Athaliah

Athaliah is a queen of Judah in the Hebrew Bible, identified as the mother of King Ahaziah and as the royal figure who seizes power after her son’s death (2 Kings 11:1; 2 Chronicles 22:10).

The text identifies her as “the daughter of Omri king of Israel” (2 Kings 8:26; 2 Chronicles 22:2), while 2 Kings 8:18 says that the Judaean king married “Ahab’s daughter”; together these place her within the house of Omri and Ahab. Linguistically, the Hebrew word for “daughter” can also denote a female descendant, so the two descriptions need not be in tension, though the exact genealogical link is a matter of historical reconstruction. The narrative also gives Ahaziah’s age as twenty-two in 2 Kings 8:26 and forty-two in 2 Chronicles 22:2, a well-known chronological discrepancy in the textual record.

The narrative says that when Athaliah saw her son dead she destroyed the royal offspring (2 Kings 11:1; 2 Chronicles 22:10). Jehosheba hid Joash with his nurse (2 Kings 11:2), and 2 Chronicles 22:12 states that he remained hidden in God’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land. Jehoiada the priest then brought out the king’s son, crowned and anointed him, and the people acclaimed him (2 Kings 11:12). Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!” (2 Kings 11:14; 2 Chronicles 23:13). Jehoiada ordered her brought out between the ranks and killed, instructing that she not be slain in Yahweh’s house (2 Kings 11:15); 2 Chronicles 23:15 says she was killed at the entrance of the horse gate.

Christian interpretation has no single confessional reading of Athaliah. Some readings emphasize her as a dynastic usurper and a symbol of the influence of Ahab’s house, drawing on 2 Kings 8:18; others treat the story primarily as a court struggle in which the Davidic line is preserved through Jehosheba and Jehoiada. The passages themselves present her as a royal mother who acts to eliminate the royal line and is executed when Joash is enthroned; they give neither her own voice nor a full account of her religious policy.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.