Athaliah (r. 842–836 BCE)

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Athaliah (r. 842–836 bce)

Biblical woman who seized control of Judah (842 bce), which she ruled until her murder by Judaeans opposed to her foreignness and religious toleration. Name variations: Athalia. Flourished between 860 and 836 bce; assassinated in 836 bce; daughter of Ahab and Jezebel of Israel; married Jehoram (or Joram), king of Judah; children: son Ahaziah (or Azariah).

Athaliah, meaning "the Lord is exalted," was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel of Israel. Her marriage to Jehoram, the crown prince of Judah, sealed a political alliance between Israel and Judah. However, not all within Judah were pleased by the alliance, especially as Israel—religiously much more tolerant than Judah—permitted the worship of many deities. As a result, with the coming of Athaliah to Jerusalem came also the worship of various ba'als, especially Melqart, a development that was anathema to all religiously conservative Judaeans. Even so, religious toleration was itself tolerated for the sake of the Israeli-Judaean alliance, for as long as Athaliah's husband and son reigned.

Jehoram died in 843 bce and his son by Athaliah, Ahaziah, came to the throne without apparent opposition. Nevertheless, factional opposition quickly coalesced when Ahaziah refused to abandon his father's political and religious policies. After about a year, Jehu, a critic of those policies, successfully hatched an assassination plot. When Ahaziah was murdered, his son and heir, Joash, was but an infant, and the opposition obviously thought the moment opportune to seize the initiative. Jehu and those supporting him, however, did not reckon with Athaliah, who, amid the bloody removal of potential royal rivals, seized power. Such bloody transitions of power were certainly not unknown to Jerusalem, but at least three things conspired to make Athaliah extremely unpopular thereafter with significant numbers of her subjects: first, she was of foreign origin, for although she had been married to a scion of the House of David, none of David's blood ran through her veins; second, during her palace revolution, Athaliah had caused the death of some who were of David's house; and third, Athaliah openly worshipped Melqart and other pagan deities.

Not murdered in Athaliah's coup was her grandson, Joash, and, indeed, it is extremely unlikely that Athaliah ever desired his death. In fact, the opposite was almost certainly the case; that is, Athaliah likely acted as decisively as she did in order to secure her line's future through Joash. Nevertheless, the hostile extant sources accuse Athaliah of acting out of purely selfish motives, and desirous of Joash' extermination. This unfair characterization almost certainly had its origins in the actions of Jehosheba , who was the sister of the late Jehoram, and thus the one-time sister-in-law of Athaliah. This Jehosheba was married to Jehoiada, who at the time was the High Priest of Yahweh's Temple. As such, it is quite likely that Jehosheba and her husband had much to resent in the religious policy that permitted the worship of ba'als in Jerusalem.

Jehosheba (fl. 9th c.)

Biblical woman. Name variations: Josaba. Flourished in the 9th century; sister of Jehoram of Judah; sister-in-law of Athaliah; married Jehoiada (a high priest).

Jehosheba, with the help of her high priest husband Jehoiada, safeguarded the life of her nephew Joash when the entire royal family was slain by Athaliah . When Joash was six, Jehosheba and Jehoiada organized a revolution in his favor, causing Athaliah and her followers to be put to death.

When Athaliah's palace bloodbath was under-way, Jehosheba spirited Joash away, supposedly to save him from the evil designs of his grandmother. Joash remained in seclusion for a little more than six years (842–836 bce), during which time Athaliah ruled with enough strength to later be credited with having been one of the most powerful royal women of the ancient Near East. Why Athaliah permitted her grandson to be held captive against her interests cannot be said for certain; perhaps, knowing that Joash was in the safekeeping of close relatives, she allowed this situation to continue in the hopes that it would bind the faction of the Temple in the short run to her rule, and in the long run to the rule of her dynasty. If so, then Athaliah miscalculated, for a little over six years into her reign (836) Joash was produced in the Temple as the rightful king of Judah. When Athaliah hurried to the Temple to try to put an end to this mutiny, she was murdered at the sanctuary's Horse Gate. Joash thereafter ruled, initially under a regency. Ironically, Joash would later betray those who engineered his grandmother's downfall by acknowledging more gods than Yahweh.