she arose and destroyed – Heb. וַתְּדַבֵּר, an expression of דֶּבֶר, pestilence. In II Kings (11:1), it is written: וַתְּאַבֵּד. Concerning this generation, David recited: (Ps. 12:1): "For the conductor on the sheminith,⁠" for David foresaw with the holy spirit that in the eighth generation [of his dynasty] all his descendants would be slain by Athaliah, for there are eight generations from Solomon till here. And he prayed that his seed would survive for a remembrance, and said, (ibid. verse 2): "Save, O Lord, for the pious are gone, etc.⁠" In II Kings (11:2), Scripture states that she killed them by poisoning them, for it is written: "and she stole him away from the dying (הַמְמוֹתִים) children of the king"; we read: הַמּוּמָתִים the slain. Both the traditional reading and the masoretic text have authority. הַמּוּמָתִים means that they already died, and the masoretic text in which the word used is הַמְמוֹתִים means that they were dying in agony. This is written in the continuous present tense, i.e., not all at once but continuously being crushed by illnesses, and then dying. An example is (Jer. 16:4): "Dying of (מְמוֹתֵי) sicknesses they shall die, etc. and with famine,⁠" because they too will not die immediately.