The Assyrians left Palestine for the remainder of the ninth century, since Shalmaneser III (859-824 B.C.) and his successor had to put down revolts in Armenia, Babylonia, and elsewhere. Second Kings and 2 Chronicles have much to say about problems between Israel, Judah, and Syria at the time. The Philistines, however, do not figure into these chapters except in 2 Chronicles 21:16-17 and 2 Kings 11. One of the problems in Judah concerns Queen Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. A marriage alliance had been arranged between King Jehoshaphat of Judah and King Ahab of Israel (2 Chron. 18:1). To seal the alliance, Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram (also called Joram) married Ahab's daughter Athaliah (2 Kings 8:16ff.). The land of Judah suffered during Jehoram's brief reign of eight years, perhaps due in part to the fact that he killed his brothers as competitors for the throne (2 Chron. 21:1-4). Jehoram may have done this at the urging of his wife, the daughter of Ahab. Athaliah was probably the one who had the house of Baal built in Jerusalem (2 Kings 11:18). God allowed Edom to revolt against Judah, and the Philistines as well as Arabs to the east and southwest made forays into Judah "and carried away all the possessions they found that belonged to the king's house" (2 Chron. 21:17). These forays were probably into royal cities on the outskirts of Judah and not into Jerusalem itself. The Philistines were thereby able to reverse the situation that had existed in the time of Jehoram's father, Jehoshaphat. Then, some of the Philistines had had to bring tribute to Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah (2 Chron. 17:11). Jehoram died in 841 B.C. of a painful abdominal disease, and "he departed with no one's regret" (2 Chron. 21:20).

Jehoram's son Ahaziah then took over the throne of Judah. This son was later killed by Jehu at the same time that Jehu killed Joram (Jehoram) of Israel (Ahab's son and Athaliah's brother) in the dramatic story recited in 2 Kings 9. When Jehu entered Jezreel, he also killed Jezebel by having her thrown over the palace wall.

Back in Judah, Jezebel's daughter Athaliah heard about the death of her brother, mother, and son at the hands of King Jehu of Israel, and she then performed a sickening deed in a fashion that would have made her mother proud. Athaliah killed off the royal house and became queen. She missed one young member of the royal house of David who had been hidden, but nonetheless she was able to rule Judah for six years. In the seventh year of Athaliah's reign, Jehoiada, a priest loyal to the Lord, took steps to put this young survivor, Joash, on the throne. In order to restore the house of David to the throne in Jerusalem, Jehoiada called in the Carites. Who were these Carites?

Caria was located in the southwest corner of Anatolia, that is, modern-day Turkey. Miletus was one of its major cities. As has been explained, it is one possible location for the origins of the Sea Peoples. The Carites were very well known in extrabiblical sources from the seventh century B.C.. They were mercenaries hired by the Egyptians (Pfeiffer 1973, 398-99; Miller and Hayes 1986, 370; Herodotus 2.150f.). Herodotus, in reference to an oracle, calls the Carians (and their companions, the Ionians) "bronze men from the sea." Due to these references to the Carians of the seventh century, some scholars conclude that the Carites of 2 Kings 11 of the ninth century B.C. were probably mercenaries from Caria hired somehow by Jehoiada or by a previous king of Judah. I disagree, but I will refer to Herodotus's Carians again when we discuss King Josiah of Judah.

The Carites of 2 Kings 11 were part of the royal guard, similar in function to the Cherethites and the Pelethites back in the days of David and Solomon. Is it possible to link the Carites to David's Philistine bodyguard? It is, and I believe that the biblical text itself gives us a clue. If the Carites had always been part of the royal bodyguard, why did they turn on Athaliah? The logical answer is that they recognized that Athaliah was not of the house of David to whom they first swore allegiance. Since Joash was a direct descendant of David, Jehoiada did not have to do any arm-twisting to get them to help place Joash on the throne.

Carites, in transcription from Hebrew, is kari, and the transcription for the Cherethites of David's bodyguard is kereti (see 2 Sam. 8:18; 15:18; 20:7 for examples of kereti; see also p. 67). Yet in 2 Samuel 20:23, the Hebrew word translated "Cherethites" is kari and not kereti. Thus the word kari seems to be interchangeable in the minds of translators with the word kereti and probably refers to the same people. This then leads to the suggestion that the Carites in the Joash story of 2 Kings 11 had been in the employ of David's royal house for generations, much like the Swiss Guard (Cogan and Tadmor 1988, 126) that has protected the pope in Rome for generations.

Notice that Jehoiada showed the Carites the king's son, and then commanded them to protect the rightful heir to the throne. The Carites agreed to this alliance with Jehoiada, which would have been the natural response for them as the royal bodyguard.

Then Jehoiada, with a stroke of genius, "delivered to the captains the spears and shields that had been King David's, which were in the house of the Lord; the guards stood, every man with his weapons in his hand. . . " (2 Kings 11:10-11). If the Carites were the "Swiss Guard," then giving them the spears and shields of King David's time was indeed a brilliant move, since this would have been enough to remind them where their loyalty should lie. "Then he [Jehoiada] brought out the king's son, put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant; they proclaimed him king, and anointed him; they clapped their hands and shouted, `Long live the king!'" (2 Kings 11:12). Yes, the Carites were doing for Joash as their predecessors had done for David (2 Sam. 15:13-18) and Solomon (1 Kings 1:38-40). "He [Jehoiada] took the captains, the Carites, the guards, and all the people of the land; then they brought the king down from the house of the Lord, marching through the gate of the guards to the king's house. He took his seat on the throne of the kings" (2 Kings 11:19). It must have been an emotional moment for all, but especially for the proud Philistine bodyguard, who more than once in its history had saved the life of the king.