Sabbath course three ways, at the doors, at the royal palace and at the Foundation Gate, with everyone else in the courtyards. Albert Barnes notes that Jehoiada released none of the divisions, so the outgoing week stayed armed beside the incoming one. The rotation David set up doubles the guard without a man being summoned.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Chronicles 23:8. | 2 Chronicles 23:4, 2 Chronicles 23:5, 2 Chronicles 23:8 |
| David's own weapons | Verse 9 hands the commanders the spears and the large and small shields of King David that were kept in the house of God. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the arms as relics of the same king whose descendant they now guard. The chapter runs on Davidic provision from the courses to the armoury.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 2 Chronicles 23:9. | 2 Chronicles 23:9, 2 Chronicles 23:18 |
| Treason, treason | Athaliah tears her clothes at verse 13 and cries the word that names what she has lost, and the charge belongs to the woman whose own reign began in exactly that. Matthew Henry reads her standing in the temple court she had emptied. Chronicles adds the singers and the instruments to the scene the parallel account describes without them.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 23:12. | 2 Chronicles 23:13 |
| The covenant and its three parties | Verse 16 has Jehoiada make a covenant between himself, the king and the people that they would be the LORD's people. Matthew Henry notes that the parallel at 2 Kings 11:17 names the LORD, the king and the people, so the priest stands in the place the other account gives to God. Adam Clarke reads him acting as Moses once did for Israel.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 23:16. | 2 Chronicles 23:3, 2 Chronicles 23:16 |
The debated concept
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is why this account names Levites where the parallel names palace troops. Keil and Delitzsch and Albert Barnes both read the difference as the Chronicler's own telling rather than a different event, since the day, the year and the outcome agree. The estate names the difference and states no verdict on the sources behind it.
The second is who the three parties to the covenant are. Verse 16 names the priest, the king and the people, while 2 Kings 11:17 names the LORD, the king and the people. Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke both read Jehoiada as acting in God's place before the nation, and the two accounts stand side by side without being flattened.
The third is why Athaliah was taken outside before she was killed. Adam Clarke and Keil and Delitzsch read verse 14 as care for the sanctuary's holiness. The order for her removal stands in the same sentence as the order against her death in the house of the LORD. The parallel account carries the same restraint.
Where the chapter reaches
The covenant of verse 3 rests on the promise of 1 Chronicles 17, where the throne is called the LORD's own and held for David's line. Six years under a usurper had not voided it, and Jehoiada says so before he says anything else.
The reform of verse 18 puts the Davidic order back rather than only pulling an idol's house down. The Levitical priests are restored over the house as David appointed them, with burnt offerings as the Law of Moses commands and singing as David ordained.
Baal's altar in Jerusalem falls in the same afternoon as Athaliah. The worship Jezebel planted in the northern kingdom and Athaliah carried south is pulled out of both within a few years.
The pattern of national renewal returns in this book under Hezekiah and under Josiah. This one is made for a seven-year-old king and works through a priesthood.
Keep studying
Studies1
Places1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of the Chronicles, on 2 Chronicles 23:1; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 23:16 and the guide's ledger for this book, `src/components/book/guides/2-chronicles/Book2ChroniclesGuide.tsx`, the kings ledger, Athaliah at 22:10 to 23:15.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.