2 Kings 11


2 Kings 11 is the eleventh chapter of the second part of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the Second Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. This chapter records the reign of Athaliah and Joash as the rulers of Judah.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 21 verses in Christian Bibles, but into 20 verses in the Hebrew Bible as in the verse numbering comparison table below.

Verse numbering

This article generally follows the common numbering in Christian English Bible versions, with notes to the numbering in Hebrew Bible versions.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.

Old Testament references

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Analysis

A parallel pattern of sequence is observed in the final sections of 2 Kings between 2 Kings 11–20 and 2 Kings 21–25, as follows:

Athaliah's accession to power and Joash's rescue (11:1–3)

The record of Athaliah's reign in Judah was treated structurally as an appendix of the regnal account of Ahaziah ben Jehoram, the king of Judah, or as a revolt of a usurper, so it lacks the usual formal structure of regnal accounts. Athaliah was Omri's 'granddaughter', who married to Joram of the Davidic royal family and became the queen mother of Ahaziah ben Joram. When Jehu's coup left her with no male relatives in either Samaria or Jerusalem, she reacted brutally as a mass murderer of David's house and—despite being a woman and an Omride—became the ruler of Judah, effectively personifying the Omridic politics that was violently cut away from Israel, for a further six years in Judah.

Verse 1

  • Cross reference: 2 Chronicles 22:10
  • "Arose": from the Hebrew verb קוּם, qum ; here is used in an auxiliary sense to indicate that Athaliah embarked on a campaign to destroy the royal offspring. Athaliah inherited much of her mother Jezebel's character, influencing her husband, king Jehoram, to introduce the Baal-worship into Judah, and her son, king Ahaziah, to maintain it. With the death of Ahaziah, her position as "queen mother" would be seriously imperiled, when the crown would have passed naturally to one of her grandchildren, one of the sons of Ahaziah, and the position of queen mother would have passed to the widow of Ahaziah, the mother of the new king. Therefore, she took the bold resolution to eliminate all male members of the house of David: Ahaziah's sons and 'brethren'. When Joash ben Ahaziah later became king of Judah, his mother Zibiah of Beersheba would become the queen mother, if she was still alive.

Verse 2

Joash's enthronement and Athaliah's death (11:4–21)

The priest Jehoiada played a significant role in deposing Athaliah and putting the 7-year-old Joash on the throne after keeping the future king hidden for six years. Jehoiada built up a 'subversive organization in the temple with a good infrastructure, sufficient weaponry', and a close relationship with the 'people of the land'. The final sentence of verse 20 gives indication on the political constellation: Athaliah, like all Omrides, enjoyed the support of the urban and aristocratic circles of the capital city, whereas the opposition received the support from the provincial farming population. The religious factors also played a role in the overthrow in Judah, as Jehoiada was a priest of the temple of Jerusalem, where since the time of Solomon, there had been syncretistic and strictly YHWH-worshipping tendencies there, so the revolt might include anti-Baal sentiment. This chapter is a Judean counterpart to Jehu's revolt, which also eliminated a queen and the Baal worship in Israel six years earlier.

Verse 12

  • "The Testimony": that is, "the Law".

Verse 14

Verse 18

  • "Images": or "idols.
  • "Mattan the priest of Baal": compared to arrays of Baal priests of Jezebel in Samaria, there was no other priest of Baal in Judah, indicating that the Baal worship was not accepted in the land of Judah beyond the royal court in Jerusalem.
  • "Officers": literally "offices".

Verse 21