Bible Word of the Day
Athaliah (Wicked Granddaughter of Omri king of Israel)
Meaning
Athaliah was an evil and wicked queen. She is known in the Bible as the “granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.” The Omri dynasty was a line of rulers who profoundly destroyed the spiritual life of the northern kingdom of Israel. After the death of Solomon the nation of Israel split into the northern kingdom called Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom never had any good kings, they were all evil to one degree or another and rebelled against God. God had sent prophets to warn the people and the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, but to no avail. Finally, God removed the northern kingdom forever and allowed them to go into exile.
God finally allowed the Assyrians to defeat the northern kingdom and take them into exile never to return. One of the most wicked king and queen pairs was the infamous Ahab and Jezebel. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. She had become the wife of a king of Judah named Jehoram. She had a son named Ahaziah who became king of Judah, and she encouraged him to follow after Ahab and Jezebel, rebel against God and worship idols. When Ahaziah died, she tried to exterminate the entire royal family of Judah. She did this in order to illegally take the throne for herself. However a son named Joash escaped and after six years he returned to take the throne and she was executed.
“In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.” (Book of 2nd Kings 8:25-27)
“When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were being murdered; and they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom, from Athaliah, so that he was not killed. So he was hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years, while Athaliah reigned over the land.” (Book of 2nd Kings 11:1-3)