Jehoiada’s Reforms^(A)

¹⁶ After this, Jehoiada drew up a covenant between himself as an individual with all the people, and between himself as king, that they would be the Lord’s people. ¹⁷ Then all the people went to the temple of Baal, broke its altars and idols to pieces, and executed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. ¹⁸ Jehoiada also placed the offices of the Lord’s Temple under the authority of the Levitical priests whom David had assigned over the Lord’s Temple, just as is required by the Law of Moses, to offer the Lord’s burnt offerings with joy and singing, just as David had ordered. ¹⁹ Jehoiada^[a] also stationed inspectors^[b] at the Lord’s Temple so that no one would enter who was ritually unclean in any manner. ²⁰ He also took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the people’s governors, and all the people of the land, and they all marched with the king from the Lord’s Temple through the upper gate to the royal palace, where they installed the king on his royal throne. ²¹ There all of the people of the land rejoiced and the city stayed quiet, because they had executed Athaliah with a sword.