[250] This is usually understood to be the "horse gate" of the city (Neh. iii. 28), and so Josephus seems to have taken it, for he says that Athaliah was killed in "the Kedron Valley." Canon Rawlinson says that it was more probably in the Tyropœon Valley. But there could have been no object in dragging the wretched queen all this way. Jehoiada was only anxious that she should not stain the Temple with her blood, and "the way by which the horses came into the king's house" seems to be some private palace-gate. We are expressly told (ver. 16) that Athaliah was slain "at the king's house," probably in "the king's garden" (2 Kings xxv. 4).
[251] Wellhausen, Isr. and Jud., p. 96.
[252] 2 Chron. xv. 9-15.
[253] 2 Chron. xxix. 10.
[254] 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31.
[255] The name is perhaps an abbreviation from Mattan-Baal, "gift of Baal." Comp. "Methumballes" (Plaut.). The names of Tyrian kings, Mitinna, Mattun, occur in inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser II. See Herod., vii. 98 (Bahr, ad loc.). "Methumbaal of Arvad" is mentioned on a monument of Tiglath-Pileser II. (Schrader, ii. 249).
[256] 2 Kings xii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6. Stanley, Lectures, ii. 399.
[257] 2 Kings xii. 2. After "all his days," the R.V. and A.V. add "wherein Jehoiada instructed him." This, however, is not accurate. There is a stop at days, and "wherein" should be "because." There seems, however, from the LXX., to be some variation in the text, and according to the Chronicler Joash became an apostate. LXX., Πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἅς ἐφώτιζεν αὐτὸν ὁ ἱερεύς; Vulg., Cunctis diebus quibus docuit eum Jojadas sacerdos.
[258] The Chronicler (2 Chron. xxiv. 1, 2) more suo copies 2 Kings xii. 1, 2, but omits 3, because he dislikes the fact that not even his hero Jehoiada had anything to say against the bamoth. But it appears from 2 Kings xxiii. 9 that the bamoth had regular priests of their own, who "eat the priestly portions" (according to an old MS.) among their brethren.
[259] 2 Chron. xxiv. 7.