2 Chronicles 23 · a question people ask
Who stood around the king: the Levites, or the Carites and the guard?
2 Chronicles and 2 Kings tell the same day in different words, and these notes set them side by side. 2 Chronicles says they "gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah" (23:2), and Jehoiada said, "The Levites shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand" (23:7); "So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded" (23:8). 2 Kings says Jehoiada "fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard" (2 Kings 11:4) and told them, "You shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand" (2 Kings 11:8); "The captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded" (2 Kings 11:9). Both books have the captains (23:1, 2 Kings 11:4). At the end, 2 Chronicles has "the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land" (23:20), where 2 Kings has "the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land" (2 Kings 11:19). Neither book explains the other. These notes quote both and don't choose.
The verses
“In the seventh year, Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds—Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri—into a covenant with him. They went around in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers’ households of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.”
“The Levites shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes into the house, let him be slain. Be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out.” So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. They each took his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest didn’t dismiss the shift.”
“He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from the LORD’s house. They came through the upper gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom.”
“In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the LORD’s house; and he made a covenant with them, and made a covenant with them in the LORD’s house, and showed them the king’s son.”