Jehoiada

The name Jehoiada belongs to several men in the UPDV record, but it is dominated by one figure: the high priest who hid the infant Joash in the house of Yahweh, ended Athaliah's usurpation, and rebuilt the temple in his old age. Around him stand a father of one of David's commanders, an Aaronide leader of priestly troops at David's accession, a son of Benaiah listed among David's counsellors, a returned exile who repaired Jerusalem's old gate, and a former priestly officer named in Jeremiah's correspondence.

Father of David's Commander

The earliest Jehoiada is named only as the father of Benaiah in David's officer-list. "and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were chief rulers" (2Sa 8:18). The Benaiah who carries his name is one of David's mighty men — "Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a man of valor of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he slew the two [sons of] Ariel of Moab" (2Sa 23:20) — and rises to confirm Solomon's accession ("And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: Yahweh, the God of my lord the king, says so [too]," 1Ki 1:36) and command Solomon's army (1Ki 4:4). The patronymic carries the name through three generations of Davidic service.

The High Priest Who Saved the Royal Line

When Athaliah destroyed the royal seed of Judah after Ahaziah's death, the surviving heir was rescued through Jehoshabeath, Jehoiada's wife. "But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she did not slay him" (2Ch 22:11). The 2 Kings parallel adds the duration: "And he was hid with her in the house of Yahweh six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land" (from 2Ki 11:1-16). For six years the temple itself was the hiding-place, and Jehoiada's household was the line of preservation.

The Coup in the Seventh Year

The Chronicler frames the counter-coup as Jehoiada's initiative: in the seventh year he "strengthened himself" and bound five named captains of hundreds into covenant with him (2Ch 23:1). The Kings narrative gives the same sequence in priestly terms — "And 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 house of Yahweh; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of Yahweh, and showed them the king's son ... And Jehoiada made a covenant between [the Speech of] Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh's people; between the king also and the people" (2Ki 11:4-17). The arming was from the temple stores: "And Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, and bucklers, and shields, that had been king David's, which were in the house of God" (2Ch 23:9).

When Athaliah heard the noise and came into the house of Yahweh crying treason, Jehoiada protected the sanctuary even in the act of removing her: "And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the host, and said to them, Bring her forth between the ranks; and slay him who follows her with the sword. For the priest said, Don't let her be slain in the house of Yahweh" (from 2Ki 11:1-16). The Chronicler closes the episode tersely: "So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. And Athaliah they had slain with the sword" (2Ch 23:21).

A Renewed Covenant and the Tearing-Down of Baal's House

Jehoiada's first act after the coronation is covenantal, and the two accounts frame it differently. In Kings: "And Jehoiada made a covenant between [the Speech of] Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh's people; between the king also and the people" (from 2Ki 11:4-17). In Chronicles: "And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, and all the people, and the king, that they should be Yahweh's people" (2Ch 23:16). The covenant is followed immediately by the destruction of Baal's house: "And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 11:18). The final phrase — "the priest appointed officers" — leaves Jehoiada as the regent of the temple worship under the boy-king.

Salutary Influence Over Jehoash

The single sentence the books of Kings give for Jehoiada's tutelage: "And Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him" (2Ki 12:2). The Chronicler agrees: "And Joash did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh all the days of Jehoiada the priest" (2Ch 24:2). The qualification — "all his days in which" / "all the days of" — is the hinge. Jehoiada's life is what holds Jehoash steady.

Repairing the House of Yahweh

The temple-repair effort is told twice. In Kings, Jehoash himself confronts the priests when the work has not begun: "Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the [other] priests, and said to them, Why aren't you⁺ repairing the breaches of the house? Now therefore take no [more] silver from your⁺ acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house" (2Ki 12:7). Jehoiada then improvises the chest mechanism: "But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Yahweh: and the priests who kept the threshold put in it all the silver that was brought into the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 12:9). In Chronicles the rebuke runs the other direction — Joash to Jehoiada: "And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, Why haven't you required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax of Moses the slave of Yahweh, and of the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony? For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also they bestowed all the dedicated things of the house of Yahweh on the Baalim" (2Ch 24:6-7). The funded work is explicitly joint: "And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of Yahweh; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of Yahweh, and also such as wrought iron and bronze to repair the house of Yahweh" (from 2Ch 24:4-16). The continual offerings continued "all the days of Jehoiada" (from 2Ch 24:4-16, v14).

Death and Burial Among the Kings

"But Jehoiada waxed old and was full of days, and he died; he was a hundred and thirty years old when he died" (2Ch 24:15). The honor accorded him is unique: "And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house" (from 2Ch 24:4-16, v16).

After Jehoiada: The King's Reversal

2Ch 24:22 belongs to this umbrella because Jehoiada's death exposes how thin Jehoash's righteousness had been. "Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king listened to them" (2Ch 24:17). The Chronicler then names the personal betrayal: "Thus Joash the king didn't remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, Yahweh look at it, and require it" (2Ch 24:22). The same Jehoash who had been kept alive by Jehoiada's wife and instructed by Jehoiada's priesthood ends his reign by killing Jehoiada's son.

A Priest at David's Accession

A different Jehoiada appears in the muster-list at Hebron: "And Jehoiada was the leader of [the house of] Aaron; and with him were three thousand and seven hundred" (1Ch 12:27). He brings the Aaronide priesthood, in arms, to David's coronation.

A Son of Benaiah Among David's Counsellors

The patronymic of David's commander is reused in the next generation: "and after Ahithophel was Jehoiada the son of Benaiah, and Abiathar: and the captain of the king's host was Joab" (1Ch 27:34). This Jehoiada is a counsellor in David's late administration, named after his grandfather.

A Returned Exile

In the rebuilding-list of Nehemiah: "And the old gate repaired Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid its beams, and set up its doors, and its bolts, and its bars" (Neh 3:6). The UPDV gives the name as "Joiada" — a shortened form of the same name — and assigns him the work on the old gate.

A Priest Named in Jeremiah's Correspondence

The last bearer of the name appears in the letter Shemaiah of Nehelam writes from Babylon, which Jeremiah quotes back: "Yahweh has made you priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in the house of Yahweh, for every man who is insane, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles" (Jer 29:26). The reference is to a former priestly officer in the temple — the named precedent for the office Shemaiah claims Zephaniah now holds.