2 Kings 11:13

THE EXECUTION OF ATHALIAH

"And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people in the house of Jehovah: and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the manner was, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason! treason! And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth between the ranks; and him that followeth her slay with the sword. For the priest said, Let her not be slain in the house of Jehovah. So they made way for her; and she went by way of the horses' entry to the king's house: and there she was slain."

Josephus tells us that she stormed out of the palace with her army;[16] but she rushed into the temple courts totally unaware of the fully armed troops within it. Once she did that, she was totally separated from her armed escort. She heard the ringing sound of the trumpets, saw the young king standing by one of the pillars, perhaps Jachin or Boaz, and the multitude shouting, "Long live the king!" There was absolutely nothing that she could do except rend her clothes and scream "Treason! Treason"! "She had realized, all too late, what was happening,"[17] and had inadvertently already delivered herself into the hands of those who were determined to put her to death.

"Her hour had come, and her doom was sealed. Thus in the Southern Israel as in the Northern, we behold the end of the house of Ahab. Here it reached its termination in the death of his daughter Athaliah who incarnated in her nature alike the superb abilities and utter moral depravity of her parents. Was there ever a more dramatic illustration of the eternal law, `The soul that sinneth, it shall die' (Ezekiel 18:4)"?[18]

This, of course, was a great victory; but the Chosen People were by no means at that time ready to repudiate finally and completely the orgiastic fertility rites of the licentious paganism that characterized the worship of the Baalim. The continual drift of the whole nation (in both kingdoms) into paganism was hindered only slightly and temporarily. Eventually, God would destroy both kingdoms and carry the Southern kingdom into Babylon, from which only a remnant would return to Palestine, where, in the fullness of time, the Messiah would be born to the posterity of the patriarchs as God had promised. There is nothing in human history that matches the epic tragedy of God's chosen people!