Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 Kings 11:1

Clarke's Commentary

CHAPTER XI

Athaliah destroys all that remain of the seed royal of Judah, 1.

Jehosheba hides Joash the son of Ahaziah, and he remains hidden

in the house of the Lord six years; and Athaliah reigns over the

land, 2, 3.

Jehoiada, the high priest, calls the nobles privately together

into the temple, shows them the kings son, takes an oath of

them, arms them, places guards around the temple, and around

the young king's person; they anoint and proclaim him, 4-12.

Athaliah is alarmed, comes into the temple, is seized, carried

forth, and slain, 13-16.

Jehoiada causes the people to enter into a covenant with the

Lord; they destroy Baal's house, priest, and images, 17, 18.

Joash is brought to the king's house, reigns, and all the land

rejoices, 19-21.

NOTES ON CHAP. XI

Verse 2 Kings 11:1. Athaliah — This woman was the daughter of Ahab, and grand-daughter of Omri, and wife of Joram king of Judah, and mother of Ahaziah.

Destroyed all the seed royal. — All that she could lay her hands on whom Jehu had left; in order that she might get undisturbed possession of the kingdom.

How dreadful is the lust of reigning! it destroys all the charities of life; and turns fathers, mothers, brothers, and children, into the most ferocious savages! Who, that has it in his power, makes any conscience

"To swim to sovereign rule through seas of blood?"

In what a dreadful state is that land that is exposed to political revolutions, and where the succession to the throne is not most positively settled by the clearest and most decisive law! Reader, beware of revolutions; there have been some useful ones, but they are in general the heaviest curse of God.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

End of Jezebel’s Baalism in Judah (11:1-21)

Ahaziah, king of Judah, had been assassinated the day of Jehu’s revolt (see 9:27). His mother Athaliah showed herself a true daughter of Jezebel when she killed all her grandchildren (except one who escaped), seized the throne, and established her mother’s Baalism in Judah. The one who escaped was the baby Joash, who was rescued by his aunt (a princess married to the high priest; 2 Chronicles 22:11) and hidden for six years in the temple (11:1-3).

When Joash was seven years old, the high priest Jehoiada, with the support of the palace and temple guards, claimed the throne for him. The coup was planned for a sabbath day, when the changing of the guard ensured that a much larger group of guards than usual would be at the temple (4-8). All went according to plan without bloodshed, apart from the execution of Athaliah (9-16).
Because Athaliah had interrupted the line of Davidic kings, the restoration of the Davidic king to the throne was accompanied by a renewal of the covenant. All Jerusalem celebrated the great day. The people went wild with joy, destroying Athaliah’s Baal temple and all that belonged to it (17-21).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

ATHALIAH'S MURDER OF ALL THE ROYAL SEED

"Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons that were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedchamber; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain; and he was with her hid in the house of Jehovah six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land."

"God had assured David of the continuation of his family; and this cannot appear but a great thing… Here David's line was almost exterminated, and yet wonderfully preserved."Matthew Henry's Commentary, Vol. 2, p. 767. It was by no means all the posterity of David which was threatened with destruction by Athaliah, but only that portion of it that pertained to the dynastic kings. The near-total irrelevance of those wicked sons of David who sat on his earthly throne appears in the fact that the Messiah came through an absolutely independent line of David's posterity, through Nathan, not through Solomon and that parade of reprobate kings.

"Jehosheba, daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah" From Josephus we learn that she was a half-sister of Ahaziah. Ahaziah was the son of Athaliah by Joram, and Jehosheba was the daughter of Joram by another woman, not by Athaliah. Still she was the aunt of the infant Joash; and her prompt and courageous action preserved the dynastic posterity of David

"She put him in the bedchamber, and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain" The bedchamber mentioned here was a storage room where mattresses and such things were kept.Flavius Josephus, Antiquities, p. 287. The problem of keeping him from being discovered by his evil grandmother Athaliah was easily solved. Jehosheba's husband was the High Priest Jehoiada, and they prepared an appropriate place and secreted him in the temple for a period of six years.

"And Athaliah reigned over the land" Her six year rule deserved no further comment. Independently of this passage, we learn that, "She established the exclusive worship of Baal throughout Judah; she shut down all services in the temple, gave over the sacred vessels of the sanctuary to the priests of Baal, and used the temple itself as a quarry from which materials were robbed to embellish and build the temple of Baal."Albert Barnes, Kings, p. 258.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Athaliah, as wife of Joram and mother of Ahaziah, had guided both the internal and the external policy of the Jewish kingdom; she had procured the establishmeut of the worship of Baal in Judaea 2 Kings 8:18, 2 Kings 8:27, and had maintained a close alliance with the sister kingdom 2Ki 8:29; 2 Kings 10:13. The revolution effected by Jehu touched her nearly. It struck away from her the support of her relatives; it isolated her religious system, severing the communication with Phoenicia; and the death of Ahaziah deprived her of her legal status in Judaea, which was that of queen-mother (the 1 Kings 15:13 note), and trausferred that position to the chief wife of her deceased son. Athaliah, instead of yielding to the storm, or merely standing on the defensive, resolved to become the assailant, and strike before any plans could be formed against her. In the absence of her son, hers was probably the chief anthority at Jerusalem. She used it to command the immediate destruction of all the family of David, already thinned by previous massacres 2 Kings 10:14; 2Ch 21:4, 2 Chronicles 21:17, and then seized the throne.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 11

Now going back twenty-eight years. We go back now to when Jehu first became king, he killed Ahaziah, the king of Judah. And Ahaziah was the son of Athaliah, who was the daughter or a relationship to Jezebel. And there was an intermarriage there tying the kingdoms together.

Now Athaliah [the wicked queen,] when she heard that her son Ahaziah was killed, immediately she went out and killed all of the rest of the children of her son ( 2 Kings 11:1 ).

Or all of her grandchildren in order that she might reign as queen. In order that there be no heirs to the throne so that she could reign as queen. Now one of the children of Ahaziah, a baby, Jehosheba was hid away. This nurse took him and ran into the temple, and there they hid him and they raised him secretly for six years so that he was preserved. Athaliah wasn't able to kill him, and he was preserved and brought up actually in the temple and raised there in the temple in disguise for six years.

Now when he was seven years old, the priest who had more or less raised him, Jehoiada, sent out through all of Judah for all of the captains and all to come. And when he gathered them all together, he swore them to secrecy. And being a priest of God, made them swear by the Lord that they wouldn't reveal anything. And having sworn them all to secrecy, then he brought forth Jehosheba and he said, "Here is the descendant of David." You see, Athaliah wasn't the descendant of David. Here is the descendant of David to reign upon the throne. And now he says, "We're going to divide into three companies. And I want a part of you guys to surround the king. And I want a part of you to surround the temple. And surround the city, and we're going to proclaim him king."

And so they gathered together for the celebration, and they took this seven-year-old boy who was a descendant of David and they gathered all together.

They were all standing there and they brought him forth, and they put the crown on his head; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they all began to clap their hands, and say, God save the king. Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the guards and the people, she came into the temple of the LORD [to see what was going on]. And when she saw the king standing by the pillar, as was the manner of the king, and all of the princes and the trumpeters around him, and the people of the land rejoicing: then Athaliah tore her clothes, and she cried, Treason, Treason. And Jehoiada the priest said, [Get her out of here. Don't kill her in the temple but take her out and kill her.] So they laid hands on her; and they took her out: and killed her. And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD'S people ( 2 Kings 11:12-17 ).

So there came now a time of sort of spiritual revival as we have now a king who was raised in the temple under the strong influence of the priest. And now in conjunction with Jehoiada, the proclamation that the people are going to really turn back again and worship the Lord, Yahweh.

And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and they broke it down; his altars, the images they broke in pieces thoroughly, they slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And they took the rulers, and the captains, and the people of the land; and they brought down to the king from the house of the LORD. And the king was placed upon the throne. And all of the people rejoiced, the city was quiet. And he was seven years old when he began to reign as king ( 2 Kings 11:18-21 ).

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

God’s preservation of a legitimate king 11:1-12

Athaliah was the mother of the Judean king Ahaziah, whom Jehu assassinated (2 Kings 9:27-29). She was a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel and the sister of the Israelite kings Ahaziah and Joram, who had succeeded Ahab. She was the wife of the Judean king Jehoram, who had died of intestinal disease (2 Chronicles 21:18-19). Raiding Philistines and Arabians had killed her other sons besides Ahaziah (2 Chronicles 21:17).

Athaliah proceeded to assassinate all potential successors to the throne, totally disregarding God’s will that David’s descendants were to rule Judah (2 Samuel 7:16).

"It was one of the many attempts Satan made to exterminate the male offspring to make the coming One, the promised Savior, the seed of the woman, impossible. Had he succeeded through Athaliah in the destruction of the royal seed of David, the promise made to David would have become impossible." [Note: Gaebelein, 1:330.]

Jehosheba was a daughter of Athaliah’s husband, King Jehoram. She may not have been Athaliah’s own daughter, but was the half-sister of King Ahaziah of Judah, and the wife of the high priest in Judah, Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 22:11). [Note: Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 9:7:1.] She hid Jehoash (Joash), as Jochebed had hidden Moses (Exodus 2). According to Josephus, Jehosheba hid Jehoash in a room used to store spare furniture and mattresses. [Note: Ibid.]

The Carites (another spelling of Cherethites; cf. 2 Samuel 8:18; et al.) were special guards. The other guards (2 Kings 11:4) were priests and Levites (2 Chronicles 23:4).

When the high priest crowned Jehoash (Joash), who was then seven years old, he gave him a copy of the Mosaic Law consistent with what the Law required (Deuteronomy 17:18-19). This is the basis for the British custom of presenting the new king or queen of England with a copy of the Bible during the coronation ceremony. [Note: Wiseman, p. 233.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. Athaliah’s evil reign in Judah 11:1-20

Queen Athaliah usurped the throne of Judah. She was not a descendant of David. She was one of the 20 rulers of Judah, however. She was Judah’s only reigning queen and the strongest Baal advocate among Judah’s rulers.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And when Athaiah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead,.... Who was the daughter of Ahab, and granddaughter of Omri 2 Kings 8:18, she arose,

and destroyed all the seed royal; that were left, for many had been slain already; the sons of Jehoshaphat, the brothers of Joram, were slain by him, 2 Chronicles 21:4 and all Joram's sons, excepting Ahaziah, were slain by the Arabians, 2 Chronicles 22:1, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah were slain by Jehu, 2 Kings 11:8, these therefore seem to be the children of Ahaziah, the grandchildren of this brutish woman, whom she massacred out of her ambition of rule and government, which perhaps she was intrusted with while her son went to visit Joram king of Israel; other reasons are by some assigned, but this seems to be the chief. For the same reason Laodice, who had six sons by Ariarathes king of the Cappadocians, poisoned five of them; the youngest escaping her hands, was murdered by the people x, as this woman also was.

x Justin. e Trogo, l. 37. c. 1.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.   2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.   3 And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.

      God had assured David of the continuance of his family, which is called his ordaining a lamp for his anointed; and this cannot but appear a great thing, now that we have read of the utter extirpation of so many royal families, one after another. Now here we have David's promised lamp almost extinguished and yet wonderfully preserved.

      I. It was almost extinguished by the barbarous malice of Athaliah, the queen-mother, who, when she heard that her son Ahaziah was slain by Jehu, arose and destroyed all the seed-royal (2 Kings 11:1; 2 Kings 11:1), all that she knew to be akin to the crown. Her husband Jehoram had slain all his brethren the sons of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 21:4. The Arabians had slain all Jehoram's sons except Ahaziah, 2 Chronicles 22:1. Jehu had slain all their sons (2 Chronicles 22:8) and Ahaziah himself. Surely never was royal blood so profusely shed. Happy the men of inferior birth, who live below envy and emulation! But, as if all this were but a small matter, Athaliah destroyed all that were left of the seed-royal. It was strange that one of the tender sex could be so barbarous, that one who had been herself a king's daughter, a king's wife, and a king's mother, could be so barbarous to a royal family, and a family into which she was herself ingrafted; but she did it, 1. From a spirit of ambition. She thirsted after rule, and thought she could not get to it any other way. That none might reign with her, she slew even the infants and sucklings that might have reigned after her. For fear of a competitor, not any must be reserved for a successor. 2. From a spirit of revenge and rage against God. The house of Ahab being utterly destroyed, and her son Ahaziah among the rest, because he was akin to it, she resolved, as it were, by way of reprisal, to destroy the house of David, and cut off his line, in defiance of God's promise to perpetuate it--a foolish attempt and fruitless, for who can disannul what God hath purposed? Grandmothers have been thought more fond of their grandchildren than they were of their own; yet Ahaziah's own mother is the wilful murderer of Ahaziah own sons, and in their infancy too, when she was obliged, above any other, to nurse them and take care of them. Well might she be called Athaliah, that wicked woman (2 Chronicles 24:7), Jezebel's own daughter; yet herein God was righteous, and visited the iniquity of Joram and Ahaziah, those degenerate branches of David's house, upon their children.

      II. It was wonderfully preserved by the pious care of one of Joram's daughters (who was wife to Jehoiada the priest), who stole away one of the king's sons, Joash by name, and hid him, 2 Kings 11:2; 2 Kings 11:3. This was a brand plucked out of the fire; what number were slain we are not told, but, it seems, this being a child in the nurse's arms was not missed, or not enquired after, or at least no found. The person that delivered him was his own aunt, the daughter of wicked Joram; for God will raise up protectors for those whom he will have protected. The place of his safety was the house of the Lord, one of the chambers belonging to the temple, a place Athaliah seldom troubled. His aunt, by bringing him hither, put him under God's special protection, and so hid him by faith, as Moses was hidden. Now were David's words made good to one of his seed (Psalms 27:5), In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. With good reason did this Joash, when he grew up, set himself to repair the house of the Lord, for it had been a sanctuary to him. Now was the promise made to David bound up in one life, and yet it did not fail. Thus to the son of David will God, according to his promise, secure a spiritual seed, which, though sometimes reduced to a small number, brought very low, and seemingly lost, will be perpetuated to the end of time, hidden sometimes and unseen, but hidden in God's pavilion and unhurt. It was a special providence that Joram, though a king, a wicked king, married his daughter to Jehoiada a priest, a godly priest. Some perhaps thought it a disparagement to the royal family to marry a daughter to a clergyman, but it proved a happy marriage, and the saving of the royal family from ruin; for Jehoiada's interest in the temple gave her an opportunity to preserve the child, and her interest in the royal family gave him an opportunity to set him on the throne. See the wisdom and care of Providence, and how it prepares for what it designs; and see what blessings those lay up in store for their families that marry their children to those that are wise and good.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

But in the eleventh chapter we have another scene of deep import and interest. There is a wicked woman and when a woman is wicked there is no wickedness like hers. "And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose, and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him (even him and his nurse) in the bed-chamber, from Athaliah, so that he was not slain" (2 Kings 11:1-2).

We know what the love of a parent and of a grandparent is, but here in Athaliah was no right feeling. Her very blood was corrupted in her veins. And this wretched and selfish woman this inheritress of the wickedness of Jezebel, now, alas! in the line of Judah has the opportunity, as she thinks, to stamp out the royal line of Judah. Both the desire of dominion and the hatred of the purpose of God wicked allies strove together to accomplish this nefarious purpose. Had the line of Ahab been extinguished? Had Ahaziah and his brethren fallen? The guilty purpose rose in her heart to put an end to the seed-royal of Judah, as that of Israel had been already extinguished. What interest had she? How did she care for it? The word of God had distinctly assured them that the line of Judah should never go out the only real line that has remained unbroken from the beginning, and will throughout eternity. I speak now for the earth up to eternity at least, for even if we only look at the earth under the government of God, that line, and that line alone, so abides.

And yet there never was a line so slender: there never was a line that hung so often upon a single thread. Just contrast it with Israel. Think of seventy sons of one family! and, I will not say the promise, but the apparent moral certainty that that line must be perpetuated for ever! But no it was put out in one day! Who could have thought of it beforehand? And this too in the royal city, and by the royal servants, Such is man; such is the world. The word of the Lord had said it. Oh! what foolishness is ours that could ever doubt a word of God! And what has God given us all this for, but that we may know that if that word stands in what is evil, how much more in what is good? If God accomplishes His threats to the letter, can His promises fail for an instant? I grant indeed that His promises continually seem to fail, just for the very purpose that our faith should not stand in appearances, but in the word of God. There would be no faith about it if all seemed to be easy and flowing; but it is precisely the contrary. All appearance is against it, but God watches still. If it were only one feeble scion of that house, it was enough. It was a scion of that house, and that house stands for ever, because God has said it. And so we shall see in this chapter.

Athaliah then, Joash's own grandparent the one that ought most of all, from her sense of her relationship, to have been the guardian of that one only descendant of herself, who had her own blood in his veins this very Athaliah seeks to destroy the one last remaining scion of the house of David. Well, it seemed impossible! For think you that when she thought to kill the seed royal she forgot the little boy? Not she. She knew well about him. It is not for me to say how the thing was covered over how it was that Jehosheba knew how to guard the child from the suspicions and the inquisition that would naturally follow for one that was rescued, for if there was a woman that was crafty in what was evil it was Athaliah. I suppose it is not too much to imagine that there may have been a little conspiracy upon this good Jehosheba's part, also on the other side. At any rate, I have no wish to say anything to her disparagement, but I do say that, whatever the means, God employed the purpose of her heart for the shelter of the child. He was hidden then, and hidden where none could have expected in the temple. Such a state of things calls for no common screen for a royal child, and surely God was with the shelter that was given him. And although that temple was built for priests and not for a king in distress, still the grace of the Lord rises over all such merely ritual circumstances.

"And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guards, and brought them to him into the house of Jehovah, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of Jehovah." Here again we see that mere ritualism cannot stand against what is moral cannot stand against that which concerns the word of God in its accomplishment for him whom God had set over His people Israel. "He made a covenant with them and took an oath of them in the house of Jehovah, and showed them the king's son." The king's son was but a little boy, but he was the lawful king of Israel in fact only the king of Judah, but in title really of Israel. "And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; a third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house; and a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard; so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down."

All then is prepared. "And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the Sabbath, with them that should go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David's spears and shields, that were in the temple of Jehovah. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king."

Athaliah was not long without hearing the tumult. So she comes to the people and to the temple of Jehovah. A strange place for her, the hater of Jehovah and the patron of idolatry in its worst form! She comes, and looks, and behold, the king stood by a pillar. The king! And this was all that her murderous policy had led to and ended in. "The king stood by a pillar; as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets. And Athaliah rent her clothes and cried, Treason, treason;" The old voice the voice of her mother, before her, and the voice too of her son after her, and now her own. But the truth was, it was she who was the traitor. It was she that had tried to blot out the king from the throne; and, accordingly, she meets with the just reward of a traitor, for "Jehoiada commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges; and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of Jehovah." There was no one to follow. She was alone, not alone in her evil, but now her evil had not one sympathizer. "So they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house; and there was she slain. "And Jehoiada made a covenant between Jehovah and the king and the people, that they should be Jehovah's people; between the king also and the people. And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down." And thus the worship of Baal was dealt with in Judah, as it had been before in Israel.

"In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places" (2 Kings 12:0). Nevertheless, as long as Jehoiada was there there was a measure of care outwardly for the things of God; and, as the priests had watched over Jehoash in his childhood, Jehoash now in his maturity watches over them and says to the priests, "All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set at, and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance; and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash, the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house." That is, instead of applying the contributions for the house of Jehovah they had applied them to themselves.

"Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? Now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the Jehovah: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah." And so it was done: the work proceeded, Jehoiada watched over it, and the house of Jehovah was repaired.

But however this might be, the heart of Jehoash was not with the Lord, and the death of Jehoiada gave an occasion to display it. This, however, I need not dwell upon now. "In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael, all their days. And Jehoahaz besought Jehovah, and Jehovah hearkened unto him" (2 Kings 13:1-25). How gracious is the Lord! We see, alas! that the one who began so fair at last slips away from his original integrity. But we see that the man who hearkens and bows to the Lord is never without, at any rate, some measure of recognition on God's part. "And Jehovah gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as before-time. Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin."

But, after this, we find, "In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign," and he comes in contact with the prophet Elisha. This is a point that I wish to direct your attention to for a moment. Joash comes down, and weeps over Elisha's face, and says, "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" the same words that Elisha himself had used when he saw the prophet going up to heaven that is, he acknowledged him to be the strength of Israel. What makes it so touching is, that he was dying; all natural vigour was departing from him. But just as Elisha owned that the strength of Israel was not in horses or chariots, but that he was the one that he was all their strength as far as God had employed him for that purpose so here in the same way Joash the king of Israel owns the dying Elisha, and God owns the word. "And Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows; and he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow; and he put his hand upon it." But there was another and a mightier hand, although the hand of a dying man. "Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands," and God saw, and God gave the power, the needed power. "And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of Jehovah's deliverance." Truly dying Elisha was the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof; for God would show that the strength of his people does not lie in what man can see, but in the vigour that He himself imparts. "The arrow of Jehovah's deliverance," said he, "and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice and stayed."

Why did he stay? Did he not know what the prophet meant? Did he not apprehend the grace of God that was now at work? Why did he stay? Alas! a man never stays out the grace of God, even were it an Abraham who leaves off when he ought to go on! Yet the grace of God never fails of its purpose. Here, however, it was the judgment of God. The grace of God prevailed over the intercession of Abraham, for if Abraham dared not to ask for Sodom and Gomorrah to be spared for the sake of ten, and if God did better than simply spare the guilty cities for the sake of ten if God delivered the one righteous man and delivered for the righteous man's sake more than one that were not righteous if God's grace so abounded above the weakness of the interceding servant then, now in judgment God would hold strictly to the letter. Had he struck thrice to the ground with the arrows? Then thrice should the Syrians be smitten and no more. "And the man of God was wroth with him and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice." Truly Elisha was the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.