And in the seventh year Joiada being encouraged, took the captains of hundreds, to wit, Azarias the son of Jeroham, and Ismahel the son of Johanan, and Azarias the son of Obed, and Maasias the son of Adaias, and Elisaphat the son of Zechri: and made a covenant with them.

And in the seventh year hath Jehoiada strengthened himself, and taketh the heads of the hundreds, even Azariah son of Jeroham, and Ishmael son of Jehohanan, and Azariah son of Obed, and Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri, with him into covenant.

In the seventh year, Jehoiada made himself strong, and made an agreement with the captains of hundreds, Azariah, the son of Jeroham, Ishmael, the son of Jehohanan, Azariah, the son of Obed, Maaseiah, the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat, the son of Zichri.

Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada having been strengthened, he took the centurions, namely, Azariah, the son of Jeroham, and Ishmael, the son of Jehohanan, and also Azariah, the son of Obed, and Maaseiah, the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat, the son of Zichri, and he formed a pact with them.

The five names do not occur in Kings; only, and incidentally, the five divisions of the royal guard (2-Kings 11:5 note).

And in the seventh year - See on 2-Kings 11:4 (note), etc.

And (a) 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.
(a) Of the reign of Athaliah or after the death of Ahaziah.

The contents of this chapter are the same with 2-Kings 11:4 and need no other explanation than what may be found in the notes there, to which the reader is referred.See Gill on 2-Kings 11:4. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:5. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:6. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:7. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:8. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:9. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:10. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:11. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:12. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:13. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:14. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:15. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:16. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:17. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:18. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:19. See Gill on 2-Kings 11:20.

To look upon ourselves and each other as the Lord's people, should make us earnest in the discharge of our duty both to God and man. Thus was this happy revolution brought about, and the people rejoiced. When the Son of David is enthroned in the soul, all is quiet, and joyful. See 2 Kings 11.

JEHOIADA MAKES JOASH KING. (2-Chronicles 23:1-11)
in the seventh year Jehoiada . . . took the captains of hundreds, &c.--(See on 2-Kings 11:4; 2-Kings 11:17). The five officers mentioned here had been probably of the royal guard, and were known to be strongly disaffected to the government of Athaliah.

Joash raised to the throne, and Athaliah slain. - In 2 Kings 11:4-20 we have another account of these events, in which the matter is in several points more briefly narrated, and apparently differently represented. According to both narratives, the thing was undertaken and carried out by the high priest Jehoiada; but according to 2 Kings 11, the high priest would appear to have mainly availed himself of the co-operation of the royal body-guard in the execution of his plan, while according to the Chronicle it is the Levites and the heads of the fathers'-houses who are made use of. Thereupon De Wette, Movers, Thenius, and Bertheau consequently maintain that the author of the Chronicle, proceeding on the view that the high priest, the chief of so many priests and Levites, would not have recourse to the assistance of the royal body-guard, has altered the statements in the second book of Kings accordingly, and wishes to represent the matter in a different way. But this assertion can be made with an appearance of truth only on the presupposition, already repeatedly shown to be erroneous, that the author of the Chronicle has made the account in 2 Kings 11 the basis of his narrative, and designedly altered it, and can scarcely be upheld even by the incorrect interpretation of various words. That 2 Kings 11 is not the source from which our account has been derived, nor the basis on which it is founded, is manifest from the very first verses of the chronicler's narrative, where the names of the five princes over hundreds, with whose co-operation Jehoiada elaborated his plan and carried it into execution, are individually enumerated; while in 2 Kings 11, where the preparations for the accomplishment of the work are very briefly treated of, they will be sought for in vain. But if, on the contrary, the two accounts be recognised to be extracts confining themselves to the main points, excerpted from a more detailed narrative of the event from different points of view, the discrepancies may be at once reconciled. Instead of the short statement, 2-Kings 11:4, that the high priest Jehoiada ordered the centurions of the royal body-guard to come to him in the temple (ויּבא...יקּח), made a covenant with them, caused them to swear, and showed them the king's son, we read in the Chronicle (2-Chronicles 23:1-3), that the high priest Jehoiada took five centurions, whose names are stated with historical exactitude, into covenant with him, i.e., sent for them and made a covenant with them, and that these men then went throughout Judah, and summoned the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the heads of the fathers'-houses of Israel, to Jerusalem; whereupon Jehoiada with the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God, and Jehoiada said to the people, "The king's son shall be king, as Jahve hath said of the sons of David." That this more expanded narrative can without difficulty be reconciled with the summary statement in 2-Kings 11:4, is perfectly manifest. By various devices, however, Berth. tries to bring out some discrepancies. In the first place, in the words, "Jehoiada sent and brought the princes of hundreds" (2-Kings 11:4), he presses the שׁלח, which is not found in the Chronicle, translates it by "he sent out," and interprets it with 2-Chronicles 23:2 of the Chronicle; in the second, he takes כּל־הקּהל in 2-Chronicles 23:3 of the Chronicle to mean "the whole congregation," whereas it denotes only the assembly of the men named in 2-Chronicles 23:1 and 2-Chronicles 23:2; and, thirdly, he opposes the expression, "they made a covenant with the king" (2-Chronicles 23:3, Chron.), to the statement (2-Kings 11:2) that Jehoiada made a covenant to the princes, by making this latter statement mean that Jehoiada made a covenant with the princes, but not with the king, as if this covenant concerning the coronation of Joash as king might not be called, by a shorter mode of expression, a covenant with the king, especially when the declaration, "the son of the king shall reign," follows immediately.