[¹] Hebrew thresholds.
4. This is the thing that ye shall do] The arrangements as given here and in 2 Kings are not entirely clear owing to our ignorance regarding some of the places referred to. The Chronicler did not clearly understand the scheme in Kings, but he was not troubled thereby. He was concerned only to see that in his account the Levites replaced the soldiers of the guard and that no unlawful person entered the precincts of the Temple. According to Kings, it would appear that it was the custom on the Sabbath for two-thirds of the royal guards to be free and for one-third to be on duty at the palace. In order to avoid arousing suspicion this last third was, according to Jehoiada’s directions, to be at the palace as usual, but it was to be subdivided into thirds and so distributed as to close the various means of communication between the palace and the rest of the city. Thus Athaliah was to be held as in a trap by her own guards (2 Kings xi. 5, 6). The two-thirds who were free from duty on the Sabbath were to be stationed in the Temple about the young king to guard him at his coronation.
The arrangements are differently and no doubt less correctly stated in Chronicles In the first place Levitical Temple guards take the place of the royal guards; secondly, the only division of the guards recognised is a simple division into thirds; finally, the stations of the different divisions are differently given, viz., one-third in the Temple, one-third in the palace, and one-third at “the gate of the foundation.”
Using the modern terms “battalion” and “company” for the divisions and subdivisions given in Kings, the arrangements may be stated in a form which allows easy comparison between Kings and Chronicles, as follows:—
(i) 2 Kings xi. 5–7.
(Royal guards in three battalions.)
1st battalion on duty at the king’s house (palace).
A company within the palace (verse 5),
B company at the gate of Sur,
C company at another gate (“behind the guard,” verse 6).