1. Then, in the seventh year, Jehoiada summoned his courage and took the commanders of hundreds into a covenant with him: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri.
2. They made a circuit throughout Judah. They gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah and the heads of the families of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
3. Then the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s temple. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the king’s son! He must reign, just as the Lord promised concerning David’s sons.
4. This is what you are to do: a third of you, priests and Levites who are coming on duty on the Sabbath, are to be gatekeepers.
5. A third are to be at the king’s palace, and a third are to be at the Foundation Gate, and all the troops will be in the courtyards of the Lord’s temple.
6. No one is to enter the Lord’s temple but the priests and those Levites who serve; they may enter because they are holy, but all the people are to obey the requirement of the Lord.
7. You must completely surround the king with weapons in hand. Anyone who enters the temple is to be put to death. You must be with the king in all his daily tasks.”
8. So the commanders of hundreds did everything Jehoiada the priest commanded. They each brought their men — those coming on duty on the Sabbath and those going off duty on the Sabbath — for Jehoiada the priest did not release the divisions.