Accounts of the life of Athaliah are to be found in 2 Kings 8:16–11:16 and 2 Chronicles 22:10–23:15 in the Hebrew Bible. In die Skriflig 38(4) 2004:537-559 537 Athaliah, a treacherous queen: A careful analysis of her story in 2 Kings 11 and 2 Chronicles 22:10-23:21 Robin Gallaher Branch School of Biblical Sciences & Bible Languages Potchefstroom Campus North-West University POTCHEFSTROOM E-mail: sbbrgb@puk.ac.za robingbranch@yahoo.com Abstract She lived with her hands red with the blood of princes and princesses. Spared because she was, after all, just a woman, she now took command of Judah – there were no surviving adult sons or grandsons to do so – and became its queen. 9 The captains did according to all that Jehoi’ada the priest commanded, and each brought his men who were to go off duty on the sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the sabbath, and came to Jehoi’ada the priest. Death of Athaliah . 74) to Racine's play, first performed in Berlin in 1845. When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring. Jesus couldn’t die … However, Jehoram chose not to follow their example but rejected Yahweh and married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab in the line of Omri. Then he wheeled his chariot around to pursue Aziah. He did not make it. As queen-mother, Athaliah was now supreme in the councils of the nation, as well as in the royal palace. Seven-year-old King Joash, under the direction of the faithful high priest, tore down the temple of Baal, smashed the altars and images of Baal, and killed the priest of Baal. Athaliah (afflicted of the Lord) daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, married Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah and introduced into that kingdom the worship of Baal. In V17-18, what covenants were made, and what steps were taken in furtherance of the covenants? After Jehoram's death, Ahaziah became king of Judah, and Athaliah was queen mother. Upon hearing the news of Ahaziah's death, Athaliah seized the throne of Judah and ordered the execution of all possible claimants to the throne,[4][5] including the remnant of her Omri dynasty. Jehoram of Israel was Athaliah's brother (or possibly her nephew). Jehoram of Israel was Athaliah's brother (or possibly her nephe… He assembled a group of foreign mercenaries to guard himself and the boy – the Jerusalem soldiery seem to have been loyal to Athaliah and therefore useless to Jehoiada. [1] Athaliah was married to Jehoram of Judah to seal a treaty between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and to secure his position Jehoram killed his six brothers. 2 Kings 9:14 : So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. This chapter, often referred to as the “hall of faith,” presents an extraordinary list of Old Testament champions of faith, including a description of several anonymous martyrs and persecuted saints. Jehoram of Judah reigned for eight years. 20 And Jehu ordered, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Ba’al.” So they proclaimed it. Athaliah, queen mother in the Bible, was the most powerful woman in Judah. 16 And he said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.” So he had him ride in his chariot. Then his son Ahaziah reigned for a year before he was killed. On Jehu’s orders their heads were placed in baskets at the city gate. There is no way of knowing whether this boy really was one of the royal family, or a substitute conveniently produced at the right moment. Who was Athaliah in the Bible. The Jewish queen most people are familiar with from the Bible is Queen Esther; however, although Esther was Jewish, she was the queen of Persia and did not reign in her own right. Athaliah, Bible queen of Judah, probably daughter of Jezebel When Ahaziah, who was also wicked, died after only one year on the throne, Athaliah plotted to take the throne and had all the royal descendants killed except Joash who had … Alternative Title: Athalia. 2 Kings 11:14 | … Accounts of the life of Athaliah are to be found in 2 Kings 8:16–11:16 and 2 Chronicles 22:10–23:15 in the Hebrew Bible. She was eventually murdered by an army general called Jehu, and by his foreign soldiers. He was shot by arrows as he fled . 10. 21:18-20). .” (2 Kings 8:18). 14 He said, “Take them alive.” And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two persons, and he spared none of them. His father Jehoshaphat and grandfather Asa were devout kings who worshiped Yahweh and walked in his ways. 2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram 11:2 Hebrew Joram, a variant of Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and the only queen of Judah. It was a perfect opportunity for Jehu to kill both of them together, and seize Judah. She held on to power for six years – 842-837? It’s worth pointing out that these priests were the ones who later came to write and edit Judah’s history, which is why Athaliah is portrayed as the greatest villainess of the Bible. Jezebel, queen of Israel worshipped the water/rain god Baal So, just as Jezebel had stirred up Ahab to do evil (1 Kings 21:25), so Athaliah influenced her husband to do the same. She tried to escape but was hunted down like an animal, pursued by the mercenaries then assassinated at the Horse Gate of the palace. 23:21 ); After her death they tore down all worship of Baal throughout the country ( … When Joram died and her son Aziah became king, she became ‘Gebirah‘, the highest-status woman in the kingdom. Athaliah seized the throne. When Athaliah heard that Ahaziah was killed, she usurped the throne by murdering Ahaziah’s sons (her grandchildren). the dates are disputed), but eventually the leader of the Yahwist party, Jehoiada, counter-attacked. He later died at Megiddo. And Jehu took him up with him into the chariot. There is a heartrending account of his desperate flight up the hill towards safety in the fortress of Gur. Ahaziah reigned for one year from the age of 22 (2 Kings 8:26) and was killed during a state visit to Israel along with Jehoram of Israel. She was eventually murdered by an army general called Jehu, and by his foreign soldiers. Who was Athaliah? After the death of Ahaziah, her son, Athaliah usurped the throne and reigned for seven years. She was the only woman in the Bible to have reigned as a monarch. 849-842? 12 Then he brought out the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they proclaimed him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, “Long live the king!”. For the genus of of sawflies, see, "2 Kings 11:1 Multilingual: Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family", List of Jewish leaders in the Land of Israel, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Athaliah&oldid=1014858284, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 29 March 2021, at 13:43. She massacred all the members of the royal house of Judah (II Kings 11:1–3), except Joash. He took the young king to the temple and declared him king before the people. This was popular with the ordinary people, but not with the Yahwist priests whose power was diminished. She died in the barnyard under the battleaxes of an aroused people. Athaliah and Joash. He had Athaliah's entire extended family in Samaria put to death, ending the Omri dynasty in Israel. Jehoiada’s coup was well-planned. Athaliah was so bad that she ordered all of Athaliah’s children to be killed … She manages to remain sole monarch for six years (842–836 b.c.e . God called it murder. Jehoash was raised in secret by Jehosheba's husband, a priest named Jehoiada. Jehoram, with Athaliah by his side, was an evil king who reigned for eight years then died of sickness. She suppressed worship of Jahweh and promoted worship of the old agricultural gods. 891.) p. 69. 15 And when he departed from there, he met Jehon’adab the son of Rechab coming to meet him; and he greeted him, and said to him, “Is your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours?” And Jehon’adab answered, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand. All of Athaliah’s male relatives in Jezreel, capital city of Israel – the seventy boys and young men in the royal family, were rounded up and beheaded. 2 But Jehosheba daughter of King Joram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were being murdered. Under the influence of his mother Athaliah, Ahaziah introduced forms of worship that offended the Yahwistic party. [2] Jehoram became king of Judah in the fifth year of Jehoram of Israel's reign (2 Kings 8:16). And Athaliah did reign over the land. As the mother of the reigning king she out-ranked any of the wives and concubines of her son, and was an extremely powerful woman. Athaliah heard the sudden commotion, and was taken by surprise. Instead, the king’s mother, Athaliah wanted to rule over the country of Judah. Athaliah (Hebrew: .mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-family:"SBL Hebrew","SBL BibLit","Taamey Ashkenaz","Taamey Frank CLM","Frank Ruehl CLM","Ezra SIL","Ezra SIL SR","Keter Aram Tsova","Taamey David CLM","Keter YG","Shofar","David CLM","Hadasim CLM","Simple CLM","Nachlieli",Cardo,Alef,"Noto Serif Hebrew","Noto Sans Hebrew","David Libre",David,"Times New Roman",Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans}עֲתַלְיָה, Modern: ʻAtalya, Tiberian: ʿAṯalyā, Ancient: Ġaṯalyā; Greek: Γοθολία Gotholía; Latin: Athalia) was the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel, the queen consort of Judah as the wife of King Jehoram, a descendant of King David, and later queen regnant c. 841–835 BCE. She killed off all the royal heirs, including her grandchildren, so that she might seize the throne. Conclusion. (B.C. Devotional content drawn from All the Women of the Bible by Herbert Lockyer. She is usually considered to have been the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel. You will die a physical death but you already have eternal life (John 3:16). Jehoiada, Athaliah’s bitter enemy, leader of the Temple priests She was married at an early age to King Joram of the southern kingdom of Judah. On that same day, Queen Jezebel was killed, thrown down from a high balcony of the palace and smashed on the stones of the courtyard. 2 Kings 11:3 Meaning 12 And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. After the great revolution by which Jehu seated himself on the throne of Samaria she killed all the members of the royal family of Judah who had escaped his sword. Then at a time when the palace and Temple were relatively quiet, he surrounded himself and the boy with these soldiers and proclaimed the boy king. Athaliah inherited from her evil mother the strength of will and fanatical devotion to the worship of Baal and eventually led Judah into idolatry. Athaliah was married to Jehoram of Judah to seal a treaty between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and to secure his position Jehoram killed his six brothers. After the great revolution by which Jehu seated himself on the throne of Samaria she killed all the members of the royal family of Judah who had escaped his sword. This of course infuriated the Temple priests, who had supported Jehu’s double coup d’état and helped plan it. 2 Kings 11:13 | View whole chapter | See verse in context And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the LORD. [9]:104 However, a starting date of 842/841 for Athaliah is one year before the date of 841/840 that Thiele gave for the death of her son, Ahaziah,[9]:101 a conflict which Thiele never resolved. 2 But Jehosh’eba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahazi’ah, took Jo’ash the son of Ahazi’ah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were about to be slain, and she put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. 13 Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the escorts and the people, she came to the people in the temple of the Lord. However, Jehosheba, Ahaziah's sister, managed to rescue from the purge Jehoash, a grandson of Athaliah and Jehoram of Judah, who was only one year old. She is usually considered to have been the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel. When Athaliah heard that her son was dead, she did what any mother would do. When he was 22 he was assassinated by Jehu, who had usurped the throne of Israel. Athaliah, queen mother in the Bible, was the most powerful woman in Judah. 22 He said to him who was in charge of the wardrobe, “Bring out the vestments for all the worshipers of Ba’al.” So he brought out the vestments for them. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and said, “The man who allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life.” 25 So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, “Go in and slay them; let not a man escape.”. 13 When Athali’ah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the LORD to the people; 14 and when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Athaliah was probably the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, rulers of the rich northern kingdom of Israel (see map below). 891.) Ahaziah was the youngest son of Jehoram of Judah. She ordered the execution of the whole Davidic royal family after seeing her sons killed by Jehu. A stone pillar or stele, showing the rain/water god Baal. Jehu then herded forty-two of Athaliah’s adult male relatives into a pit and slaughtered them at Betheked. Jehu assassinated them both in Yahweh's name and became king of Israel. Ancient ivory plaque with the famous ‘Woman at the Window. Jehosheba and Jehoiada ran huge risks in hiding Joash. And Athali’ah rent her clothes, and cried, “Treason! 9. a) Describe Athaliah’s demise, detailed in V15-16 . She also rivaled Jezebel in wickedness. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre, and wife of Ahab, king of Israel (1 Kgs 16:31), in the mid-ninth century b.c.e.She was undoubtedly the chief wife of Ahab and co-ruler with him. b) Give a modern day example of the downfall of a formerly powerful person who abused his or her power or position. A formerly powerful person who abused his or her power or position this biblical queen, Athalie... 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