Queen Athaliah
Queen of Judah
Athaliah from "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum"
Reign	842 – 837 BC
Birthplace	possibly Samaria, Kingdom of Israel
Place of death	Jerusalem, Kingdom of Judah
Predecessor	Ahaziah of Judah
Successor	Jehoash of Judah
Royal House	House of Ahab
Father	Ahab
Mother	Jezebel

Athaliah ( /ˌæθəˈlaɪ.ə/; Hebrew: עֲתַלְיָה, ʻĂṯalyâ ; "God is exalted"; Greek: Γοθολια; Latin: Athalia)^[1] was the queen of Judah during the reign of King Jehoram, and later became sole ruler of Judah for six years. William F. Albright has dated her reign to 842–837 BC, while Edwin R. Thiele's dates, as taken from the third edition of his magnum opus, were 842/841 to 836/835 BC.^[2] However, a starting date of 842/841 for Athaliah is one year before the date of 841/840 that Thiele gave for death of her son Ahaziah,^[3] a conflict that Thiele never resolved. The present article accepts the one-year adjustment to Thiele's dates for Ahaziah given by later scholars that is explained in the Rehoboam and Ahaziah articles, thereby reconciling Thiele's dates for Athaliah with those of her predecessor. These dates are also compatible with cross-synchronisms between Ahaziah and Athaliah and the northern kingdom. Athaliah is usually considered the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel (see discussion below); her marriage to Jehoram sealed a treaty between Israel and Judah.

Jehoram, a descendant of King David, actively promoted the worship of YHWH in his country, but he tolerated Athaliah's worship of Baal. After Jehoram's death, their son Ahaziah became Judah's king with Athaliah acting as queen mother. She used her power in that role to establish the worship of Baal in Judah after Ahaziah was killed in a state visit to Israel along with the then-king of Israel, also named Jehoram, who was Athaliah's brother (or possibly nephew). Jehu assassinated them both in Yahweh's name and had Athaliah's entire extended family in Israel put to death.

Athaliah, as queen of Judah, tried to have all possible successors to Ahaziah executed; one, however,a grandson of hers named Joash was rescued from the purge by Jehosheba, Ahaziah's sister, and was raised in secret by the priest Jehoiada. Six years later, Athaliah was surprised when Jehoiada revealed Joash and proclaimed him king of Judah. She rushed to stop this rebellion, but was captured and executed.

Athaliah: daughter of Ahab, or his sister?[link]

The text above regards Athaliah as the daughter of Ahab and his wife Jezebel. This is consistent with most Bible commentaries. However there are several Scriptures that, when combined with chronological considerations, have led some scholars to hold that she was Ahab's sister, not his daughter.^[4][5] The relevant Scriptural texts that can be cited to support the brother-sister relationship are the following.

• Second Kings 8:26, and its parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 22:2, say that Jehoram of Judah married a "daughter" of Omri, Ahab's father. The Hebrew word "daughter" (bath) can mean daughter, granddaughter, or any female descendant, in the same way that ben can mean son, grandson, or any male descendant. Consequently, some modern versions translate that Athaliah was a "granddaughter" of Omri. But the books of Kings and Chronicles give far more attention to Ahab than to Omri, and so it is notable that in these verses it is not Athaliah's relationship to Ahab that is stressed, but her relationship to Omri. This would be reasonable if Omri were her father. The immediately following verses also discuss Ahab, again raising the question of why her relationship to Omri is mentioned, instead of to Ahab.
• Second Kings 8:29 says that Jehoram, Athaliah's husband, was related by marriage (hatan) to the house of Ahab. The word hatan commonly is used to specify a father-in-law or son-in-law relationship. If Jehoram was Ahab's son-in-law, the expression that would be expected here would be "son-in-law" (or relative by marriage) to Ahab, not to "the house of Ahab." If Athaliah was Ahab's sister, not his daughter, then there is an explanation for the additional phrase "house of."

The support for Athaliah being Ahab's daughter comes from two verses, 2 Kings 8:18 and its parallel in 2 Chronicles 21:6. These verses say that Jehoram of Judah did wickedly "because he married a daughter of Ahab." This would seem to settle the question in favor of the daughter relationship, with one precaution: the Syriac version of the 2 Chronicles 21:6 says "sister of Ahab" instead of daughter. This textual support for Athaliah being the sister of Ahab is usually regarded as weak enough to justify translating bath in 2 Kings 8:26 and 2 Chronicles 22:2 as "granddaughter," thus bringing the various passages about Athaliah into harmony: she is presented as Omri's granddaughter and Ahab's daughter.

Gustave Doré, The Death of Athaliah.

The chronological considerations brought forth by scholars who advocate the sister-theory have to do with determining the earliest age at which Athaliah could have been born, and then showing that this is too late for Athaliah to be Ahab's daughter, but not too late if she was his sister. This brings up the question of who her mother was. It is often assumed that her mother was the famous Jezebel, the only wife mentioned for Ahab in Scripture, but an argument from silence about other wives cannot be conclusive. Athaliah might have been the daughter of another of Ahab's wives. But, assuming for now that Jezebel was her mother, some upper limits can be placed on when Ahab and Jezebel were married, and hence the upper limit on when Athaliah could have been born. Here the argument is made that the Ahab/Jezebel marriage was obviously an affair of state that would only have occurred after Omri, Ahab's father, was firmly in control of his kingdom, and Ithobaal, Jezebel's father, was firmly in control of Tyre and Sidon. Omri and Ithobaal were both usurpers; neither was the member of a royal family before they took the throne, and so it is not reasonable that, before they became kings, an Israelite general would seek out a priest of Astarte in the kingdom of Tyre and Sidon to get a wife for his young son Ahab.

Omri, father of Ahab, became sole ruler of the northern kingdom after killing Tibni in 881 BC. According to F. M. Cross's chronology of Tyrian kings, as calculated from the records of Menander of Ephesus,^[6] Ithobaal killed Phelles and became king of Tyre in 878 BC, two years after Omri became undisputed king of Israel. It would only be in 878 BC or later, then, that these two kings would be open to discussing a marriage alliance of Omri's son Ahab with Ithobaal's daughter Jezebel. If the marriage had taken place in the first year of Ithobaal's reign, then, assuming their first-born was Athaliah and that she was born in the following year, Athaliah would have been born in 877 BC at the earliest. She would have been 36 years old in 841 BC when her son Ahaziah came to the throne. Ahaziah was 22 years old at this time, according to 2 Kings 8:26, so his mother would have been only 14 when he was born, under this scenario that placed the birth of Athaliah as early as possible. Scholars have used these chronological considerations to say that Athaliah could not have been Ahab's daughter, but she could have been his sister.

A weakness in the foregoing argument is that it assumes that Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab by his wife Jezebel. There is no statement in Scripture that names her mother, and if Ahab fathered Athaliah by an otherwise unknown wife several years before he married Jezebel, the chronological argument would not hold.

Further chronological notes[link]

The calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri (in the fall) and that of Israel in Nisan (in the spring). Cross-synchronizations between the two kingdoms therefore often allow narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king to within a six-month range. For Athaliah, the Scriptural data allow the narrowing of her accession to some time between Nisan 1 of 841 BC and the day before Tishri 1 of the same BC year. For calculation purposes, this should be taken as the Judean year beginning in Tishri of 842/841 BC, or more simply 842 BC. Her death occurred at some time between Nisan 1 and Tishri 1 of 835 BC, i.e. in 836/835 BC by the Judean calendar. At this time of rapprochement between the two kingdoms, Judah was using Israel's "non-accession" method of reckoning the years, so that she was deposed in her "seventh year" (2 Kings 11:4), after being monarch for six actual years (2 Kings 11:3).

Names in modern Israel[link]

Though she is not presented favorably in the Bible, "Athaliah" or "Atalia" is attested, though infrequently, as a female first name in contemporary Israel.

This is derived partially from a search for Hebrew parallels with such (etymologically unconnected) European names as Ottilie, Odile and Ophelia, as well as with some Yiddish names. Also, some Israeli Feminists advocate "reading the Bible backwards" and favoring the names of women characters whom the male compilers of the Bible regarded negatively.

A woman with this name is the main protagonist of the 1984 film Atalia.

Athaliah in literature and music[link]

In 1691, French tragedian Jean Racine wrote a play about this Biblical queen, entitled Athalie. The German composer Felix Mendelssohn, among others, wrote incidental music (his op. 74) to Racine's play, first performed in Berlin in 1845. One of the most frequently heard excerpts from the Mendelssohn music is titled "War March of the Priests" ("Kriegsmarsch der Priester").^[7]

In 1733, the musician and composer Handel composed an oratorio based on her life, called Athalia, calling her a "Baalite Queen of Judah Daughter of Jezebel." Baal was the fertility god of the Canaanites, whom the ancient Israelites often fell into worshipping in the Old Testament.

Up and coming artist Athalia also uses the name.

See also[link]

• Hebrew Bible - the story of her actions is told in 2 Kings 8:16 – 11:16 and 2 Chronicles 22:10-23:15.
• Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 9.7.1-5.
• Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women, pp. 102–106; Harvard University Press 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9
• Athalia, by Handel; The New Oxford Annotated Bible, third edition (2001), page 582.

References[link]

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (May 2010)

King Jehoash
King of Judah
Jehoash from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum
Reign	c. 837 – 800 BC
Coronation	at Solomon's Temple
Born	c. 844 BC
Birthplace	Jerusalem, Kingdom of Judah
Died	c. 800 BC
Place of death	Beth-milo, Kingdom of Israel
Predecessor	Athaliah
Successor	Amaziah
Consort	Jehoaddan of Jerusalem
Royal House	House of David
Father	Ahaziah
Mother	Zibiah

Jehoash or Joas (in Douay-Rheims) (Hebrew: יְהֹואָשׁ, Yəhôʾāš ; "Jehovah-given"; Greek: Ιωας; Latin: Joas;^[1] fl. c. 800 BC), sometimes written Joash or Joás (Hebrew: יֹואָשׁ, Yôʾāš)^[2], was the eighth king of the southern Kingdom of Judah, and the sole surviving son of Ahaziah. His mother was Zibiah of Beersheba (2 Kings 12:1).

William F. Albright has dated his reign to 837 – 800 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 835 – 796 BC.^[3]

While yet an infant, he was saved from the general massacre commanded by Athaliah of the family by his aunt Jehosheba (or Josaba in Douay-Rheims), and was apparently the only surviving male descendant of his grandfather Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:4,17). His great-uncle, the high priest Jehoiada, brought him forth to public notice when he was seven years of age, and had Jehoash crowned and anointed king. Athaliah was taken by surprise when she heard the shout of the people, "Long live the king"; and when she appeared in the temple to challenge this coup, Jehoiada commanded her to be led forth out of the Temple to be put to death (2 Kings 11:13-20).

While the High Priest lived, Jehoash favored the worship of God and observed the Law, but on his death Jehoash was led into supporting other gods. Zechariah, the son and successor of the High Priest, boldly condemned this rebellion, but was put to death. For these deeds, the author of the Books of Kings believed Jehoash brought down on the land the judgement of God, and it was oppressed by the Aramean invaders. He was buried in the City of David (2 Kings 12:21).

He is one of the four kings omitted by Matthew (1:8) in the genealogy of Jesus, the other three being Ahaziah, Amaziah, and Jehoiakim.

In 2001, an unprovenanced inscription was published, known as the Jehoash Inscription or Temple Inscription, which appears to be a record of repairs made to Solomon's Temple during Jehoash's reign. Following extensive scientific tests the Israeli archaeological authorities declared it to be a forgery and are prosecuting the perpetrator, although a number of experts maintain that it is not a forgery.^[4]

When the Syrian king Hazael marched against Jerusalem, Joash bribed him with the gold of the royal and sacred treasuries to turn back (2 Kings 12:18-19 (AV 17-18)); this proved fruitless (2 Chronicles 24:23-25) for the Syrian army persisted to destroy all the princes of Judah and the soldiers "executed judgment against Joash," and they left him severely wounded. Joash was assassinated by his own servants at Beth-milo, after a reign of forty years, and his assassination is recorded as an act of revenge for the blood of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada 2 Kings 12:1,21; 2 Chronicles 24:1,25).

Joash was buried together with his fathers in the city of David (2 Kings 12:22), although he was "not (buried) in the sepulchres of the kings" (2 Chronicles 24:25).

Chronological notes[link]

The calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri (in the fall) and that of Israel in Nisan (in the spring). Cross-synchronizations between the two kingdoms therefore often allow narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king to within a six-month range. For Jehoash, the Scriptural data allow the narrowing of his accession to some time between Nisan 1 of 835 BC and the day before Tishri 1 of the same BC year. For calculation purposes, this should be taken as the Judean year beginning in Tishri of 836/835 BC, or more simply 836 BC. His death occurred at some time between Nisan 1 of 796 BC and the day before Tishri 1 of that BC year, i.e. in 797/796, or more simply, 797 BC. During his reign, the Judean court recorders were still using the non-accession system of measuring years that was adopted in the days of Jehoshaphat from the practice of the northern kingdom, whereby the king's first partial year in office was counted as his first year of reign.

In rabbinic literature[link]

The extermination of the male descendants of David was considered a divine retribution for David's responsibility for the extermination of the priests by Saul, who had commanded his servant Doeg to perform this task (comp. 1 Sam. 22:17-23). Joash escaped death because in the latter case one priest, Abiathar, survived (Sanh. 95b). The hiding-place of Joash was, according to R. Eleazar, one of the chambers behind the Holy of Holies; according to R. Samuel b. Naḥman, one of the upper chambers of the Temple (Cant. R. i. 66).^[5]

Although a king who is the son of a king need not be anointed, exception was made in the case of Joash, as well as of Solomon and Zedekiah, the succession of each of whom was contested (Lev. R. x. 8). Particular mention is made of the crown placed on Joash's head (2 Kings 11:12), because it fitted exactly, showing that he was qualified for kingship (Ab. Zarah 44a).

He was assassinated by two of his servants, one of whom was a son of an Ammonite woman and the other the offspring of a Moabite (2 Chron. 24:26); for God said: "Let the descendants of the two ungrateful families chastise the ungrateful Joash" (Yalk., Ex. 262). Ironically, Moab and Ammon were the two offspring of Lot's tryst with his two daughters as described in Gen. 19:30-38.

References[link]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Emil G. Hirsch, Max Seligsohn, Solomon Schechter, Ira Maurice Price (1901–1906). "Joash". Jewish Encyclopedia. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=329&letter=J.