LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER XI. THE HOUSE OF DAVID AND THE JEHUIDES.

       Table of Contents

      Athaliah's rule​—​Early years of Joash​—​Proclamation of Joash by Jehoiada​—​Athaliah slain​—​Religious Revival​—​Elisha​—​Repairing of the Temple​—​Death of Jehoiada and of his Son​—​Invasion of Israel by Hazael​—​Jehoahaz​—​Murder of Joash, King of Judah​—​Jehoash, King of Israel​—​Defeat of the Aramæans​—​Amaziah​—​Conquest of Edom​—​Death of Elisha​—​Amaziah defeated by Jehoash​—​Jeroboam II.​—​Death of Amaziah.

      887–805 B. C. E.

      It is a striking fact that Israelitish women, the appointed priestesses of chastity and morality, displayed a special inclination for the immoral worship of Baal and Astarte. Maachah, the queen-mother in Judah, established an altar in Jerusalem for the worship of idols; Jezebel had erected one in Samaria, and now Athaliah followed the same course in Jerusalem. Yet, this was not Athaliah's sole nor her greatest sin. The daughter of Jezebel greatly surpassed her mother in cruelty. The victims of Jezebel had been prophets, staunch adherents of the ancestral law,—at all events, persons whom she considered as her enemies. Athaliah, however, shed the blood of her own relations, and did not hesitate to destroy the family of her husband and her son. No sooner had she received tidings of the death of her son Ahaziah, than she ordered the soldiers devoted to her cause to execute all the surviving members of the house of David in Jerusalem. Only the youngest of the princes, Joash, who was not quite one year old, was saved from sharing the fate of his brothers by the special intervention of Jehoshebah. What did Jezebel's bloodthirsty daughter expect to accomplish by this massacre? Was her wickedness the outcome of an ambitious scheme to gain possession of the throne, to the exclusion of all rivals? Or did Athaliah, herself a firm believer in the worship of Baal, desire to establish and diffuse this worship throughout Jerusalem and Judah, and was it in pursuance of that design that she destroyed the remnant of the house of David, in order to have her hands unfettered? Did she hope to succeed where her mother had failed, and by establishing idolatrous practices in Jerusalem, to give new fervour to the Phœnician worship?

      Whatever motive actuated the worthy daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, Athaliah reduced the Judæans to so complete a subservience to her will that no one dared oppose her evil courses. The nation and the priests bowed before her. Even the high priest, Jehoiada, who was connected with the royal house, kept silence. At the very time when Jehu was destroying those emblems of idolatry in Samaria, there was erected in Jerusalem an image of Baal, with altars and pointed pillars, and a high priest, named Mattan, with a number of subordinate priests, was appointed and installed. Did Athaliah leave the temple on Mount Moriah untouched and undesecrated? It appears that she, less consistent in her daring and more timid than later sovereigns, did not venture to introduce an image of Baal into the sanctuary which Solomon had erected, but merely inhibited its use for divine services. The Carians, mercenary troops employed by Athaliah, and the old royal body-guard were placed at the entrance of the Temple, to keep off the people. For this purpose, they were divided into three bodies, which by turns guarded the Temple from Sabbath to Sabbath. For six years (887–881) Athaliah governed the political and religious affairs of the nation, the more aristocratic of the Jewish families probably being of her party. Only the nearest relative of the royal family, the high priest Jehoiada, remained true to the ancient teachings and to the house of David. His wife, Jehoshebah, was a daughter of King Jehoram of Judah, and the sister of the king Ahaziah who had been slain by Jehu.

      When Athaliah was ruthlessly killing the last remnants of the house of David, Jehoshebah rescued the youngest child of her brother from the massacre, and brought him and his nurse into the chamber in the Temple where the Levites slept. Here she secreted the royal infant for a considerable time, and reared him for his country. Athaliah troubled herself but little as to what was happening in the deserted Temple, and the Aaronites and Levites, who remained faithful to Jehoiada, betrayed nothing. His very youth aroused their interest in the last descendant of the house of David. During the six years while Athaliah was ruling with absolute power in Jerusalem, Jehoiada did not remain idle, but entered into friendly relations with the chiefs of the Carians and the guards, gradually revealing the fact that a youthful prince was still in existence, to whom the throne of Judah by right belonged. He found them well disposed towards the royal house, and opposed to the usurper Athaliah. When he had convinced himself of their sympathy with his views, he led them to the Temple, and showed them Joash, who was then seven years of age. The soldiers having recognised in him the rightful heir to the throne, probably by his resemblance to the family of David, Jehoiada demanded that the chiefs take the oath of fealty to the child. With their assistance he could hope to effect a revolution, and to restore the royal line. The chiefs could reckon on the blind obedience of their followers, and, accordingly, the plan of action was decided on, as well as the date for its execution. One Sabbath a division of the Carians then on guard went to their posts, whilst two-thirds occupied the entrance of the Temple. They had all received strict orders to kill any one who should cross the boundaries of the Temple courts with hostile intentions. As the prince was now secure from all attacks, Jehoiada also permitted the populace to enter the Temple courts. At a thrilling moment, when the Carians and guards stood with drawn swords, and whilst the chiefs held the weapons used by David, the high priest led the child Joash from the room in which he had been concealed, put the crown on his head, anointed him as king, and made him mount the pillar-like throne which had been brought into the courts of the Temple for the king's use. Amid trumpet blasts and clashing of arms, the people clapped their hands, and cried "Long live King Joash."

      Not until the noise from the Temple reached Athaliah's palace was she roused from the indifference and security which a belief in the fidelity of her paid troops had encouraged in her. She hurriedly repaired to the Temple, accompanied by a few attendants. There, to her terror, she beheld a young child with a crown on his head, surrounded by her troops, who were protecting him, and by a crowd of people shouting with delight. She found herself betrayed, rent her clothes, and cried, "Conspiracy, conspiracy!" Some of her captains immediately seized her, led her by a circuitous path out of the Temple courts to the eastern gates of the palace, and there killed her. Thus the last grandchild of the house of Omri perished as disgracefully as her mother had done. The close connection of Israel with Tyre had brought no happiness to either kingdom. The mother and the daughter, Jezebel and Athaliah, resembled their goddess Astarte—"the authoress of destruction, death, and ruin." Ahab's daughter does not appear to have had many adherents in Jerusalem—in the hour of death she found no partisans. Her priests of Baal were powerless to help her, for they themselves perished, the victims of the nation's wrath. Jehoiada, having planned and effected the great revolution, now endeavoured to take precautions against a repetition of similar misfortunes in Jerusalem. He utilised the joyous and enthusiastic sentiments of the youthful king and the nation to remove all traces of the worship of Baal, and to arouse in all minds a faithful dependence on the God of their ancestors. He demanded of the king and the whole assembly a solemn promise to remain henceforth a people of God, to serve Him faithfully, and to worship no idol. The promise, which was uttered aloud by the king and the nation, was sealed by a covenant. The inhabitants of Jerusalem poured into the temple of Baal, which had been erected by Athaliah, destroyed

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