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CHAPTER 23
1 Forsooth in the seventh year Jehoi-ada was comforted, and took [the] centurions, that is, 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; and he made with them a counsel and a bond of peace.
2 The which compassed Judah, and gathered together deacons [or Levites] of all the cities of Judah, and the princes of the families of Israel, and they came into Jerusalem.
3 And all the multitude made covenant in the house of the Lord with the king. And Jehoiada said to them, Lo! Joash the son of the king shall reign, as the Lord spake on the sons of David.
4 Therefore this is the word, that ye shall do. The third part of you that be come to the sabbath, of priests, and of deacons [or Levites], and of porters, shall be in the gates;
5 and a third part shall be at the house of the king; and the other third part shall be at the gate, which is called of the foundament. And all the other common people be in the large places of the house of the Lord;
6 and none other man enter into the house of the Lord, no but [the] priests, and they that minister of the deacons [or Levites]; only enter they, that be hallowed, and all the other common people keep they the keep-ings of the Lord.
7 Forsooth the deacons [or Levites] encompass the king, and each man have his armours [or arms]; and if any other man entereth into the temple, be he slain; and be they with the king entering and going out.
8 Therefore the deacons [or Levites] and all Judah did by all things which Jehoiada, the bishop, had commanded; and all took the men, that were with them, and came by the order of [the] sabbath with them, that had [ful] filled now the sabbath, and should go out. For Jehoiada, the bishop, suffered not the companies to go away, that were wont to come one after the tother by each week.
9 And Jehoiada, the priest, gave to the centurions spears, and shields, and bucklers, of king David, which he had hallowed in the house of the Lord.
10 And he ordained all the people, of them that held swords, at the right side of the temple unto the left side of the temple, before the altar and the temple, by compass of the king.
11 And they led out Joash the son of the king, and they set a diadem upon his head; and they gave to him in his hand the law to be holden, and they made him king. And Jehoiada, the bishop, and his sons, anointed him; and they prayed heartily, and said, The king live!
12 And when Athaliah had heard this thing, that is, the voice of men running and praising the king, she entered in to the people, into the temple of the Lord.
13 And when she had seen the king, standing on the degrees in the entering of the temple, and the princes and the companies of knights about him, and all the people of the land joying, and sounding with trumps, and singing together with organs of diverse kind, and the voice of men praising, she rent her clothes, and said, Treasons! treasons!
14 And Jehoiada, the bishop, went out to the centurions, and to the princes of the host, and said to them, Lead ye her without the precincts, either enclosings, of the temple, and be she slain withoutforth by sword; and the priest commanded, that she should not be slain in the house of the Lord.
15 And they setted [or put] hands on her noll; and when she had entered into the gate of the horses, of the king’s house, they killed her there.
16 Forsooth Jehoiada covenanted a bond of peace betwixt himself and all the people and the king, that it should be the people of the Lord.
17 Therefore all the people entered into the house of Baal, and they destroyed it, and they brake the altars and the simulacra thereof; but they killed before the altars Mattan, the priest of Baal.
18 And Jehoiada ordained sovereigns in the house of the Lord, that under the hands of priests, and of deacons [or Levites], which David parted in the house of the Lord, they should offer burnt sacrifices to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses, in joy and in songs, by the ordinance of David.
19 Also he ordained porters in the gates of the house of the Lord, that an unclean man in anything should not enter into it.
20 And he took the centurions, and the strongest men, and princes of the people, and all the common people of the land. And they made the king to go down from the house of the Lord, and to enter by the midst of the higher gate into the house of the king; and they set him in the king’s throne.
21 And all the people of the land was glad, and the city rested; forsooth Athaliah was slain by sword.

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© 2001,2010,2011,2012,2013,2015 Terry Noble