¹Then in the seventh year Jehoiada took courage, and he took the commanders of a hundred with him in a covenant: 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. ²And they went round Judah, and they gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the paternal heads of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. ³And the whole convocation made a covenant in the house of God with the king. And he said to them, “Behold, the king's son shall reign as the Lord has spoken, concerning the sons of David. ⁴This is the operation which you will carry out. One third of you will come on the Sabbath: you of the priests and the Levites, as gatekeepers at the entrance thresholds. ⁵And one third will be at the king's house, and one third will be at the Foundation Gate, and all the people will be in the courtyards of the house of the Lord. ⁶But do not let anyone go into the house of the Lord, except for the priests, and those who serve, who belong to the Levites – they shall go in, for they are holy. But all the people will keep the Lord's guard. ⁷And the Levites will form a circle around the king, each man having his weapons in his hand, and anyone going inside the circle will be put to death. And accompany the king as he goes out and comes in.” ⁸And the Levites and all of Judah did everything which Jehoiada the priest commanded, and each one took his men – those who were to come on the Sabbath with those who were to go out on the Sabbath – for Jehoiada the priest did not exempt the divisions. ⁹And Jehoiada the priest gave to the commanders of a hundred the spears and the bucklers and the shields which had belonged to King David, which were in the house of God. ¹⁰And he stationed all the people, each with his weapon in his hand, from the right hand side of the house to the left hand side of the house, and around the altar and the house, in defence of the king. ¹¹Then they brought the king's son out, and they put the crown on him, and they gave him the testimony, and they made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him and said, “May the king live.” ¹²And when Athaliah heard the sound of the people running and those praising the king, she went to the people and to the house of the Lord. ¹³And she looked, and what she saw was the king standing at his column at the entrance with officials and trumpet-players in attendance to the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, with the singers with musical instruments and directors of praise. At this Athaliah tore her clothes and said, “A conspiracy, a conspiracy!” ¹⁴Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the commanders of a hundred who were in charge of the army, and he said to them, “Take her away but within the ranks, and anyone who follows her will be put to death by the sword.” For the priest had said, “You shall not put her to death in the house of the Lord.” ¹⁵So they laid hands on her as she went to the entrance of the Horse Gate of the king's house, and they put her to death there. ¹⁶And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, to be a people to the Lord. ¹⁷And all the people went to the house of Baal and demolished it, and they shattered his altars and his images, and they killed Mattan, Baal's priest, in front of the altars. ¹⁸And Jehoiada appointed duties in the house of the Lord to be fulfilled by the Levite priests whom David had assigned over the house of the Lord, to offer the Lord's burnt offerings, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as set up by David. ¹⁹And he appointed gatekeepers at the gates to the house of the Lord, so that no unclean person should approach anything. ²⁰And he took the commanders of a hundred and the nobles and those in authority over the people, and all the people of the land, and he brought the king down from the house of the Lord, and they went in at the upper gate to the king's house, and they seated the king on the throne of the kingdom. ²¹And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was undisturbed. So they killed Athaliah by the sword.