Naravist

Person in the Old Testament

Athaliah

Athaliah: the queen mother who seized Judah's throne

Portrait of Athaliah. An AI-generated artistic interpretation, not a historical likeness.

Portrait: an AI-generated artistic interpretation, not evidence of how Athaliah looked.

Who Athaliah is

Athaliah is named as the mother of Ahaziah king of Judah and "the daughter of Omri king of Israel" in both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Chronicles adds that she was her son's counsellor to do wickedly. When she sees that Ahaziah is dead, she rises and destroys all the seed royal; Chronicles specifies "of the house of Judah". Jehosheba, the king's daughter and Ahaziah's sister, steals the infant Joash and his nurse into a bedchamber, and he is hidden in the house of the Lord for six years while Athaliah reigns over the land. In the seventh year Jehoiada the priest arms the captains and guard, crowns and anoints the boy, and the people clap and shout. Athaliah hears the noise, comes into the temple, sees the king standing by the pillar with princes and trumpeters and the people rejoicing, tears her clothes and cries, "Treason, Treason." Jehoiada orders her taken outside the ranks and any follower killed, saying she must not be slain in the house of the Lord. She is led out by the way the horses enter the king's house, at the horse gate in Chronicles, and killed there. Both books end her story with the people rejoicing and the city quiet. Later, when Joash orders the temple repaired, the narrator explains that the sons of Athaliah, "that wicked woman", had broken up the house of God and given its dedicated things to Baalim.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 8:26, 2 Chronicles 22:2, 2 Chronicles 22:3, 2 Kings 11:1, 2 Chronicles 22:10, 2 Kings 11:2, 2 Kings 11:3, 2 Chronicles 22:12, 2 Kings 11:12, 2 Kings 11:13, 2 Kings 11:14, 2 Chronicles 23:13, 2 Kings 11:15, 2 Kings 11:16, 2 Chronicles 23:15, 2 Kings 11:20, 2 Chronicles 23:21, 2 Chronicles 24:7

Historical setting

Athaliah's parentage is given two ways. She is "the daughter of Omri" in 2 Kings 8:26 and 2 Chronicles 22:2, while her husband Jehoram's wife is "the daughter of Ahab" in 2 Kings 8:18 and 2 Chronicles 21:6, and Ahaziah is called "the son in law of the house of Ahab"; the texts do not explain how these fit together. The two books give Ahaziah's age at accession as twenty-two and as forty-two. Athaliah receives no accession formula of the kind given to Ahaziah before her and Joash after her; the narrator says she "did reign over the land" for the six years of the hiding, and no closing formula follows. Her only recorded words are "Treason, Treason". Neither book says how the seed royal was destroyed, where Athaliah lived during the six years, or whether Jehosheba was her own daughter; Chronicles adds that Jehosheba was Jehoiada's wife. The "sons of Athaliah" in 2 Chronicles 24:7 are not named, and Ahaziah is the only son the texts identify. Her death is reported twice in each book, in each case at the king's house.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 8:26, 2 Chronicles 22:2, 2 Kings 8:18, 2 Chronicles 21:6, 2 Kings 8:27, 2 Kings 11:3, 2 Kings 11:14, 2 Kings 11:1, 2 Kings 11:2, 2 Chronicles 22:11, 2 Chronicles 24:7, 2 Kings 11:16, 2 Kings 11:20

How the story is told

Both books frame Athaliah by the child she failed to kill. Her act of destruction takes one clause, the six years of her reign take one sentence, and the narrative slows only for the day of her fall, which is told from inside the temple with her outside it until the noise draws her in. Kings and Chronicles agree on the shape of that scene: she looks, sees the king at the pillar, tears her clothes, and names what she sees as treason. Jehoiada's reply is not to her but to the captains, and his concern is that the house of the Lord not be the place of her death. Chronicles adds singers and instruments to the noise she hears and, in the account of Joash's repairs, gives the narrator's verdict, "that wicked woman", attached to what her sons did to the house of God. In both books the last word on her is the city's quiet, and her killing is set beside that quiet.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 11:1, 2 Kings 11:3, 2 Kings 11:13, 2 Kings 11:14, 2 Chronicles 23:13, 2 Kings 11:15, 2 Chronicles 23:14, 2 Chronicles 23:12, 2 Chronicles 24:7, 2 Kings 11:20, 2 Chronicles 23:21

Story moments

  1. Named as Ahaziah's mother (2 Kings 8:26). The accession notice for Ahaziah names Athaliah, daughter of Omri.
  2. Counsellor to do wickedly (2 Chronicles 22:3). Chronicles says Ahaziah walked in Ahab's ways because his mother counselled him.
  3. The seed royal destroyed (2 Kings 11:1). Seeing her son dead, Athaliah kills the royal heirs.
  4. Six years on the throne (2 Kings 11:3). Athaliah reigns while Joash is hidden in the house of the Lord.
  5. Treason, Treason (2 Kings 11:14). She sees the crowned boy by the pillar and tears her clothes.
  6. Slain at the horse gate (2 Chronicles 23:15). Led out of the temple, she is killed at the entrance by the king's house.
  7. Her sons and the house of God (2 Chronicles 24:7). The narrator says Athaliah's sons broke up the temple and gave its things to Baalim.

Key passages

2 Kings 8:26

Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.

2 Kings 11:1

And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.

2 Kings 11:2

But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.

2 Kings 11:3

And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.

2 Kings 11:13

And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord.

2 Kings 11:14

And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason.

King James Version. 15 indexed passages in total.

For reflection

Athaliah's only words are "Treason, Treason", spoken by the woman who destroyed the royal line to take the throne. What does the reader learn about her from what the narrators report, and what from what they leave out?

Books Athaliah appears in

Related people

Names and references are adapted from STEPBible TIPNR. A person listed with a verse is named or indexed there; it does not mean they wrote or spoke it.