Page:02.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.A.vol.2.EarlyProphets.djvu/1417

Chronicles harmonizes, if we only translate it “against (at) the king’s house.” The idea that the palace was guarded is precluded not only by 2Ki 11:13, according to which Athaliah came out of the palace to the people to the house of Jehovah, which she would not have been able to do if the palace had been guarded, but also by the circumstance that, according to 2Ki 11:19, the chief men were in the temple with the whole of the (assembled) people, and did not go out of the house of Jehovah into the king’s house till after the anointing of Joash and the death of Athaliah. The other third was to station itself at the gate Sur (סוּר), or, according to the Chronicles, Yesod (יסוד), foundation-gate. There is no doubt as to the identity of the gate Sur and the gate Yesod; only we cannot decide whether one of these names has simply sprung from a copyist’s error, or whether the gate had two different names. The name יסוד שׁער, foundation-gate, suggests a gate in the outer court of the temple, at the hollow of either the Tyropoeon or the Kedron; for the context precludes our thinking of a palace gate. The third division was to be posted “at the gate behind the runners;” or, as it is stated in 2Ki 11:19, “at the gate of the runners.” It is very evident from 2Ki 11:19 that this gate led from the temple-court to the royal palace upon Zion, and was therefore on the western side of the court of the temple. This also follows from 2Ki 11:4 of the Chronicles, according to which this division was to act as “doorkeepers of the thresholds” (הסּפּים לשׁערי), i.e., to keep guard at the gate of the thresholds. For we may safely infer, from a comparison with 1Ch 9:19, that הסּפּים were the thresholds of the ascent to the temple. The last clause, “and shall keep guard over the house for defence,” refers to all three divisions, and serves to define with greater precision the object for which they were stationed there. מסּח is not a proper name (lxx, Luther, and others), but an appellative in the sense of defence or resistance, from נסח, depellere. The meaning is, that they were to guard the house, to keep off the people, and not to let any of the party of Athaliah force a way into the temple. - In 2Ki 11:7, הש יצאי כּל is an explanatory apposition to בּכם ot  היּדות וּשׁתּי, “and the two parts in (of) you,” namely, all who go out on the Sabbath, i.e., are relieved from duty. Their task, to observe the watch of the house of Jehovah with regard to the king, is more precisely defined in 2Ki 11:8 as signifying, that they were to surround the king with weapons