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by Katie Erickson

This series I’ve been writing for the last few months has been on the kings of the divided nation of Israel and Judah. But today, we’re switching that up just a bit and taking a look at a queen of Judah. This is definitely unusual for the nation, and you’ll see as we dig into Athaliah’s life how it all played out.

The previous king of Judah chronologically that I wrote about two weeks ago was Ahaziah. You may recall from that blog post that Ahaziah was killed by King Jehu of Israel while Ahaziah was visiting King Joram of Israel, who also happened to be Ahaziah’s first cousin.

Athaliah was Ahaziah’s mother, and she had been married to King Jehoram of Judah (Ahaziah’s father). But, Athaliah was also the daughter of King Ahab of Israel! That’s definitely quite the complicated family tree (I actually had to draw a picture to figure it out for myself). Athaliah was widowed when her husband Jehoram was killed and Ahaziah became king.

So, when Athaliah heard that her son Ahaziah was dead, she stopped at nothing to seize the throne and put herself in charge (2 Kings 11:1). She literally murdered every member of the royal family so that there would be no biological heir to claim the throne instead of her. She even murdered her own grandchildren! With no one else remaining alive to begin ruling, she made herself the queen of Judah.

But, Athaliah had a daughter who survived, named Jehosheba. Jehosheba managed to hide Ahaziah’s son Joash from her mother. Joash was among all the royal family’s princes who Athaliah was going to murder, but Jehosheba snatched him away and hid him with a nurse so he would not be killed (2 Kings 11:2).

Amazingly, Jehosheba was able to sneak Joash away to the temple, where she undoubtedly conspired with the priests to keep the young boy hidden. It probably helped that Jehosheba was married to the high priest at the time, Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 22:11). They managed to hide him for an entire 6 years while Athaliah was ruling as queen (2 Kings 11:3)!

The people of Judah were not happy with Athaliah's ruling as queen since she ascended to the throne in such an awful way. That likely contributed to those involved desiring to hide Joash from her, so that he could become the rightful king when he was old enough. Jehoiada the high priest worked up a plan to get Joash on the throne and depose Queen Athaliah, which is spelled out in 2 Kings 11:4-12.

First, Jehoiada got all those in charge in the temple and in the military on board with the plan. Next, he got the Levites (the priestly class) on board and had them swear their allegiance to Joash, who was the rightful king. Then, he got certain royal guards into the right places at the right times and had them appropriately armed for the situation. The palace needed to be defended should anyone who supported Athaliah try to thwart the plan.

Finally, Jehoiada led young king Joash into the right spot to put everything into action: “Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; he presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him, and the people clapped their hands and shouted, ‘Long live the king!’” (2 Kings 11:12).

Athaliah, of course, heard all the commotion and was quite mad. She knew exactly what was happening when she saw the situation – that Joash was being made the king, while she was still reining as queen. She proclaimed it treason, but that did not matter as Joash was technically the rightful king, and everything had been done to make him so (2 Kings 11:13-14).

This is where it was key that Jehoiada had the right guards in place; he commanded them to seize Athaliah and to put to death anyone who proclaimed allegiance to her. They dragged Athaliah out of the palace in order to put her to death as well, thus ending her 7-year reign (2 Kings 11:15-16).

But wait, there’s more! “Jehoiada then made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people that they would be the LORD’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. All the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols to pieces and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars” (2 Kings 11:17-18). Joash was only 7 years old at the time, but Jehoiada the high priest got him off to a great start in his reign by declaring that the people of Judah would follow the one true God. They removed all the altars to idols and pagan gods and put the proper covenants in place for Judah, and the new king Joash, to follow God.

To sum it all up, “All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the palace” (2 Kings 11:20).

Athaliah’s brief reign as the only recorded queen of Judah (or Israel) definitely does not shed a great light on the female gender as leaders. But to be fair, the sample size is pretty small! She started off her reign with anger at her son’s death which led to her murdering many more of her own family members. If not for the bravery of her daughter Jehosheba who snuck away baby Joash, Athaliah may have had many more years of an idol-worshiping reign, leading the people of Judah further away from following God. Athaliah is not a great example to follow, but Jehosheba’s courageous actions in the face of her murderous mother are inspiring.

Which one of these ladies are you like? Are you acting like Athaliah and taking over what may not be rightfully yours? Or are you acting like Jehosheba and standing courageously for what’s right in the face of danger?

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