Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 11:1-3
God had assured David of the continuance of his family, which is called his ordaining a lamp for his anointed; and this cannot but appear a great thing, now that we have read of the utter extirpation of so many royal families, one after another. Now here we have David's promised lamp almost extinguished and yet wonderfully preserved.
I. It was almost extinguished by the barbarous malice of Athaliah, the queen-mother, who, when she heard that her son Ahaziah was slain by Jehu, arose and destroyed all the seed-royal (Kg2 11:1), all that she knew to be akin to the crown. Her husband Jehoram had slain all his brethren the sons of Jehoshaphat, Ch2 21:4. The Arabians had slain all Jehoram's sons e…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Kings 11:2
Jehosheba--or Jehoshabeath (Ch2 22:11).
daughter of King Joram--not by Athaliah, but by a secondary wife.
stole him from among the king's sons which were slain--either from among the corpses, he being considered dead, or out of the palace nursery.
hid him . . . in the bedchamber--for the use of the priests, which was in some part of the temple (Kg2 11:3), and of which Jehoiada and his wife had the sole charge. What is called, however, the bedchamber in the East is not the kind of apartment that we understand by the name, but a small closet, into which are flung during the day the mattresses and other bedding materials spread on the floors or divans of the sitting-rooms by day. Such a s…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on 2 Kings 11:3
He was - hid in the house of the Lord - This might be readily done, because none had access to the temple but the priests; and the high priest himself was the chief manager of this business.
John Gill on 2 Kings 11:3
And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years,.... In the temple; not in the holy of holies, as Jarchi, but in a chamber of the priests and Levites, of which there were several in a temple, as Kimchi, and others; and the husband of Jehosheba, being high priest, had one of them for his own use; and here the child was hid six years, so that he was but a year old when he was first taken and preserved, for he was made king when seven years of age, 2 Kings 11:21,
and Athaliah did reign over the land; the only instance we hear of a woman reigning in Israel, and this was not by right, but by usurpation; and so, according to the Jewish canons, a woman might not rule; which thus runs (a…
