A Knot in the Family Tree

2 Kings 8

            Over the next few chapters, we will hear quite a bit about a woman named Athaliah, who is introduced in 8:26. The NIV identifies her as the granddaughter of Omri, but other translations call her Omri’s daughter. This is typical in genealogies in the Bible where ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ can merely mean ‘descendant.’ (I think the NIV identifies the generations correctly.) The other salient point is that she is also the mother of Ahaziah, king of Judah. As we know, being identified in any way with the house of Ahab is never a good thing in Kings, and here it certainly is not as Ahaziah is tarred with Ahab’s brush, “following the ways of the house of Ahab…”

            Judah and Israel coexist for some two hundred years, and, as we have seen, sometimes they behave as enemies and sometimes they behave as allies. In this moment, about 842 BC, they are definitely on the allies track, as Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, has been given in marriage to Jehoram, king of Judah. Because of how marriages—especially marriages between royal houses—worked in that era, we can only assume that this marriage was meant to seal an alliance and maybe even to be a first step in bringing the kingdoms back together. Unfortunately, Israel is setting the religious tone, not Judah. This union leads the south kingdom deeper into idolatry instead of leading the north kingdom back to the Lord. Nothing good will come of this!