2 Chronicles 22King James Version
Ahaziah, the youngest son, reigns one year and is killed by Jehu during the purge of Ahab's house. His mother Athaliah, learning of his death, kills all the remaining royal heirs to seize the throne. One infant, Joash, is hidden in the temple by his aunt for six years.
Ahaziah becomes king and walks in Ahab's ways because his mother Athaliah and the house of Ahab are his counselors. He joins Jehoram of Israel against Hazael at Ramoth-gilead, which leads to their encounter with Jehu. Jehu kills both Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah. Athaliah seizes the throne, kills all the royal family. But Jehoshabeath hides the infant Joash in the temple for six years.
Bad counsel from wicked relatives brings a king to the place of his death, but one act of courage by one woman preserves the entire Davidic line.
3: "He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly." A single sentence assigns the causation: the counsel that shaped a reign came from someone who served the wrong master.
The six years of hiding Joash in the temple are a kind of exile within the city. The legitimate king is right there, in the house built for his ancestor, invisible to the queen who is sitting on his throne. The irony is heavy with meaning for the Chronicler's post-exilic community: sometimes the rightful heir must wait in hiddenness before restoration can come.
Ahaziah, shaped entirely by his mother's influence; Athaliah, who counsels her son into his death and then seizes the throne; Jehoshabeath, the priest's wife who hides the child; Joash, the infant who carries the dynasty.
Athaliah is the only woman to reign over Judah, and she arrives at the throne by killing every heir she can find. The Chronicler presents her reign as an aberration that nearly extinguishes the Davidic covenant. That a single woman hiding a child in the temple saves the whole story is the kind of detail that survives because it is both dramatic and true.
For when the people who should protect the line have destroyed it and only one fragile thing remains. Jehoshabeath acts quickly, secretly, at enormous personal risk, and six years later everything depends on what she did in that one moment.
1And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.
2Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.
3He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.
4Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab: for they were his counsellors after the death of his father to his destruction.
5He walked also after their counsel, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramothgilead: and the Syrians smote Joram.
6And he returned to be healed in Jezreel because of the wounds which were given him at Ramah, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. And Azariah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab at Jezreel, because he was sick.
7And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.
8And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them.
9And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain him, they buried him: Because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.
10But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.
11But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not.
12And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.