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Prophets and Kings
deliberately chosen to continue in sin and to lead others into sin.
Jehoram of Israel, Ahaziah of Judah, and Jezebel the queen mother,
with “all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great
men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests,” were slain. “All the prophets
of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests” dwelling at the center of
Baal worship near Samaria, were put to the sword. The idolatrous
images were broken down and burned, and the temple of Baal was laid
in ruins. “Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.”
2 Kings 10:11, 19,
28
.
Tidings of this general execution reached Athaliah, Jezebel’s
daughter, who still occupied a commanding position in the kingdom
of Judah. When she saw that her son, the king of Judah, was dead,
“she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.” In
this massacre all the descendants of David who were eligible to the
throne were destroyed, save one, a babe named Joash, whom the wife
of Jehoiada the high priest hid within the precincts of the temple. For
six years the child remained hidden, while “Athaliah reigned over the
land.”
2 Chronicles 22:10, 12
.
At the end of this time, “the Levites and all Judah” (
2 Chronicles
23:8
) united with Jehoiada the high priest in crowning and anointing
the child Joash and acclaiming him their king. “And they clapped their
hands, and said, God save the king.”
2 Kings 11:12
.
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“Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and
praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord.”
2 Chronicles 23:12
. “And when she looked, behold, the king stood by
a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the
king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets.”
“Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason.”
2 Kings
11:14
. But Jehoiada commanded the officers to lay hold of Athaliah
and all her followers and lead them out of the temple to a place of
execution, where they were to be slain.
Thus perished the last member of the house of Ahab. The terrible
evil that had been wrought through his alliance with Jezebel, continued
till the last of his descendants was destroyed. Even in the land of Judah,
where the worship of the true God had never been formally set aside,
Athaliah had succeeded in seducing many. Immediately after the
execution of the impenitent queen “all the people of the land went into
the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake