Athaliah. That a grandmother could be so callous as to slay all her grandchildren in order to gain the throne of Judah for herself seems almost inhuman. However, Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (2 Chronicles 21:6) and the wife of Jehoram, whom she had persuaded to follow the Baalite idolatry of her parents rather than the true worship of Jehovah practiced by his father Jehoshaphat. Athaliah is also called the daughter of Omri (2 Chronicles 22:2), who was Ahab's father, and also very evil and anti-Jehovah. Omri was Athaliah's cultural and dynastic father (she was of the “house of Omri,” as was Ahab), but biologically he was her grandfather. No doubt, she wanted to establish Baalism as the state religion of Judah, as Jezebel had almost accomplished in Israel. Since she had been Judah's queen for the twelve years Jehoram reigned and queen regent for the one year her son Ahaziah reigned, and since all the latter's sons were still quite young, she decided to seize power herself. Her cruelty to her grandsons was, no doubt, partly due to Baalite religious zeal as well as personal ambition.

took Joash. Joash was a new infant at the time, and Athaliah evidently did not know about him.

shewed them the king's son. Jehoiada was taking a calculated risk in showing the king's son to the military leaders of the nation, who had been ruled by Queen Athaliah for six years. He hoped that they would have resented the usurpation of the throne of David by one not in the Davidic line and also have grown weary of her cruelties and her idolatries. Happily, he found that they were all ready to place Joash, the rightful heir, on the throne.

David's spears and shields. These were probably the weapons David had captured from Syria and other nations early in his reign (2 Samuel 8:7-12).

made him king. God had long ago promised David that “thy throne shall be established for ever” (2 Samuel 7:16). Queen Athaliah thought that she had destroyed the Davidic line when she “destroyed all the seed royal” after the death of her son, King Ahaziah (2 Kings 11:1). She herself was daughter of Ahab, descendant of Omri, the usurper of the throne of the northern kingdom, and of Jezebel, a Phoenician princess. But God keeps his word. She apparently did not even know of the existence of baby Joash, safely hidden away in the temple by the godly priest Jehoiada and his wife Jehosheba, who had been Ahaziah's sister (probably not a daughter of Athaliah but of another of Joram's wives). But God saw that David's line was preserved!