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2 Kings 11:13–16, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Kings 11:13–16
Athaliah is removed and killed
Athaliah names treason and is taken outside the holy house
Athaliah hears the noise of the guard and of the people. She comes to the people in the house of the Lord and sees the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, with captains and trumpeters beside him, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. She tears her clothes and cries, Treason! Treason!
Jehoiada commands the captains who are set over the army: bring her out between the ranks, and anyone who follows her, kill with the sword. He adds that she must not be put to death in the house of the Lord. They lay hands on her, and she goes through the horses' entrance to the king's house, and there she is put to death. The priest will restore a Davidic king without turning the temple into her execution yard. Her cry of treason is the language of a usurper watching the true line reappear.
How this should shape us
Do not let a usurper's vocabulary of loyalty confuse you when the rightful heir is finally shown. Protect holy space from becoming a murder room, and still refuse to pretend that a six-year slaughter of children was legitimate government.
Teach it back
Explain 2 Kings 11:13–16 in your own words. Include its movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, one affected or obscured person, and one misuse the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The received narrative supplies its theological interpretation, but the precise source history, chronology, motives, and external correlation remain open to graded historical judgment.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
2 Kings 11:13–16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 11:13–16
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 644–645, translation and translator notes for 11:13–16
Supports: Unit-level literary, compositional, historical, and theological orientation used as one concise scholarly synthesis rather than consensus.
Dietrich, '1 and 2 Kings,' Oxford Bible Commentary (2001), printed pp. 257–261, exposition covering 2 Kings 11:13–16
Supports: Critical alternatives concerning Jehu's coup, prophetic legitimation, victims, propaganda, and the book's qualified evaluation.
Mokoena and Meyer, HTS 75.3 (2019), complete HTML sections on Jehu's revolt, Naboth, violence, purity rhetoric, Tel Dan, and ideological justification
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Kings 11:13–16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 11:13–16
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 644–645, translation and translator notes for 11:13–16
Open source ↗scholarly commentary chapter
1 and 2 Kings
Walter Dietrich
The Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2001
Supports: Unit-level literary, compositional, historical, and theological orientation used as one concise scholarly synthesis rather than consensus.
Exact location: Dietrich, '1 and 2 Kings,' Oxford Bible Commentary (2001), printed pp. 257–261, exposition covering 2 Kings 11:13–16
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
Jehu's violent coup and the justification of violence
Lerato Mokoena and Esias E. Meyer
HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 75(3), a5326, 2019
Supports: Critical alternatives concerning Jehu's coup, prophetic legitimation, victims, propaganda, and the book's qualified evaluation.
Exact location: Mokoena and Meyer, HTS 75.3 (2019), complete HTML sections on Jehu's revolt, Naboth, violence, purity rhetoric, Tel Dan, and ideological justification
Open source ↗