1. When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she began to kill off the whole royal family.
2. But Jehosheba, daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, Ahaziah’s son, and spirited him away, along with his nurse, from the bedroom where the princes were about to be slain. He was concealed from Athaliah, and so he did not die.
3. For six years he remained hidden with her in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah ruled as queen over the land.
4. But in the seventh year, Jehoiada summoned the captains of the Carians and of the guards. He had them come to him in the house of the Lord, made a covenant with them, exacted an oath from them in the house of the Lord, and then showed them the king’s son.
5. He gave them these orders: “This is what you must do: one third of you who come on duty on the sabbath shall guard the king’s house;
6. another third shall be at the gate Sur; and the last third shall be at the gate behind the guards. You shall guard the palace on all sides,
7. while the two of your divisions who are going off duty that week shall keep guard over the house of the Lord for the king.
8. You shall surround the king, each with drawn weapons, and anyone who tries to approach the guard detail is to be killed; stay with the king, wherever he goes.”
9. The captains did just as Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each took his troops, both those going on duty for the week and those going off duty that week, and came to Jehoiada the priest.