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📚And 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 himself. 2 📚And they went about in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. 3 📚And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, “See, the king’s son will reign, as the LORD has said about the sons of David. 4 📚This is what you are to do: a third of you, of the priests and of the Levites who come in on the Sabbath, will be the doorkeepers, 5 📚and a third part will be at the king’s house, and a third part at the Foundation Gate, and all the people will be in the courtyards of the house of the LORD, 6 📚and let no one come into the house of the LORD except the priests and those of the Levites who minister. They shall go in, for they are holy, but all the people shall keep the watch of the LORD. 7 📚And the Levites are to surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hand, and anyone else coming into the house shall be put to death. And you are to be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out”. 8 📚So the Levites and all Judah acted in accordance with everything that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and each one took his men who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest did not dismiss the divisions. 9 📚Moreover, Jehoiada the priest handed over to the captains of hundreds the spears and large shields and small shields that had belonged to King David which were in the house of God. 10 📚And he placed all the people, each man having his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, along by the altar and the temple, around the king.
11 📚Then they brought out the king’s son, and put the crown on him, and gave him the Testimony 📖, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, “God save the king!”
12 📚Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came into the house of the LORD to the people, 13 📚and she looked, and, lo and behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, and the leaders and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and sounding on trumpets, and the singers with musical instruments were leading the praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and said, “Treason! Treason!”
14 📚Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were appointed over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out through the ranks, and put to death with the sword whoever follows her”. For the priest said, “Do not kill her in the house of the LORD”. 15 📚So they seized her, and when she had come to the entrance of the Horse Gate at the king’s house, they killed her there.
The reforms of Jehoiada the priest
16 📚And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they would be the LORD’s people. 17 📚Then all the people went to the house of Baal and broke it down, and broke his altars and his idols in pieces, and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars.
18 📚Also Jehoiada placed the supervision of the house of the LORD under the authority of the priests, the Levites, whom David had assigned over the house of the LORD, to offer the burnt offerings of the LORD, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as it was ordained by David. 19 📚And he placed the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the LORD, so that no one who was unclean in any way could enter.
20 📚And he took the captains of hundreds and the leaders and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and they came through the upper gate into the king’s house, and placed the king on the throne of the kingdom. 21 📚And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet, after they had killed Athaliah with the sword.