1 AND when
aAthaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead,
she arose and destroyed all the seed
royala.
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.
3 And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.
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1a she (Athaliah) arose and destroyed all
the seed royal Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab the king of
Israel and Jezebel his wife, who was a Phoenician Princes, the daughter of
King Ethbaal of the Phoenicians and this Jezebel was a dominant force in
relationship to her husband Ahab. Athaliah was like her mother and she had
become the wife of King Jehoram of Judah in a marriage alliance with Israel.
Her son of Jehoram, Ahaziah, became king of Judah after Jehoram's death. But
Ahaziah reigned but for one year and then the Queen Mother took charge with
the intention of wiping out the entire House of David, the seed royal. In
this, acting in the same wicked mode of her wicked mother Jezebel, Athaliah
was almost successful in twarting the promise to King David that the Messiah
would come of his house and royal line. But her own daughter Jehosheba was
successful in rescuing Ahaziah's baby son Joash who was kept secret and raised
in the temple for six years within the care of the temple priest Jehoiada.
Upon the child's age of seven, Jehoiada orchestrated a coup in the temple
wherein such temple workers were armed and he as the priest of the temple
did anoint Joash king. And with Athaliah invading the temple with the cry
of 'Treason!', he had her taken out of the temple and killed in a passage
which was used for the horses. No one seemed to miss or care that Athaliah
was removed and a descendant of David was restored to the throne.
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