2 Kings 11:4

Jehoiada the priest makes Joash king, and Athaliah is put to death (2 Chronicles 23:1-15)

4. And the[R.V. in the] seventh year So Chronicles. Jehoiada's name is introduced very abruptly and without any specification of his office till we come to verse 9. This points to an early date for the document from which the compiler of Kings made his extracts. It is only when the events are somewhat recent that the names of important actors in them can be introduced without some description.

fet the rulers[R.V. captains] over hundreds The change in R.V. makes the passage conform to Deuteronomy 1:15 where the various subdivisions of the officers are mentioned. For other allusions thereto cf. Exodus 18:21; Exodus 18:25, and when the more military character had been introduced 1 Samuel 8:12; 1 Samuel 22:7; 2 Samuel 18:1. In the parallel passage A.V. has -captains" 2 Chronicles 23:1. Fetis the constant preterite of -fetch" in the English of A.V. For similar instances of dropping the -ch" of the present, compare the preterites of catchand search, which, as far as sound is concerned, might be written cautand saut.

with the captains and the guard R.V. of the Carites and of the guard. Here both nouns are in a construction which shews that the captains over hundreds belonged to both the classes of men here mentioned. Hence, as the word rendered -guard" is literally -runners" and applies to the royal body-guard, so the -Carites" are thought to be a similar class. The word only occurs in this chapter verses 4 and 19 and in 2 Samuel 20:23, where the Keri(marginal reading) substitutes -Cherethites". As in that passage the Carites, or Cherethites, and Pelethites formed David's guard, so at this time there appear to have been similar body-guards attached to the palace in Jerusalem. The word may be derived from a verb which marks them as -executioners", which office was performed, as we see from many instances, by those in immediate attendance on the king.

These officers were strictly military, and it is worth notice that the compiler in Chronicles, who is usually thought to lay most stress on, and give most importance to, what was done by the priests and Levites, yet at this point is very careful to notice the names of these five soldiers -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", while he gives no such prominence to the names of any of the priests or Levites, except the chief actor Jehoiada.

into the house of the Lord We can see from such passages as Jeremiah 35:2, where the prophet is bidden to bring the Rechabites -into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers" that the rooms by which the temple was surrounded were used for meetings such as the one here described.

and made a covenant with them In 2 Chronicles we are told how these officers were first employed: -They went about in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah and the chief of the fathers of Israel (R.V. heads of fathers "houses in Israel), and they came to Jerusalem. Jehoiada sent them to the persons with whom, by reason of his office, he would have the greatest influence, but the operations were ultimately to be under the command of the captains of the guard.