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2 Chronicles 23:16 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

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16 And Jehoiada maketh a covenant between him, and between all the people, and between the king, to be for a people to Jehovah;

Cross Reference

Deuteronomy 5:2-3 YLT

KJV ASV DARBY WEB BBE STRONG

Jehovah our God made with us a covenant in Horeb; not with our fathers hath Jehovah made this covenant, but with us; we -- these -- here to-day -- all of us alive.

Deuteronomy 26:17-19 YLT

KJV ASV DARBY WEB BBE STRONG

Jehovah thou hast caused to promise to-day to become thy God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His commands, and His judgments, and to hearken to His voice. `And Jehovah hath caused thee to promise to-day to become His people, a peculiar treasure, as He hath spoken to thee, and to keep all His commands; so as to make thee uppermost above all the nations whom He hath made for a praise, and for a name, and for beauty, and for thy being a holy people to Jehovah thy God, as He hath spoken.

Deuteronomy 29:1-15 YLT

KJV ASV DARBY WEB BBE STRONG

These `are' the words of the covenant which Jehovah hath commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, apart from the covenant which He made with them in Horeb. And Moses calleth unto all Israel, and saith unto them, `Ye -- ye have seen all that which Jehovah hath done before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; the great trials which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders; and Jehovah hath not given to you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, till this day, and I cause you to go forty years in a wilderness; your garments have not been consumed from off you, and thy shoe hath not worn away from off thy foot; bread ye have not eaten, and wine and strong drink ye have not drunk, so that ye know that I `am' Jehovah your God. `And ye come in unto this place, and Sihon king of Heshbon -- also Og king of Bashan -- doth come out to meet us, to battle, and we smite them, and take their land, and give it for an inheritance to the Reubenite, and to the Gadite, and to the half of the tribe of Manasseh; and ye have kept the words of this covenant, and done them, so that ye cause all that ye do to prosper. `Ye are standing to-day, all of you, before Jehovah your God -- your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your authorities -- every man of Israel; your infants, your wives, and thy sojourner who `is' in the midst of thy camps, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water -- for thy passing over into the covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into His oath which Jehovah thy God is making with thee to-day; in order to establish thee to-day to Him for a people, and He Himself is thy God, as He hath spoken to thee, and as He hath sworn to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. `And not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath; but with him who is here with us, standing to-day before Jehovah our God, and with him who is not here with us to-day,

Joshua 24:21-25 YLT

KJV ASV DARBY WEB BBE STRONG

And the people saith unto Joshua, `No, but Jehovah we do serve.' And Joshua saith unto the people, `Witnesses ye are against yourselves, that ye have chosen for you Jehovah to serve Him (and they say, `Witnesses!') and, now, turn aside the gods of the stranger which `are' in your midst, and incline your heart unto Jehovah, God of Israel.' And the people say unto Joshua, `Jehovah our God we serve, and to His voice we hearken.' And Joshua maketh a covenant with the people on that day, and layeth on it a statute and an ordinance, in Shechem.

2 Chronicles 34:31-32 YLT

KJV ASV DARBY WEB BBE STRONG

And the king standeth on his station, and maketh the covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep His commands, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to do the words of the covenant that are written on this book. And he presenteth every one who is found in Jerusalem and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem do according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

Nehemiah 5:12-13 YLT

KJV ASV DARBY WEB BBE STRONG

And they say, `We give back, and of them we seek nothing; so we do as thou art saying.' And I call the priests, and cause them to swear to do according to this thing; also, my lap I have shaken, and I say, `Thus doth God shake out every man, who doth not perform this thing, from his house, and from his labour; yea, thus is he shaken out and empty;' and all the assembly say, `Amen,' and praise Jehovah; and the people do according to this thing.

Nehemiah 10:29-39 YLT

KJV ASV DARBY WEB BBE STRONG

are laying hold on their brethren, their honourable ones, and coming in to an execration, and in to an oath, to walk in the law of God, that was given by the hand of Moses, servant of God, and to observe and to do all the commands of Jehovah our Lord, and His judgments, and His statutes; and that we give not our daughters to the peoples of the land, and their daughters we take not to our sons; and the peoples of the land who are bringing in the wares and any corn on the sabbath-day to sell, we receive not of them on the sabbath, and on a holy day, and we leave the seventh year, and usury on every hand. And we have appointed for ourselves commands, to put on ourselves the third of a shekel in a year, for the service of the house of our God, for bread of the arrangement, and the continual present, and the continual burnt-offering of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for appointed seasons, and for holy things, and for sin-offerings, to make atonement for Israel, even all the work of the house of our God. And the lots we have caused to fall for the offering of wood, `among' the priests, the Levites, and the people, to bring in to the house of our God, by the house of our fathers, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of Jehovah our God, as it is written in the law, and to bring in the first fruits of our ground, and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of Jehovah, and the firstlings of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and our flocks, to bring in to the house of our God, to the priests who are ministering in the house of our God. And the beginning of our dough, and our heave-offerings, and the fruit of every tree, of new wine, and of oil, we bring in to the priests, unto the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites; and they -- the Levites -- have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage; and the priest, son of Aaron, hath been with the Levites in the tithing of the Levites, and the Levites bring up the tithe of the tithe to the house of our God unto the chambers, to the treasure-house; for unto the chambers do they bring in -- the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi -- the heave-offering of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, and there `are' vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests, those ministering, and the gatekeepers, and the singers, and we do not forsake the house of our God.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 23

Commentary on 2 Chronicles 23 Matthew Henry Commentary

John Gill   Keil & Delitzsch   Robert Jamieson: Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible  

Chapter 23

Six years bloody Athaliah had tyrannised; in this chapter we have her deposed and slain, and Joash, the rightful heir, enthroned. We had the story before nearly as it is here related, 2 Ki. 11:4, etc.

  • I. Jehoiada prepared the people for the king, acquainted them with his design, armed them, and appointed them their posts (v. 1-10).
  • II. He produced the king to the people, crowned him, and anointed him (v. 11).
  • III. He slew the usurper (v. 12-15).
  • IV. He reformed the kingdom, re-established religion, and restored the civil government (v. 16-21).

2Ch 23:1-11

We may well imagine the bad posture of affairs in Jerusalem during Athaliah's six years' usurpation, and may wonder that God permitted it and his people bore it so long; but after such a dark and tedious night the returning day in this revolution was the brighter and the more welcome. The continuance of David's seed and throne was what God had sworn by his holiness (Ps. 89:35), and an interruption was no defeasance; the stream of government here runs again in the right channel. The instrument and chief manager of the restoration is Jehoiada, who appears to have been,

  • 1. A man of great prudence, who reserved the young prince for so many years till he was fit to appear in public, and till the nation had grown weary of the usurper, who prepared his work beforehand, and then effected it with admirable secresy and expedition. When God has work to do he will qualify and animate men for it.
  • 2. A man of great interest. The captains joined with him, v. 1. The Levites and the chief of the fathers of Israel came at his call to Jerusalem (v. 2) and were there ready to receive his orders. See what a command wisdom and virtue will give men. The Levites and all Judah did as Jehoiada commanded (v. 8), and, which is strange, all that were entrusted with the secret kept their own counsel till it was executed. Thus the words of the wise are heard in quiet, Eccl. 9:17.
  • 3. A man of great faith. It was not only common equity (much less his wife's relation to the royal family) that put him upon this undertaking, but a regard to the word of God, and the divine entail of the crown (v. 3): The king's son shall reign, must reign, as the Lord hath said. His eye to the promise, and dependence upon that, added a great deal of glory to this undertaking.
  • 4. A man of great religion. This matter was to be done in the temple, which might occasion some breach of rule, and the necessity of the case might be thought to excuse it; but he gave special order that none of the people should come into the house of the Lord, but the priests and Levites only, who were holy, upon pain of death, v. 6, 7. Never let sacred things be profaned, no, not for the support of civil rights.
  • 5. A man of great resolution. When he had undertaken this business he went through with it, brought out the king, crowned him, and gave him the testimony, v. 11. He ventured his head, but it was in a good cause, and therefore he went on boldly. It is here said that his sons joined with him in anointing the young king. One of them, it is likely, was that Zechariah whom Joash afterwards put to death for reproving him (ch. 24:20), which was so much the more ungrateful because he bore a willing part in anointing him.

2Ch 23:12-21

Here we have,

  • I. The people pleased, v. 12, 13. When the king stood at his pillar, whose right it was to stand there, all the people of the land rejoiced to see a rod sprung out of the stem of Jesse, Isa. 11:1. When it seemed a withered root in a dry ground, to see what they despaired of ever seeing-a king of the house of David, what a pleasing surprise was it to them! They ran in transports of joy to see this sight, praised the king, and praised God, for they had with them such as taught to sing praise.
  • II. Athaliah slain. She ran upon the point of the sword of justice; for, imagining her interest much better than it was, she ventured into the house of the Lord at that time, and cried, Treason, treason! But nobody seconded her, or sided with her. The pride of her heart deceived her. She thought all her own, whereas none were cordially so. Jehoiada, as protector in the king's minority, ordered her to be slain (v. 14), which was done immediately (v. 15), only care was taken that she should not be slain in the house of the Lord, that sacred place must not be so far disgraced, nor that wicked woman so far honoured.
  • III. The original contract agreed to, v. 16. In the Kings it is said that Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the people, and the king, 2 Ki. 11:17. Here it is said to be between himself, the people, and the king; for he, as God's priest, was his representative in this transaction, or a sort of mediator, as Moses was. The indenture was tripartite, but the true intent and meaning of the whole was that they should be the Lord's people. God covenanted by Jehoiada to take them for his people; the king and people covenanted with him to be his; and then the king covenanted with the people to govern them as the people of God, and the people with the king to be subject to him as the Lord's people, in his fear and for his sake. Let us look upon ourselves and one another as the Lord's people, and this will have a powerful influence upon us in the discharge of all our duty both to God and man.
  • IV. Baal destroyed, v. 17. They would not have done half their work if they had only destroyed the usurper of the king's right, and not the usurper of God's right-if they had asserted the honour of the throne, and not that of the altar. The greatest grievance of Athaliah's reign was the bringing in of the worship of Baal, and supporting of that; therefore that must be abolished in the first place. Down with Baal's house, his altars, his images; down with them all, and let the blood of his priests be mingled with his sacrifices; for God had commanded that seducers to idolatry should be put to death, Deu. 13:5, 6.
  • V. The temple service revived, v. 18, 19. This had been neglected in the last reigns, the priest and people wanting either power or zeal to keep it up when they had princes that were disaffected to it. But Jehoiada restored the offices of the house of the Lord, which in the late times had been disturbed and invaded, to the proper course and proper hands.
    • 1. He appointed the priests to their courses, for the due offering of sacrifices, according to the law of Moses.
    • 2. The singers to theirs, according to the appointment of David. The sacrifices (it should seem) were offered with rejoicing and singing, and with good reason. We joy in God when we receive the atonement, Rom. 5:11.
    • 3. The porters were put in their respective posts as David ordered (v. 19), and their office was to take care that none who were upon any account ceremonially unclean should be admitted into the courts of the temple.
  • VI. The civil government re-established, v. 20. They brought the king in state to his own palace, and set him upon the throne of the kingdom, to give law, and give judgment, either in his own person or by Jehoiada his tutor. Thus was this happy revolution perfected. The generality of the people rejoiced in it, and the rest were quiet and made no opposition, v. 21. When the Son of David is enthroned in the soul all is quiet and springs of joy are opened.