Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/335

Rh made him king: and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and they said, God save the king. And when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the : and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets; the singers also played on instruments of music, and led the singing of praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, treason. And Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds that were set

36 ff.; Deut. vi. 6—8; Job xxxi. 35, 36; but evidence of such a ceremony at the coronation of a monarch is lacking. Hence it is tempting to think that we should read as the true text of Kin. "put upon him the crown and the bracelets"—a brilliant conjecture made by Wellhausen, which involves in Heb. only the addition of one consonant to the present text, but again there is no satisfactory evidence that bracelets were put on the king at his coronation: Wellhausen relied on 2 Sam. i. 10. Further, it is very probable that the error (if it is one) was present in the text of Kin. which lay before the Chronicler, and therefore in Chron. "the testimony" may be the original reading.

Jehoiada and his sons] In Kings, "they anointed him" (without specifying the actors).

God save the king] Lit., Let the king live!

12—15 (= 2 Kin. xi. 13—16).&emsp;

12. running] The word might mean "the guard" (lit. runners)—see the mg. It has that meaning in Kin., but the Chronicler interprets it literally as the participle of the verb.

praising the king] Perhaps verses were extemporised in praise of a king at his coronation, just as over a maiden at her marriage; cp. Ps. lxxviii. 63.

she came] Athaliah was allowed to pass the palace guard, but now it was too late for her to save her crown.

13. by his pillar] cp. 2 Kin. xxiii. 3 (= 2 Chr. xxxiv. 31, "in his place"). Although "pillar" is attested by 2 Kin. xxiii. 3, the phrase is curious. Perhaps we should here read "in his place," as in xxxiv. 31: the difference in Heb. is very slight.

at the entrance] In 2 Kin. as the manner was.

14. brought out] Read (as 2 Kin.) commanded.