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¹ In the seventh year Yehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, `Azaryah the son of Yerocham, and Yishma'el the son of Yehochanan, and `Azaryah the son of `Oved, and Ma`aseyah the son of `Adayah, and Elishaphat the son of Zikhri, into covenant with him. ² They went about in Yehudah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Yehudah, and the heads of fathers' [houses] of Yisra'el, and they came to Yerushalayim. ³ All the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. He said to them, Behold, the king's son shall reign, as the LORD has spoken concerning the sons of David. ⁴ This is the thing that you shall do: a third part of you, who come in on the Shabbat, of the Kohanim and of the Levites, shall be porters of the thresholds; ⁵ and a third part shall be at the king's house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the LORD. ⁶ But let none come into the house of the LORD, save the Kohanim, and those who minister of the Levites; they shall come in, for they are holy: but all the people shall keep the charge of the LORD. ⁷ The Levites shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes into the house, let him be slain: and be you with the king when he comes in, and when he goes out. ⁸ So the Levites and all Yehudah did according to all that Yehoiada the Kohen commanded: and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the Shabbat; with those who were to go out on the Shabbat; for Yehoiada the Kohen didn't dismiss the shift. ⁹ Yehoiada the Kohen delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, and bucklers, and shields, that had been king David's, which were in the house of God. ¹⁰ He set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, by the king round about. 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 Yehoiada and his sons anointed him; and they said, [Long] live the king.

¹² When `Atalyah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the LORD: <sup>13</sup> and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets; the singers also [played] on instruments of music, and led the singing of praise. Then `Atalyah tore her clothes, and said, Treason! treason! ¹⁴ Yehoiada the Kohen brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the host, and said to them, Have her forth between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword: for the Kohen said, Don't kill her in the house of the LORD. ¹⁵ So they made way for her; and she went to the entrance of the horse gate to the king's house: and they killed her there. ¹⁶ Yehoiada made a covenant between himself, and all the people, and the king, that they should be the LORD's people. ¹⁷ All the people went to the house of Ba`al, and broke it down, and broke his altars and his images in pieces, and killed Mattan the Kohen of Ba`al before the altars. ¹⁸ Yehoiada appointed the officers of the house of the LORD under the hand of the Kohanim the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the LORD, to offer the burnt offerings of the LORD, as it is written in the law of Moshe, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David. ¹⁹ He set the porters at the gates of the house of the LORD, that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in. ²⁰ He took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and the governors 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 to the king's house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom. ²¹ So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. `Atalyah they had slain with the sword.