In the cases of Joash and Josiah the free flight of the Chronicler’s law-crazed fancy is hampered by the copy to which he is tied, and which gives not the results merely, but the details of the proceedings themselves (2Chronicles xxii., xxiii.; 2Kings xi., xii.).  It is precisely such histories as these, almost the only circumstantially told ones relating to Judah in the Book of Kings, which though in their nature most akin to our author’s preference for cultus, bring him into the greatest embarrassment, by introducing details which to his notions are wholly against the Law, and yet must not be represented otherwise than in the most favourable light.

It cannot be doubted that the sections about Joash in 2Kings (xi. 1-xii. 17 [16]), having their scene end subject laid in the temple, are at bottom identical with 2Chronicles xxii. 10-xxiv. 14.  In the case of 2Kings xi., to begin with, the beginning and the close, vers. 1-3, vers. 13-20, recur verbatim in 2Chronicles xxii. 10-12, xxiii. 12-21, if trifling alterations be left out of account.  But in the central portion also there occur passages which are taken over into 2Chronicles without any change.  Only here they are inappropriate, while in the original connection they are intelligible.  For the meaning and colour of the whole is entirely altered in Chronicles, as the following comparison in the main passage will show; to understand it one must bear in mind that the regent Athaliah has put to death all the members of the house of David who had escaped the massacre of Jehu, with the exception of the child Joash, who, with the knowledge of Jehoiada, the priest, has found hiding and protection in the temple.

2 KINGS xi 2CHRONICLES xxiii.

4.  In the seventh year Jehoiada 1. In the seventh year Jehoiada
sent and took the captains of sent and took the captains of
the Carians and runners, strengthened himself and took the
                                   captains, Azariah the son of Jeroham,
                                   and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan,
                                   and Azariah the son of Obed,
                                   and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah,
                                   and Elishaphat the son of Zichri,
                                   into covenant with him.

2.  And they went about in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities in Judah, and the chiefs of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

and brought them to him into       3.  And the whole congregation
the house of Jehovah, and made a   made a covenant in the house of
covenant with them, and took       God with the king.   And he said
an oath of them in the house of    unto them, Behold, the king’s
Jehovah, and showed them the       son shall reign, as Jehovah said
king’s son;                        concerning the sons of David.

5.  And commanded them, saying, 4. This is the thing that ye shall This is the thing that ye shall do:  the third part of you, which do; the third part of you which enter on the Sabbath, of the enter on the Sabbath and keep the priests and of the Levites, watch of the king’s house, shall keep the doors.