Sabbath, so apparently also the royal bodyguard. The plan now agreed upon was, that the guard

which was relieved should, instead o f returning to their homes or barracks, march into the Temple,

where the high-priest would furnish them with weapons from those that had formerly belonged to

David, and which, no doubt, according to sacred custom, had been deposited in the sanctuary.

The sole object of that guard (2 Kings 11:7, 11) was in two divisions to surround the new king on

either side, with orders to cut down any one who should try to penetrate their ranks, and to close

around the person of the king in all his movements. Thus far for the guard that had been relieved.

On the other hand, the relieving guard was to be arranged in three divisions. One of these was to

form, as usually, the guard of the royal palace, so that the suspicions of Athaliah should not be

aroused. The second div ision was to occupy the gate Sur,* also called the "gate of the foundation"

(2 Chronicles 23:5); while the third division was to be massed in "the gate behind the guard," the

same as "the gate of the guard" (2 Kings 11:19), and which probably formed the principal access

from the palace into the Temple. The object of all this was to guard the palace - not only to disarm

suspicion, but for defense (2 Kings 11:5), and to ward off or bar** any attempt on the part of

adherents of Athaliah to possess themselves of the royal residence.

* Some have regarded this as a side-entrance. Probably this gate gave easy access to the palace,

although it formed not the private royal entrance to it, which was from "the gate of the guard."

** The word (massach), 2 Kings 11:6, rendered in the A.V. by "that it be not broken down," has

been variously explained; but the above gives, it is believed correctly, the meaning intended to be

conveyed. The suggestions of the Rabbis are without value.

The importance of this will be understood, not only in case of a counter-revolution, but in view of

the ancient custom of solemnly placing the king on the royal throne as the symbol of his accession

to the government (1 Kings 1:35, 46), which it was intended to observe also on this occasion (2

Kings 11:19).

It must have been noticed that, minute and complete as these arrangements were, so far as

regarded the defense of the new king and the guard of the royal palace against a sudden attack by

the adherents of Athaliah, they left all the main gates of access to the Temple undefended against

any eventuality. And yet it must have been quite as important to protect the Sanctuary from a

hostile rush upon it, and to avert its profanation by a fight within its sacred precincts. It is on this

ground that we deem it antecedently probable that provision should have been made for guarding

the Temple itself, similar to that in regard to the king and the royal palace. But this would

naturally devolve upon the Levites, as the regular custodians of the Temp le, just as the military

guard would as naturally have the immediate custody of the person of the king. And such

participation on the part of the Levites seems otherwise necessarily implied in the circumstance

that the rising was planned by the priesthood, and organized by them as well as by the military

leaders. In all these circumstances it seems almost impossible to believe that an active part of

some kind should not have been assigned to the Levites; that access to the Temple should either

have been left unprotected; or that the guard of the Temple should have been entrusted to others

than those who were its regular custodians.

These considerations leave no room to doubt the accuracy of the account given in the Book of

Chronicles. Only as that in the Book of Kings details the arrangements for the safety of the king

and the palace, so that in Chronicles records those made for the security of the Temple, which

were entrusted to the Levites. Some other confirmatory particulars deserve attention. Thus we

notice that although the account in Chronicles seems to imply that all the arrangements were in the

hands of the Levites, yet when Athaliah was to be led to her doom, the order was given, not to the

Levites, but to the military leaders, who were to bring her forth "within the ranks" (Sederoth). The

verse is almost literally the same as in 2 Kings 11:15. The term which we have rendered "ranks"

indicates an orderly arrangement, as of soldiers. It is used in 2 Kings 11:8 in reference to the

military guard which was to surround the king, but not in designation of the wider compass of