Queen Athaliah (Judah)

Athaliah, of the house of Omri and Ahab (2 Kings 8:26), was married to King Jehoram of Judah to seal the alliance between the two kingdoms. When her son King Ahaziah was killed in Jehu's coup in −841, she had the royal heirs murdered and ruled Judah herself for six years, the only woman in the Bible to reign alone over either kingdom. Under her a temple of Baal, with its priest Mattan, stood in Jerusalem.

One infant prince, Joash, was rescued by his aunt Jehosheba and hidden for six years in the Temple, where her husband, the priest Jehoiada, served. In the seventh year Jehoiada armed the royal guard, brought out the seven-year-old, and crowned him with the crown and the "testimony" as the crowd clapped and shouted "Long live the king!" Athaliah rushed in crying "Treason, treason!" and was taken out and killed at the palace's Horse Gate, and the people tore down Baal's temple (2 Kings 11; 2 Chronicles 22–23). The house of David, nearly extinguished, survived through a single child.