Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 23:15
So they seized Athaliah as she reached the entrance of the Horse Gate on the palace grounds, and there they put her to death.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative records royal officials and priests seizing Athaliah and executing her outside the temple precincts. This action follows Jehoiada’s direct command to remove her from the house of the LORD and kill her among the ranks.
The words — The text pairs וַ/יָּשׂ֤ימוּ (va/i.ya.Si.mu, “and/they put”) with יָדַ֔יִם (ya.Da.yim, “hands”) to describe the physical act of taking her, while וַ/תָּב֛וֹא (va./ta.Vo', “and/she went”) to מְב֥וֹא (me.Vo', “entrance”) of שַֽׁעַר\־ (sha.'ar-, “gate”) הַ/סּוּסִ֖ים (ha./su.Sim, “horses”) בֵּ֣ית (beit, “house”) pinpoints her location. The literal sense simply tracks her arrival at the palace gate and the officials’ physical seizure of her person.
The thread — The Horse Gate appears again in Nehemiah 3:28 during priestly wall repairs and is noted in Jeremiah 31:40 as a boundary marker near the Kidron Valley. The preceding context in 2 Chronicles 22:10 records Athaliah’s prior order to annihilate the royal heirs, establishing the motive for her subsequent execution.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that covenant leadership enforces boundary lines by removing corrupt authority from sacred spaces. It asks the reader to observe how judicial action is deliberately relocated outside the temple to preserve the holiness of the house of the LORD.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
So they laid hands on her; and when she was come to the entering of the horse gate by the king’s house, they slew her there.
Cross-references
- Nehemiah 3:28 Above the Horse Gate, each of the priests made repairs in front of his own house.
- 2 Chronicles 22:10 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs of the house of Judah.
- Jeremiah 31:40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will never again be uprooted or demolished.”
- Judges 1:7 Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.
- Psalms 5:6 You destroy those who tell lies; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
- Psalms 55:23 But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
- Matthew 7:2 For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
- James 2:13 For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Revelation 16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters say: “Righteous are You, O Holy One, who is and was, because You have brought these judgments.