Catholic Commentary
The Coronation of Joash
11Then they brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the covenant, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, “Long live the king!”
In 2 Chronicles 23:11, Joash, the legitimate Davidic heir hidden in the Temple for six years, is ceremonially crowned through a series of constitutive acts: the crown is placed on him, he receives the covenant document (the Torah or law scroll), he is anointed with oil by the priest Jehoiada, and the people acclaim him with "Long live the king!" The sequence emphasizes that legitimate kingship is fundamentally ordered to submission to God's written law, not autonomous power.
A hidden heir is brought forth from the Temple, crowned, given God's law, and anointed—each act a coronation, each act a foreshadowing of Christ the King.
Verse 11e — "Long live the king!" (yəḥî hammelek) The acclamation is the people's ratification and joyful reception. It echoes the ancient near eastern royal proclamation but is here embedded in a covenantal-liturgical context. It is both a declaration and a prayer — "May the king live!" — trusting that his life is sustained by God. The parallel in 1 Kings 1:39 shows this acclamation as part of the standard coronation liturgy. Here, it is especially poignant: the people who had lived under usurpation now shout their loyalty to the legitimate heir.
Typological and Spiritual Senses The Fathers read this coronation as a figure (figura) of Christ the King. The hidden child preserved in the Temple, brought forth in God's appointed time, crowned, given the covenant, anointed, and acclaimed — each element prefigures the mystery of the Incarnate Word. As St. Augustine notes in his City of God, the history of the Davidic kings is never merely political; it is the narrative of the promise walking toward its fulfillment. Joash brought out of hiddenness evokes Christ emerging from the Father's eternal counsel into history. The ʿēdût handed to the king prefigures Christ who does not abolish the law but fulfills it (Mt 5:17). The anointing by the priest anticipates the anointing of Jesus by the Holy Spirit at his Baptism, declared Son of God.
Catholic tradition illuminates this passage at multiple levels. First, the inseparability of covenant and kingship: the ʿēdût handed to Joash at his coronation establishes the foundational Catholic principle that all legitimate authority is ordered by and accountable to God's law. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§2234–2235) teaches that "God's fourth commandment also enjoins us to honor all who for our good have received authority in society," but always within the framework of God's higher law. No king — and by extension no civil authority — is above the covenant.
Second, the typology of messianic anointing: the Fathers consistently read the Old Testament anointings as prefigurations of Christ's own anointing. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures XXI) draws the line from priestly and royal anointing in Israel directly to Christian Baptism and Confirmation, in which the faithful share in Christ's threefold office as priest, prophet, and king. Every baptized Catholic is, in a derivative sense, anointed — a participation in the very mystery enacted here.
Third, priestly mediation of kingship: Jehoiada does not merely witness the coronation; he performs it. This prefigures the Church's role in anointing and consecrating: the Church does not legitimize secular power absolutely, but in the sacramental order, the priesthood mediates God's grace to kings and peoples alike. The Magisterium's teaching on the relationship between Church and state (cf. Leo XIII, Immortale Dei; Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes §76) resonates with this ancient pattern: grace and nature, covenant and politics, are never wholly separable domains.
This coronation scene speaks urgently to Catholics living in an age of political anxiety and ecclesiastical crisis. Like the people of Judah under Athaliah, contemporary Catholics can feel that the legitimate order has been disrupted — by secularism, by corruption, by the silencing of God's law in public life. The passage calls us to remember that the rightful King was never truly absent; he was hidden in his Temple, the Church. Jehoiada's courage challenges us concretely: fidelity to the covenant sometimes requires priestly and lay leaders to act boldly and publicly in restoring God's order, even at personal risk.
The handing of the ʿēdût — the covenant, the law — before the anointing is a practical word for Catholic civic engagement: before seeking power, leaders must first receive and submit to God's Word. Catholics in public life, whether as voters, candidates, or citizens, are called to bring the ʿēdût with them — to evaluate every political reality through Scripture, Natural Law, and Church teaching, not the other way around. The shout "Long live the king!" is ultimately an eschatological cry — it finds its truest expression in the Church's Maranatha: "Come, Lord Jesus."
Commentary
Verse 11a — "They brought out the king's son" The verb "brought out" (Hebrew: wayyôṣîʾû) carries enormous dramatic and theological weight. Joash had been hidden in the Temple for six years (2 Chr 22:12), concealed from Athaliah's murderous purge of the Davidic line. His emergence from the house of God is itself a kind of resurrection — the hidden heir now revealed. The phrase "the king's son" (ben-hammelek) insists on his legitimacy; Joash is not a pretender but the rightful bearer of the Davidic promise. The Temple, the dwelling place of God, has served as the ark of his preservation, just as the Ark of Noah preserved life against destruction.
Verse 11b — "Put the crown on him" The placement of the nezer (crown, or more precisely "diadem") is the first of three constitutive acts of coronation. The nezer in the Hebrew royal and priestly traditions (cf. Ex 29:6; Lev 8:9) marked consecration and dedication — it was worn by both the high priest and the king, signifying that the Davidic monarch was in a unique sense sacred, set apart by God. Its placement on a child who has survived in the Temple deepens the sense that this kingship is a gift of divine providence, not human power.
Verse 11c — "Gave him the covenant" (ha-ʿēdût) This phrase is theologically decisive and has generated significant scholarly and patristic discussion. The Hebrew ʿēdût (testimony, covenant, law) almost certainly refers to a copy of the Torah — the Mosaic law that, according to Deuteronomy 17:18–20, every king of Israel was required to possess and read daily. It may also refer to a written document of royal obligations — a kind of constitutional covenant between king and people, mediated by the priest. Either way, the handing of the ʿēdût at the moment of coronation establishes that this king reigns not autonomously but under the authority of God's word. Kingship and covenant are inseparable. Significantly, this act precedes the anointing — the king first receives the law, then the Spirit.
Verse 11d — "Made him king... anointed him" Jehoiada and his sons perform the anointing with oil (wayyimsəḥû), the priestly act that transfers divine authority. The anointing is the constitutive sacral moment — the same verb used for David (1 Sam 16:13) and Solomon (1 Kgs 1:39) and, in its fullest sense, for the Messiah (māšîaḥ, "the Anointed One"). That it is a priest, not a prophet, who anoints here reflects the Chronicles author's particular interest in the Levitical priesthood as the legitimate mediator of divine authority during the period of the monarchy. The anointing by Jehoiada and (plural) further underscores the communal, liturgical, and dynastic character of the act.