and said, "God save the king!"

And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she
came to the people into the house of the Lord: and she looked, and,
behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the manner was, and the
captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land
rejoiced, and blew with trumpets.

Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, "Treason, treason!"

And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds that were
set over the host, and said unto them, "Take her forth between the
ranks; and him that followeth her slay with the sword" (for the priest
said, "Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord").

So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the horses' entry
to the king's house: and there was she slain.

{276}

And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the
people, that they should be the Lord's people; between the king also
and the people.

And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it
down; his altars and his images broke they in pieces thoroughly, and
slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest
appointed officers over the house of the Lord. And he took the
captains over hundreds, and the guard, and all the people of the land;
and they brought down the king from the house of the Lord, and came by
the way of the gate of the guard unto the king's house. And he sat on
the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and
the city was quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword at the
king's house.

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JOASH.

_A King Who Failed to Continue in Well-Doing_.

(For a while Joash was a very good king, but at last the wise priest
Jehoiada, who had made him king, died. As soon as this restraint was
removed Joash listened to the counsel of wild young princes, and so
far forgot the debt of gratitude he owed to Jehoiada that he killed
the son of the priest when he also reproved him for his evil deeds. In
the latter part of his reign, disasters came thick and fast. The
Syrians came down and swept Judah with fire and sword. They did not
kill Joash, but they left him at the end of his long reign of forty
years, a helpless sufferer from disease. Then the very servants of his
household conspired against him and murdered him in his bed.)

Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty
years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah