by Jehu, which continued under his three successors, although no: with successful results.

The union between Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, and Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and

Jezebel, had introduced apostasy, and brought calamity to the house of David. If the marriage had

been planned from political motives, perhaps in the hope of an ultimate reunion of the two

kingdoms, or at least with the expectation of a f irm and close alliance between them, the result

speedily showed the folly of attempting to achieve imaginary successes by subordinating principle

to so-called policy.

Indeed, this is one of the lessons which throughout make the history of Israel typical of that of the

Church, and in a sense of all history, and which constitute its claim to the designation of

"prophetic." In it events move, so to speak, in step with the utterances of the God of Israel. No

direct or sudden interference seems necessary; but in the regular succession of events, each

deviation from Divine order and rule, each attempt to compass results by departure from God's

law and word, brings with it, not success, but failure and ruin. From her entrance into her new

home in Judah, to her seizure of its throne, Athaliah brought it only evil. Her very name,

"Athaljah" ("Jehovah oppresseth"), seems significant. She possessed all the evil qualities of her

mother Jezebel, without her queenly bearing and courage; all the cunning of her father, wit hout

any of his impulses towards good. Holy Writ marks that she was her son's "counselor to do

wickedly" (2 Chronicles 22:3), and her influence for evil must have commenced in the previous

reign of her husband, Jehoram. To the influence of "the house of Ahab" are expressly traced, both

in the reign of Jehoram and in that of Ahaziah, the revival of idolatry (2 Kings 8:18, 27; 11:15; 2

Chronicles 22:3, 4); the desecration of the Temple of Jehovah (2 Chronicles 24:7), and those evil

counselings (2 Chronicles 22:4)which brought such Divine judgments (2 Chronicles 21:13, 14, 16,

17; 22:7). To her, we cannot doubt, was due not only the slaughter of his "brethren," with which

Jehoram stained the beginning of his reign (2 Chronicles 21:4), but the destruction by Jehu of so

large a number of the remaining royal princes of Judah (2 Kings 10:13, 14; 2 Chronicles 22:7, 8).

And if her murderous purpose on seizing the government had been wholly successful, the political

union between the house of Ahab and that of Jehoshaph at would have ended in the extermination

of the whole house of David.

There is not a scene in Jewish history more vividly depicted than that of Athaliah's seizure of the

Jewish crown, and of her miserable end. It seems more than likely that on his ill -fated expedition

to the court of Israel, Jehoram had entrusted the government of the kingdom to his mother, who

had all along exercised such determining influence upon him.*

* She acted probably as Gebhirah, like Maachah, the mother of King Asa (1 Kings 1 5:13).

We need not wonder, although we take notice of it, that the position of woman in Israel should

have been so different from that generally assigned to her in the East. A nation which counted

among its historical personages a Miriam, a Deborah, and an Abigail - not to speak of other well-

known figures - must have recognized the dignity of woman. Nor can we here forget the influence

respectively exercised by the mother of King Asa (1 Kings 15:13), by Jezebel, and by other queen-

consorts or mothers.*

* Even among non-Jewish nations we recall the name of Dido, of the same lineage and in the same

century as Jezebel and Athaliah.

When tidings successively reached Athaliah, first of the death of Ahaziah, and then of the murder

of presumably the great majority of the royal princes, the thought would naturally suggest itself to

such an ambitious and unscrupulous woman permanently to seize the reins of the government.

Other motives may also have contributed to this resolve. She must have known that, despite all

that had been done in the two previous reigns to denationalize Judah, her party formed only a

small and unreliable minority even in the capital. Both in Jerusalem and throughout the country

the great majority were, as events afterwards proved, opposed to the queen-mother, or at least