3 He was with her hidden in the house of Yahweh six years. Athaliah reigned over the land.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And Athaliah did reign over the land - In these words the writer dismisses the entire reign of Athaliah, whereof he scorns to speak. We gather incidentally from 2-Kings 12:5-12, compared with 2-Chronicles 24:7, that Athaliah used her power to establish the exclusive worship of BaaI through the kingdom of Judah, and to crush that of Yahweh. She stopped the temple service, gave over the sacred vessels of the sanctuary to the use of the Baal priests, and employed the temple itself as a quarry from which materials might be taken for the construction of a great temple to Baal, which rose in the immediate neighborhood.
He was - hid in the house of the Lord - This might be readily done, because none had access to the temple but the priests; and the high priest himself was the chief manager of this business.
And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years,.... In the temple; not in the holy of holies, as Jarchi, but in a chamber of the priests and Levites, of which there were several in a temple, as Kimchi, and others; and the husband of Jehosheba, being high priest, had one of them for his own use; and here the child was hid six years, so that he was but a year old when he was first taken and preserved, for he was made king when seven years of age, 2-Kings 11:21,
and Athaliah did reign over the land; the only instance we hear of a woman reigning in Israel, and this was not by right, but by usurpation; and so, according to the Jewish canons, a woman might not rule; which thus runs (a), they do not set a woman in the kingdom, as it is said, Deuteronomy 17:15, "a king over them", not a queen; and so, in all places of power and authority in Israel, they put in them none but a man.
(a) Maimon. Hilchot Melachim, c. 1. sect. 5.
*More commentary available at chapter level.