2 Kings 11:20

And all the people of the land rejoiced,.... That one of the house of David was set upon the throne, which they might fear was extinct, as it very near was; the lamp of David was almost quenched,

2 Kings 11:20 And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword [beside] the king’ s house.Ver. 20. And they slew Athaliah with the sword] This being done by the consent of the whole people, or of the greater part, Deo fiebat auspice, saith Zuinglius, had God’ s approbation; seeing she was both a usurper and a tyrant. Beside the king’ s house.] Congrue ibi caeditur ubl peccarat; she suffereth where she had most sinned.

(20) All the people of the land . . . the city.—Thenius calls this an “evident contrast between the soldiery and the. citizens; the former exulting in their work, the latter not lifting a finger while the idolatrous tyrant was being put to death “ (connecting the first half of the verse with the second; after Ewald). But his assumption that “all the people of the land,” here and in 2 Kings 11:14, means “the soldiery” (“die ganze in Jerusalem anwesende Kriegerische Landesmannschaft—Die Kriegsmannschaft”) is certainly wrong. “The people of the land” are plainly opposed to the royal guards—“the Praetorians”—who effected the revolution, as civilians to soldiers. The city was in quiet.—The citizens of Jerusalem accepted the revolution without attempting any counter movement. No doubt there was a strong element of Baal-worshippers and partisans of Athaliah in the capital. “The people of the land” (i.e., probably, the people whom the centurions had called together from the country, at the instance of Jehoiada, according to 2 Chronicles 23:2) are contrasted with the burghers of Jerusalem. The phrase, “the city was in quiet” (or “had rest,” Judges 5:31), may, however, possibly refer to the deliverance from the tyranny of Athaliah. And they slew Athaliah.—Rather, and Athaliah they had slain; an emphatic recurrence to the real climax of the story (2 Kings 11:16), by way of conclusion. Beside.—Rather, in, i.e., within the palace enclosure.

Verse 20. The people - rejoiced] They were glad to get rid of the tyranny of Athaliah. And the city was in quiet] She had no partisans to rise up and disturb the king's reign.

20. And [R.V. So] all the people of the land rejoiced] The attachment of Judah to the family of David had always been very great, and to see a son of that family on the throne, even though some of his blood was of Ahab’s house, was far more to the mind of the people than to be ruled over by a daughter of Ahab. and the city was in quiet] R.V. omits in, as is done in the parallel verse in 2 Chron. Cf. for the expression, the phrase so frequently recurring in Judges, ‘the land had rest’ (Judges 3:30; Judges 5:31; &c.). beside [R.V. at] the king’s house] There is no preposition in the original as the italics of A.V. indicate; the noun is an accusative of place. Hence the ‘at’ of R.V. is warranted. On the death of Athaliah Josephus (Ant. IX. 7. 3) says, ‘Jehoiada having called the captains ordered them to take Athaliah into the valley of Kidron and there to kill her’. In 2 Kings 25:4 (see note there) we find that ‘the king’s garden’ was very near to the Kidron valley. It may be therefore that the place indicated here ‘beside (at) the king’s house’ was not far from the ‘king’s garden’ spoken of there.

They slew Athaliah with the sword - This is one of the many little repetitions which mark the manner of the writer, and which generally contain some little point which has not been mentioned before (compare 2 Kings 11:16).