2nd Kings Chapter 11 verse 20 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - And all the people of the land rejoiced. "All the people of the land" has here, perhaps, a wider signification than in vers. 18 and 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" ('History of Israel,' vol. 4. p. 136, note 3). He has mistaken the intention of the last clause of ver. 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.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(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 2Kings 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 2Chronicles 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 (2Kings 11:16), by way of conclusion.Beside.--Rather, in, i.e., within the palace enclosure. . . .