Athaliah

The death of Queen Athaliah

Athaliah (Hebrew: ʻAṯalyā (עֲתַלְיָה), "God is exalted") was the only ruling queen of Judah. She was the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel, and the wife of King Jehoram of Judah.

In her youth, Athaliah had been married to Jehoram to seal a treaty between the two sometimes warring nations of Judah and Israel. Jehoram, like his northern neighbors, followed a policy of tolerating Baal worship alongside the worship of Yahweh. After Jehoram's death, their son Ahaziah became Judah's king. However, during a state visit to Israel, Ahaziah was murdered by the Yawhist usurper Jehu, along with Athaliah's mother Jezebel and several other royal family members, including Athaliah's brother, King Joram. Althaliah countered this by staging a bloody coup in Jerusalem, placing herself on the throne and attempting to eliminate any possible royal heir.

She reigned for five to six years, continuing her husband's policy of allowing the worship of both Baal and Yahweh. The high priest Jehoida, meanwhile, had secretly protected and nurtured Athaliah's grandson Jehoash, sheltering him in the Temple of Jerusalem. When the time was ripe, Jehoida overthrew and executed Athaliah and placed Johoash on the throne in her place.

William F. Albright has dated Althaliah's reign to 842 B.C.E. – 837 B.C.E., while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 841 B.C.E. – 835 B.C.E. In the biblical tradition, she is second only to her mother Jezebel as a woman of evil. However, recent scholarship in the feminist tradition views her as a victim of male chauvinism and a promoter of religious tolerance, who was no more ruthless as a ruler than her "good" male counterparts.

Background

Athaliah was the daughter of the northern king Ahab and his Phoenicia wife Jezebel. Her mother was known to be an ardent worshiper of "Baal," probably Baal Melqart of Tyre, while Ahab was a devotee of Yahweh who earned the disapproval of the prophets for his toleration of Baal worship. Athaliah's name, however, means "Yahweh is exalted."

Israel and Judah had been at war in earlier generations, but during the time of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, the two nations formed a strong alliance. This resulted in Ahab contracting a marriage between Athaliah and Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram.

File:Jehu-slays-joram.jpg

Jehu slays Athaliah's brother, Joram of Israel, after which he ordered his men to kill her son Ahaziah as well.

After Jehoshaphat's death, Athaliah rose to the position of queen consort as Jehoram became Judah's king. Meanwhile, Athaliah's brother, also called Jehoram (Joram) had become king of Israel following Ahab's death. Athaliah probably had several children with her husband Jehoram, who was 32 when he became king and reigned for eight years. The Book of Kings criticizes his marriage to the "daughter of Ahab" and indicates that he lost control of his Edomite vassals. In terms of his religious policy, he "did evil in the eyes of the Lord," (2 Kings 8:18), a reference to his toleration of Baal worship. This policy, no doubt, was at least in part due to Athaliah's influence. 2 Chronicles 21:12-16 preserves the text of a supposed letter from the northern prophet Elijah condemning Jehoram for his religious policy. It also states that "the Philistines and of the Arabs who lived near the Cushites" successfully invaded his kingdom and captured his sons and wives: "Not a son was left to him except Ahaziah, the youngest." Athaliah apparently avoided capture during the raid, and Jehoram's other sons, some of whom were probably Athaliah's children too, were later slain (2 Chron. 22:1).

After Jehoram's death, their son Ahaziah became Judah's king at the age of 22. He formed a military alliance with Joram of Israel against the threat of the Syrian empire, a policy much disapproved of by the biblical writers. Indeed, the prophet Elisha supported Syria's king Hazael's usurpation of the throne, believing that Hazael would punish Israel for its sins. Elisha then engineered a bloody coup against Joram of Israel, centering on the ardent Yahwist military commander Jehu.

The unfortunate Ahaziah was visiting Joram, who had been wounded in battle against the common Syrian foe, at this very time. Ahaziah was assassinated along with Joram at Jehu's orders. Thus Athaliah lost both her brother and her son. Her mother, Jezebel, soon also died at Jehu's hands, as did many others members of her extended family.

Athaliah's revenge

Learning of these things, Athaliah was not content to let the Yahwist faction in Jerusalem follow Jehu's example. She ordered the assassination of Ahazaiah's children and seized the throne herself. Ahaziah's "sister" Jehosheba—who may have been either Athaliah's daughter or the child of a rival wife—succeeded in protecting the young Jehoash, hiding him under the protection of the Yahwist priests at the Temple of Jerusalem. There, he was raised in secret by the priest Jehoiada.

Athaliah reigned for six years as the only reigning queen of either Judah or Israel. The Bible says little of Athaliah's reign, but it is clear that she followed her husband Jehoram's policy of tolerating both the worship of Yahweh and of Baal. A temple of Baal existed in Jerusalem during her time, but it is not clear whether it existed already before her reign. In terms of foreign relations we can presume that the alliance between Judah and Israel came to an end, and that this was a contributing factor in Israel's subjection to Syria during Jehu's reign.

Athaliah hides as Joash is proclaimed king

In Athaliah's seventh year the stalwart high priest Jehoiada mustered his allies and brought from his hiding place the seven-year-old Joash, son of Ahaziah and thus Athaliah's grandson. Athaliah, being apprised of the attempt to usurp her throne rushed into the Temple, apparently unattended by her guard. As soon as she saw the newly crowned king, she rent her clothes in despair, and cried defiantly, "Treason! Treason!"

Jehoiada ordered that she be taken forth through the ranks, and he also pronounced a death sentence upon any who should espouse her cause. "So they made way for her, and she went to the entry of the horse gate by the king's house: and they slew her there." (2 Kings 11:4-20)

Jehoiada immediately engineered an attack on the Jerusalem's Temple of Baal. The crowd of Yahwist zealots smashed its altars, destroys its icons and artifacts, and murdered the priest Mattan in front of the altars.

The young king then took his place on the royal throne, although it is certain that the de facto ruler of Judah was now Jehoida.

Legacy

Athaliah was the only woman ever to have reigned over either Judah or Israel. In the aftermath of the murder of her son Ahaziah, her mother Jezebel, and all of her northern relatives, she fought fire with fire, acting more like a man than women, by trying to rid her own kingdom of any possible rivals. She did not completely succeed in this however. Moreover her toleration of Baal worship proved her undoing, as the priests of the rival Temple of Yahweh controlled her son and plotted her death. Whatever positive accomplishments she may have achieved during her reign as queen are written out of the biblical record.

Athaliah's grandson, the boy-king Jehoash, remained under the sway of the priests for several years. However, he eventually grew suspicious that the Temple officials had been abusing public money by failing to make needed improvements to the building. Also, by the time he was 30, the lack of cooperation between his kingdom and the northern kingdom of Israel had left both nations vulnerable to Syrian power. Syria's king Hazael, having already made Israel his vassal, succeeded in pressuring Jerusalem militarily, forcing Jehoash to buy him off at a dear price, sending him "all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and of the royal palace."

Possibly in response to this failure, "his officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla." His own son succeeded him and remained more steadfast to the will of the priests.

Athaliah's royal lineage survived until the Babylonian exile and beyond. In Christian tradition, though it is rarely mentioned, she is one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ. However, in the biblical tradition she is surpassed only by her mother Jezebel as a woman of evil.

French tragedian Jean Racine wrote a 1691 play about this Biblical queen, entitled Athalie. George Frideric Handel composed a 1733 oratorio based on her life, called Athalia, calling her a "Baalite Queen of Judah Daughter of Jezebel."

House of David Cadet Branch of the Tribe of Judah
Preceded by: Ahaziah	Queen of Judah Albright: 842 B.C.E. – 837 B.C.E. Thiele: 841 B.C.E. – 835 B.C.E. Galil: 843 B.C.E. – 835 B.C.E.	Succeeded by: Jehoash

Sources

• Brenner, A. A Feminist Companion to Reading the Bible: Approaches, Methods and Strategies. Routledge, 2001. ISBN 978-1579583507
• Dutcher-Walls, Patricia. Jezebel: Portraits of a Queen. Michael Glazier Books, 2004. ISBN 978-0814651506
• Dever, William G. Did God Have A Wife? Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel. William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005. ISBN 0802828523
• Racine, Jean, and John Cairncross. Iphigenia; Phaedra; Athaliah. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970. ISBN 9780140441222
• Rosenbaum, Mary Helene. Jezebel's Daughter. Lexington, Ky: Blue Grape Press, LLC., 2007. ISBN 9780978606121
• Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002. ISBN 080283972X

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Athaliah  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Athaliah"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.