translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “she arose and she destroyed all the royal offspring.” The verb קוּם ( qum ) “arise,” is here used in an auxiliary sense to indicate that she embarked on a campaign to destroy the royal offspring. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 125.


text: Heb “stole.”


text: Heb “him and his nurse in an inner room of beds.” The verb is missing in the Hebrew text. The parallel passage in 2 Chr 22:11 has “and she put” at the beginning of the clause. M. Cogan and H. Tadmor ( II Kings [AB], 126) regard the Chronicles passage as an editorial attempt to clarify the difficulty of the original text. They prefer to take “him and his nurse” as objects of the verb “stole” and understand “in the bedroom” as the place where the royal descendants were executed. The phrase בַּחֲדַר הַמִּטּוֹת ( bakhadar hammittot ), “an inner room of beds,” is sometimes understood as referring to a bedroom ( HALOT 293 s.v. חֶדֶר ), though some prefer to see here a “room where the covers and cloths were kept for the beds ( HALOT 573 s.v. מִטָּת ). In either case, it may have been a temporary hideout, for v. 3 indicates that the child hid in the temple for six years.


text: Heb “and they hid him from Athaliah and he was not put to death.” The subject of the plural verb (“they hid”) is probably indefinite.


text: Heb “and he was with her [in] the house of the Lord hiding.”


text: Heb “Jehoiada sent and took.”


text: Heb “the runners.”


text: Heb “he brought them to himself.”


text: Or “covenant.”


text: Heb “the gate of Sur” (followed by many English versions) but no such gate is mentioned elsewhere in the OT. The parallel account in 2 Chr 23:5 has “Foundation Gate.” סוּר ( sur ), “Sur,” may be a corruption of יְסוֹד ( yÿsod ) “foundation,” involving in part dalet - resh confusion.


text: The meaning of מַסָּח ( massakh ) is not certain. The translation above, rather than understanding it as a genitive modifying “house,” takes it as an adverb describing how the groups will guard the palace. See HALOT 605 s.v. מַסָּח for the proposed meaning “alternating” (i.e., “in turns”).


text: Verses 5 b-7 read literally, “the third of you, the ones entering [on] the Sabbath and the ones guarding the guard of the house of the king, and the third in the gate of Sur, and the third in the gate behind the runners, and you will guard the guard of the house, alternating. And the two units of you, all the ones going out [on] the Sabbath, and they will guard the guard of the house of the Lord for the king.” The precise meaning of this text is impossible to determine. It would appear that the Carians and royal bodyguard were divided into three units. One unit would serve during the Sabbath; the other two would be off duty on the Sabbath. Jehoiada divided the first unit into three groups and assigned them different locations. The two off duty units were assigned the task of guarding the king.


text: Heb “and be with the king in his going out and in his coming in.”


text: Heb “according to all that.”


text: Heb “came.”


text: Heb “the runners” (also in v. 19 ).


text: Heb “and the runners stood, each with his weapons in his hand, from the south shoulder of the house to the north shoulder of the house, at the altar and at the house, near the king all around.”


text: Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiada) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: The Hebrew term עֵדוּת (’ edut ) normally means “witness” or “testimony.” Here it probably refers to some tangible symbol of kingship, perhaps a piece of jewelry such as an amulet or neck chain. See the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 128. Some suggest that a document is in view, perhaps a copy of the royal protocol or of the stipulations of the Davidic covenant. See HALOT 790-91 s.v. עֵדוּת .


text: Or “they made him king and anointed him.”


label: NET textual note

text: The MT reads, “and Athaliah heard the sound of the runners, the people.” The term הָעָם ( ha ’ am ), “the people,” is probably a scribal addition anticipating the reference to the people later in the verse and in v. 14 .


text: Heb “she came to the people.”


text: Heb “and she saw, and look.”


text: Or “conspiracy, conspiracy.”


text: The Hebrew text also has, “and said to them.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated.


text: Heb “ranks.”


text: Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Let her not be put to death in the house of the Lord .’”


text: Heb “and they placed hands on her, and she went the way of the entrance of the horses [into] the house of the king.”


text: Heb “and Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and [between] the king and [between] the people, to become a people for the Lord , and between the king and [between] the people.” The final words of the verse (“and between the king and [between] the people”) are probably accidentally repeated from earlier in the verse. They do not appear in the parallel account in 2 Chr 23:16 . If retained, they probably point to an agreement governing how the king and people should relate to one another.


text: Or “tore down.”


text: Or “images.”


text: The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute ( הֵיטֵב [ hetev ], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר ( shavar ), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.


text: Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.


text: Heb “the Gate of the Runners of the House of the King.”


text: Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Jehoash is an alternate name for Joash (see 11:2 ).