Commentaire de citation sur Rois 2 11:1

“Jehoiada made a covenant” [11:17]. The priest made a covenant and an oath between Israel and king Jehoash. The story was as follows. One king was named Ahaziah and his mother was called Athaliah. Ahaziah died and left behind several children. Athaliah had the children killed and she became the queen of Israel by force. However, Yehosheva, the sister of Ahaziah, stole a son who was called Jehoash and hid him in the Temple because of Athaliah. He was hidden for six years and he was hidden with his wet nurse, who nursed him. Jehoash was hidden shortly after he was born. Athaliah was queen over Israel for six years. In the seventh year, Jehoiada the priest went with the secret and sought advice and he gathered a large group of people to kill Athaliah. The people stood with spears and swords in the Temple and the group was only priests. They took out Jehoash and they made him a crown for a king. They shouted and clapped with their hands saying; the king Jehoash should live. Athaliah heard shouting and she came to the Temple. She saw the king standing with his crown and with many people all around him, blowing trumpets and with great joy. She tore her clothes. Jehoiada immediately ordered that Athaliah should be killed. She was dragged out and killed outside the city. Jehoiada immediately made a covenant with Jehoash, the young king.¹II Kings, 11:1–16.

Some say (yesh omrim): [That the word] He will speak (yedaber) means "He will destroy" (ye'abed). [They compare it to] (II Kings 11:1) "and she destroyed (va-tedaber) all the royal seed." This [verb dabar] is thus an expression of death (leshon mavet), similar to (Hosea 13:14) "O Death, where are your plagues/destruction (devarekha)". [They argue further] that it is written in another book [referring again to the account in Kings or a related source] that va-tedaber ("and she destroyed") is from the root [meaning] a very heavy plague/matter (davar kaved me'od).

I cut off the three shepherds in one month They corrupted their ways until I rejected them, and I slew all three shepherds in one month. Jehu slew the entire house of Ahab, and the house of Ahaziah the king of Judah, and his brothers, and all the seed of the kingdom of David; and Athaliah slew the rest, save Joash, who hid (II Kings 10, 11).

she arose and destroyed - Heb. וַתְּדַבֵּר, an expression of דֶּבֶר, pestilence. In II Kings (11:1), it is written: וַתְּאַבֵּד. Concerning this generation, David recited: (Ps. 12:1): “For the conductor on the sheminith,” for David foresaw with the holy spirit that in the eighth generation [of his dynasty] all his descendants would be slain by Athaliah, for there are eight generations from Solomon till here. And he prayed that his seed would survive for a remembrance, and said, (ibid. verse 2): “Save, O Lord, for the pious are gone, etc.” In II Kings (11:2), Scripture states that she killed them by poisoning them, for it is written: “and she stole him away from the dying (הַמְמוֹתִים) children of the king”; we read: הַמּוּמָתִים the slain. Both the traditional reading and the masoretic text have authority. הַמּוּמָתִים means that they already died, and the masoretic text in which the word used is הַמְמוֹתִים means that they were dying in agony. This is written in the continuous present tense, i.e., not all at once but continuously being crushed by illnesses, and then dying. An example is (Jer. 16:4): “Dying of (מְמוֹתֵי) sicknesses they shall die, etc. and with famine,” because they too will not die immediately.