{"id":28936,"date":"2011-09-12T21:29:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T02:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=28936"},"modified":"2020-12-24T21:38:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T03:38:02","slug":"im-confused-by-the-story-of-athaliah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-confused-by-the-story-of-athaliah\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m confused by the story of Athaliah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Okay, so in II Chronicles 21, we’re told that Jehoram was a very bad king and walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, so God sent a message to Him through Elijah stating that God would take away Jehoram’s children, wives, and possessions, and furthermore He would make Jehoram very sick until he died.\u00a0 And indeed, God does do all of these things, and specifically in II Chronicles 21, we’re told that all of Jehoram’s sons and wives were carried away, all except his youngest son Ahaziah (or the other variant of the name- Jehoahaz).<\/p>\n

So Ahaziah takes over as king after Jehoram dies of sickness, but then when Ahaziah is killed, his mother Athaliah takes over.\u00a0 How is this possible since she was carried away with all the other wives of Jehoram? Was it customary for them to release the king’s wives and children after the king had died?\u00a0 Or maybe after a certain amount of time?\u00a0 But if the king’s possessions were released after the king (Jehoram) had died, then wouldn’t his older sons have been released too?\u00a0 And if they were released, they’d be king, not Ahaziah.\u00a0 And I guess maybe the Philistines and Arabians who carried Jehoram’s sons and wives away could have been feeling nice and left Athaliah with Ahaziah, so he could have his mother, but the Bible says that they were\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0carried away except Ahaziah, so it’s not possible that she was left.\u00a0 And if they\u00a0had<\/em> left her, she could have just made more babies for Jehoram, so why would they let that happen?\u00a0 And once they had the wives and sons in their possession, why wouldn’t they just kill them?\u00a0 I don’t understand how she made it out alive, let alone made it out to rule a kingdom.<\/p>\n

Then in II Chronicles 24:7, it says that Joash starts repairing the temple and upon repairing the temple, he finds that the sons of Athaliah had broken into the temple and take the sacred things to the Baals.\u00a0 How did the sons of Athaliah do that if they had been carried away?\u00a0 I suppose they could’ve done it before they were carried away, but why wouldn’t the Bible mention that before they were carried away to avoid confusion considering that the Bible is usually far beyond overly-specific for the very purpose of avoiding confusion?\u00a0 And considering that the Arabians and Philistines probably didn’t want Ahaziah to have an heir, wouldn’t they kill all of Jehoram’s other children that they captured?\u00a0 Or, is it that they left Athaliah behind with her son Ahaziah, and maybe that was possibly one of those customary things they did back then, and she did give Jehoram more sons, which were the sons that could’ve destroyed the temple while she reigned?<\/p>\n

I think I need to learn more about customs back then because that usually ends up being the part of the equation I’m missing when I have questions about the Bible.\u00a0 And anymore when I have a question, I just jump straight to it probably being another custom of the time that I just don’t know about.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

You ran into a period in Israel’s history that gets very confusing. After Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel was divided by the foolishness of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. The northern group retained the name “Israel,” while the southern group was called “Judah” because it was mainly composed of that one tribe. The northern kingdom, Israel, had one bad king after another. They suffered several coups, so different lineages came to power. The southern kingdom, Judah, had a mixture of good and bad kings. Only one family ever ruled in Judah. All were descendants of David.<\/p>\n

Things got confusing when King Jehoshaphat of Judah decided to have one of his sons, Jehoram (also known as Joram), marry a daughter of King Ahab of Israel. Like people sometimes do today, they started naming their children after relatives. See the chart of\u00a0The Kings of the Divided Kingdom<\/a>\u00a0to start laying out who is who.<\/p>\n

The Jehoram in II Chronicles 21 was a king of Judah. He was the son of Jehoshaphat and the son-in-law of Ahab, king of Israel. Jehoram had all his brothers killed when he became king (II Chronicles 21:4) and for this God said he would be punished. “And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says the LORD God of your father David: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father’s household, who were better than yourself, behold, the LORD will strike your people with a serious affliction – your children, your wives, and all your possessions; and you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day<\/em>” (II Chronicles 21:12-15). Notice that God did not say specifically what would happen to Jehoram’s wives and children.<\/p>\n

“Moreover the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabians who were near the Ethiopians. And they came up into Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king’s house, and also his sons and his wives, so that there was not a son left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. After all this the LORD struck him in his intestines with an incurable disease<\/em>” (II Chronicles 21:16-18). Notice that Jehoram’s sons and wives are carted away, but then we learn that one son was left behind. We aren’t told how many of his wives were removed and how many remained. The passage does not use the word “all.” Since we later find Athaliah, Jehoahaz’s mother, still around we conclude she wasn’t among those carted off.<\/p>\n

“For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had also presented all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD to the Baals<\/em>” (II Chronicles 24:7). Remember that Jehoahaz was Jehoram and Athaliah’s youngest son. It was the older children who were carried off. What we learn here is that these children (or even young adults) were not good people either. They had broken into God’s Temple, robbed it, and gave some of the things to a false god. No wonder God had them carried off.<\/p>\n

Why was Jehoahaz not carried off with the rest of his siblings? I know from God’s view, it was to keep His promise to David that one of his descendants would always be on the throne. Why did the invading armies not take him away? We don’t know.<\/p>\n

No, Athaliah didn’t have more sons at the end. Probably Jehoram was too sick by this time. And when she staged a coup to take over Judah at the death of her son, she tried to kill off all her grandchildren (II Kings 11:1-3). But Athaliah’s sister-in-law defeated her by hiding one of Jehoahaz’s baby sons. Thus, God’s promise to David continued.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: Okay, so in II Chronicles 21, we’re told that Jehoram was a very bad king and walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, so God sent a message to Him through Elijah stating that God would take away Jehoram’s children, wives, and possessions, and furthermore He would make Jehoram very sick until…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[279,1133],"class_list":["post-28936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-history","tag-ii-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1687,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-ahaziah-begin-his-reign\/","url_meta":{"origin":28936,"position":0},"title":"When did Ahaziah begin his reign?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When comparing II Kings 8:26 and II Chronicles 22:2, which is the true age of Ahaziah when he began to reign? Answer: \"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17770,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-asa-and-jehoshaphats-reigns-overlap-in-judah\/","url_meta":{"origin":28936,"position":1},"title":"Did Asa and Jehoshaphat’s reigns overlap in Judah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: From the dates I can find, King Asa and Jehoshaphat overlapped in their reigns as kings. 873 - 870. Is that correct? And why the overlap? Also, when Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel and went to Judah do we know for sure which king was reigning over Judah (Asa\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28948,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-would-kings-name-their-children-after-other-kings\/","url_meta":{"origin":28936,"position":2},"title":"Why would kings name their children after other kings?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: One thing I still don't understand is how the kings intertwined and started naming their children after relatives, which is very confusing.\u00a0 Why would kings do that when the entire pride of a king rests on the fact of all they have accomplished in their reign and in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20313,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-ahaziah-begin-to-reign-in-the-eleventh-or-twelfth-year-of-jorams-reign\/","url_meta":{"origin":28936,"position":3},"title":"Did Ahaziah begin to reign in the eleventh or twelfth year of Joram’s reign?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question regarding a couple of passages in II Kings. II Kings 8:25 and II Kings 9:29 concerning when Ahaziah began to reign as king. One passage says in the twelfth year of Joram and the other passage says in the eleventh year of Joram. This was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52586,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jehoshaphats-peace\/","url_meta":{"origin":28936,"position":4},"title":"Jehoshaphat’s Peace","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Kings 9:16-26 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0King Jehoshaphat, in general, was a good king - I Kings 22:42-43a \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To be said by God that he did right is a high complement \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But, like most men, Jehoshaphat had some character flaws - I Kings 22:43b \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His father, Asa,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61537,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/notes-on-kings-during-the-divided-kingdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":28936,"position":5},"title":"Notes on Kings During the Divided Kingdom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Kings During the Divided Kingdom From I Kings Judah Israel Prophets Solomon (Mostly Good) 40 years I Kings 1-11 Nathan I Kings 1 Ahijah I Kings 11 Iddo Rehoboam (Evil) 17 years I Kings 12:1-24; 14:21-31; 15:6 Jeroboam (Evil) 22 years I Kings 11:26-40; 12:1-14:20 Ahijah I Kings 14 Shemaiah\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}