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Levites seems otherwise necessarily implied in the circumstance that the rising was
planned by the priesthood, and organized by them as well as by the military leaders. In all
these circumstances it seems almost impossible to believe that an active part of some kind
should not have been assigned to the Levites; that access to the Temple should either
have been left unprotected; or that the guard of the Temple should have been entrusted to
others than those who were its regular custodians.
These considerations leave no room to doubt the accuracy of the account given in the
Book of Chronicles. Only as that in the Book of Kings details the arrangements for the
safety of the king and the palace, so that in Chronicles records those made for the security
of the Temple, which were entrusted to the Levites. Some other confirmatory particulars
deserve attention. Thus we notice that although the account in Chronicles seems to imply
that all the arrangements were in the hands of the Levites, yet when Athaliah was to be
led to her doom, the order was given, not to the Levites, but to the military leaders, who
were to bring her forth "within the ranks" (Sederoth). The verse is almost literally the
same as in 2 Kings 11:15. The term which we have rendered "ranks" indicates an orderly
arrangement, as of soldiers. It is used in 2 Kings 11:8 in reference to the military guard
which was to surround the king, but not in designation of the wider compass of Levites,
which, according to 2 Chronicles 23:7, was to be about the king. We therefore conclude
that this division of Levites was to form an outer circle not only around the king, but also
around his military guard. This also explains the difference in the directions given in 2
Kings 11:8 to the military guards to kill those who penetrated their "ranks," and in 2
Chronicles 23:7 to the Levites, to kill those who penetrated into the Temple. In other
words, the Levites were to stand beyond the guards, and to prevent a hostile entrance into
the Temple buildings; and if any gained their way through them to the ranks of the
military, they were to be cut down by the guards. Thus the king was really surrounded by
a double cordon - the military occupying the inner court around his person, while the
Levites held the outer court and the gates.
The explanations just offered will, it is hoped, show that there is not any discrepancy
between the accounts of this event in the Books of Kings and Chronicles. We can
understand how in the latter the functions and localities are assigned to the Levites, which
in the Book of Kings seem assigned to the military. Both had similar or kindred
functions, and in close proximity to each other. Thus the two accounts are entirely
compatible. In point of fact, they supplement each other, the writer of Chronicles, as
usually, telling the part which the priesthood sustained in the national rising, while the
writer of the Book of Kings simply relates the part taken by the secular power. Thus the
one narrates what was specially done by the Levites, the other what by the military; yet
each, as we have seen, also giving indications of the cooperation of the other actors. The
whole question, however, is not of any real importance, although it may be well to state
that the explanations which have been offered are substantially confirmed by the account
given of the event by Josephus (Ant. ix. 7, 2).*
(^)