2 Kings 11:20 - Exposition

And all the people of the land rejoiced. "All the people of the land" has here, perhaps, a wider signification than in 2 Kings 11:18 and 2 Kings 11:19 . The whole land was content with the revolution that had taken place. No opposition showed itself. Ewald has no ground for his statement that the heathenizing party was strong in Jerusalem, and that the worshippers of Jehovah "had for a long time to keep watch in the temple, to prevent surprise by the heathenizing party". He has mistaken the intention of the last clause of 2 Kings 11:18 . If anything is clear from the entire narrative of the early reign of Joash ( 2 Kings 11:3-21 ; 2 Kings 12:1-16 ; 2 Chronicles 23:1-21 ; 2 Chronicles 24:1-14 ), it is that there was no heathenizing party in Jerusalem, or none that dared to show itself, until after the death of the high priest Jehoiada, which was later than the twenty-third year of Joash. And the city — i.e. Jerusalem— was in quiet: and they slew —it might he translated, when they had slain— Athaliah with the sword beside the king's house. The intention of the writer is to connect the period of tranquility with the removal of Athaliah, and therefore to point her out as the cause of disturbance previously.