2 Kings 11:9

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9, 10) The preparations for carrying out the above arrangements.

(9) The captains over the hundreds—i.e., the centurions of the royal guard (2Kings 11:4). So in 2Kings 11:10.

Commanded.—Had commanded.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:1-12 Athaliah destroyed all she knew to be akin to the crown. Jehoash, one of the king's sons, was hid. Now was the promise made to David bound up in one life only, and yet it did not fail. Thus to the Son of David, the Lord, according to his promise, will secure a spiritual seed, hidden sometimes, and unseen, but hidden in God's pavilion, and unhurt. Six years Athaliah tyrannized. Then the king was brought forward. A child indeed, but he had a good guardian, and, what was better, a good God to go to With such joy and satisfaction must the kingdom of Christ be welcomed into our hearts, when his throne is set up there, and Satan the usurper is cast out. Say, Let the King, even Jesus, live, for ever live and reign in my soul, and in all the world.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Within the ranges - Rather, "within the ranks." If anyone tried to break through the soldiers' ranks to the king, or even to disturb their order, he was to be immediately slain.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ki 11:4-12. He Is Made King.

4. the seventh year—namely, of the reign of Athaliah, and the rescue of Jehoash.

Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers, &c.—He could scarcely have obtained such a general convocation except at the time, or on pretext, of a public and solemn festival. Having revealed to them the secret of the young king's preservation and entered into a covenant with them for the overthrow of the tyrant, he then arranged with them the plan and time of carrying their plot into execution (see on [336]2Ch 22:10-23:21). The conduct of Jehoiada, who acted the leading and chief part in this conspiracy, admits of an easy and full justification; for, while Athaliah was a usurper, and belonged to a race destined by divine denunciation to destruction, even his own wife had a better and stronger claim to the throne; the sovereignty of Judah had been divinely appropriated to the family of David, and therefore the young prince on whom it was proposed to confer the crown, possessed an inherent right to it, of which a usurper could not deprive him. Moreover, Jehoiada was most probably the high priest, whose official duty it was to watch over the due execution of God's laws, and who in his present movement, was encouraged and aided by the countenance and support of the chief authorities, both civil and ecclesiastical, in the country. In addition to all these considerations, he seems to have been directed by an impulse of the Divine Spirit, through the counsels and exhortations of the prophets of the time.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded,.... Of whom see 2 Kings 11:4.

and they took every man his men; everyone his hundred:

that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath; both the courses, of which see 2 Kings 11:5.

and came to Jehoiada the priest; with the said courses, at least as many of them as were to be employed in the present service.

Geneva Study Bible

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 {i} sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.

(i) Read 2Ki 11:5,7.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. and the captains over the [R.V. omits the] hundreds did according to all things] R.V. omits things, for which there is nothing in the original. It is also not in the Hebrew of 2 Chronicles, though there the A.V. prints it without italics. R.V. omits it there also. The Levites must have been in some degree at least, where they were acting as guards about the palace, under the control of these centurions, by whom also according to the narrative in 2 Chron. they had been gathered out of all the cities of Judah.

that Jehoiada the priest commanded] He was the prime mover, and both the Levitical and military guards acted together to carry out his design. The LXX. instead of any rendering of the word for ‘priest’ has ὁ συνετός. It seems as if the last three consonants of the name Jehoiada (ידע) had been read twice over, the second time as if they were the participle of the verb ‘to know’.

with them [R.V. those] that should go out] So both sets of men were engaged; and in the case of the Levites it is said in 2 Chronicles 23:8, ‘For Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the courses’, i.e. did not allow those members of the Levitical courses, whose term of service was then ended, to go away, as on other occasions they were free to do.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - And the captains over the hundreds - i.e., the five centurions of the guard, Azariah the son of Jeroham, Azariah the son of Obed, Ishmael, Maaseiah, and Eli-shaphat - did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded. The secular arm placed itself entirely at the disposal of the spirituality, and was content for once to be subordinate. 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. The position of Jehoiada as high priest ("the priest" always means "high priest") had not been previously mentioned, probably because it was presumed to be known. The Chronicler, writing much later, gives Jehoiada the title on the first occasion that he mentions him (2 Chronicles 22:11). When it is said that "all the captains took their men and came to Jehoiada," the intention is to mark their exact obedience to the orders given them. Strictly speaking, only two out of the five actually appeared before Jehoiada on the day of the execution of his project, two divisions only having been summoned to come to the temple (ver. 7). The other three took up the positions assigned them in and about the royal palace. 2 Kings 11:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The execution of these plans. The high priest gave the captains "the spears and shields (שׁלטים: see at 2 Samuel 8:7) which (belonged) to king David, that were in the house of Jehovah," i.e., the weapons which David had presented to the sanctuary as dedicatory offerings. Instead of החנית we ought probably to read החניתת (cf. Micah 4:3; Isaiah 2:4), after the החניתים of the Chronicles, since the collective force of הנית is very improbable in prose, and a ת might easily drop out through a copyist's error. Jehoiada gave the captains weapons from the temple, because, as has been already observed, they had come unarmed, and not, as Thenius imagines, to provide them with old and sacred weapons instead of their ordinary ones. In 2 Kings 11:11 the position of all the divisions is given in a comprehensive manner, for the purpose of appending the further course of the affair, namely, the coronation of the king. "Thus the halberdiers stood, every one with his weapons in his hand, from the right wing of the house to the left wing, towards the altar (of burnt-offering) and the (temple-) house, round about the king," i.e., to cover the king on all sides. For it is evident that we are not to understand סביב על־המּלך as signifying the encircling of the king, from the statement in 2 Kings 11:12, according to which Jehoiada did not bring out the king's son till after the men had taken up their positions. The use of הרצים, to signify the captains with the armed priests and Levites put under their command for this purpose, is an uncommon one, but it may be explained from the fact that רצים had retained the general meaning of royal halberdiers; and the priests and Levites under the command of the captains of the royal body-guard by this very act discharged the duty of the royal body-guard itself. The chronicler has used the indefinite expression כּל-haa`aam, the whole of the people assembled in the temple-court.