In 842 BCE, an unprecedented event unfolds in the Kingdom Judah—a woman ascends the throne. At a time when women rarely held power without a male counterpart, Athaliah’s rise was extraordinary—a testament to her ambition and determination to claim the throne.
From the moment she was given her name, she was destined to be a “Heroine of God.” Her name, Athaliah, derives from the Akkadian word for “hero” combined with a reference to God (“Yah” or “Yahu”). These two elements—her strength and the struggle over faith—would define her life until its end.
Athaliah was born a royal princess of the Kingdom Israel, a daughter of the House of Ahab. This was a lineage of powerful kings, and even more formidable queens. As she matured, she was married off to Jehoram, King of Judah—a likely political alliance between royal families of neighboring, often rival, kingdoms.
“Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Jehoram, king of Judah, became king. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He went in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for a daughter of Ahab became his wife; and he did what was bad in God’s eyes.”
(2 Kings 8:16–18)
From the outset, the Bible presents Athaliah as a wicked woman. King Jehoram followed the path of Ahab’s house and failed to lead Israel according to the ways of God, and the blame is placed squarely on his wife. Jehoram reigned for only a short time before dying young. His son Ahaziah, who succeeded him, was also deemed an evil king. And why? Again, the fault is attributed to his mother, the foreign queen from the allegedly corrupt neighboring kingdom who did not follow the ways of Judah’s God.
“…his mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel. And he went in the way of the house of Ahab, and he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, for he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.”
(2 Kings 8:26–27)
But Ahaziah’s reign was also brief. After these rapid successions, Athaliah finally seized the throne.
The Bible describes how Athaliah took power after her son’s death. Having first served as queen consort alongside her husband and later as queen mother beside her son, she now ruled in her own right. But in an era when women were not deemed fit to rule, her claim to power was contested.
Thus, the first—and almost only—act of her reign recorded in the Bible is her move to eliminate all rivals for the throne. She ensured the destruction of the entire royal lineage.
“And Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, and she rose and destroyed all those of royal descent.”
(2 Kings 11:1)
This sealed Athaliah’s legacy: she was remembered as an evil queen, a murderer, a ruler who had no qualms about executing anyone who could challenge her reign. She was also the only monarch of Judah who was not descended from the House of David—born not in Judah, but in its rival kingdom, Israel.
However, in her purge to secure her throne, Athaliah missed one heir.
“And Jehosheba, King Joram’s daughter, Ahaziah’s sister, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the slain children of the king, [and she concealed] him and his nurse in the bedchamber; and they concealed him from Athaliah, and he was not slain. And he was hiding with her in the house of the Lord for six years, while Athaliah was ruling over the land.”
(2 Kings 11:2–3)
Jehosheba, sister of the slain king, managed to save his young son, Joash. She was able to hide him away in secret, even as other royal children were being murdered. This concealment recalls the story of Moses—an infant hidden until he could grow up and lead his people, freeing them from oppression. Like Moses, Joash was saved by a woman of the royal household.
Years passed, Joash grew older, and he was ready to claim the throne. His supporters outmaneuvered Athaliah and proclaimed him king. They restored the people’s faith and avenged their royal family. Athaliah was executed.
“And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city quieted down, and Athaliah they had dispatched by the sword in the royal palace.”
(2 Kings 11:20)
Beyond this, the Bible tells us nothing about Athaliah’s six-year reign. There is no record of how she governed, whether she waged war, how she managed internal affairs, or if she enacted reforms. The only detail preserved is that she seized power and eliminated male rivals—even children—to maintain her rule.
Is this why we rarely mention her or celebrate her as the first queen of Judah?
Athaliah’s story invites comparison with other powerful queens from neighboring cultures. One of the most fascinating parallels is Hatshepsut, the Egyptian pharaoh who ruled around 1507 BCE.
Like Athaliah, Hatshepsut was born a princess. She was the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I and married her half-brother, as was customary in ancient Egypt, becoming queen consort. But when her husband died young, leaving a son too young to rule, she was appointed regent.
Typically, the king’s wife served as regent only until the heir came of age. But when the time came for the young pharaoh to take the throne, Hatshepsut refused to relinquish power and continued ruling alone—without a husband.
Like Athaliah, she seized power. And like Athaliah, she was eventually overthrown to make way for the rightful male heir.
We can see how efforts were made to erase the traces of these queens and obscure their rule. In the case of Hatshepsut, inscriptions were erased, credit for her achievements was often given to Thutmose III, obelisks were destroyed, and statues were shattered. Interestingly, in the surviving depictions of her reign, she was initially portrayed as a woman, but over time, her feminine features disappeared, and she was depicted as a pharaoh—dressed in male attire, complete with a ceremonial beard.
Looking further into history, the first woman to rule England, Lady Jane Grey, suffered a similar fate. Jane ruled for only nine days before being deposed and executed at just sixteen.
Born into the royal lineage as the great-granddaughter of Henry VII on her mother’s side, Jane’s ascension to the throne was unexpected. King Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII and Jane’s cousin, was gravely ill. With no direct heir, he named Jane and her descendants as his successors in his will. This marked the first time in England’s history that a woman became queen in her own right, rather than as the wife of a king.
But her reign was short-lived. Just nine days later, Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII, laid claim to the throne and seized it from Jane. Unlike Athaliah, Jane did not attempt to eliminate rival claimants. Yet despite her lack of bloodshed, she was charged with treason and executed.
The stories of these three women highlight the immense difficulties women faced in seizing and holding power. Female rulers were typically consorts first, and once widowed, were thrust into brutal succession battles—battles they rarely survived.
It would be centuries before another woman ruled Judah: Queen Shlomtzion, also known as Salome Alexandra. Like Athaliah, she ruled after the death of her husband, and like Athaliah and Hatshepsut before her, she was portrayed by historians as a woman who had forsaken her femininity in pursuit of power. Josephus describes her as a ruler who, through her relentless ambition, ultimately brought ruin upon the royal house by attempting to eliminate those who opposed or doubted her rule:
“A woman she was who shewed no signs of the weakness of her sex. For she was sagacious to the greatest degree in her ambition of governing […] she brought the affairs of her house to such an unfortunate condition, that she was the occasion of the taking away that authority from it, […] and this out of a desire of what does not belong to a woman: and all by a compliance in her sentiments with those that bare ill will to their family; and by leaving the administration destitute of a proper support of great men. And indeed her management, during her administration, while she was alive, was such, as filled the palace after her death with calamities and disturbance.
(Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, Chapter 16, Section 6)
Is the world different today? Can a woman rise to power without eliminating the men around her—if not literally, then symbolically? Even now, do women’s actions carry different weight than those of men? History records many kings who eliminated rivals to secure their thrones, yet the one name that remains infamous for her cruelty is Athaliah, the first queen of Judah.
