Athaliah and Joash^(A)

11 When Athaliah^(B) the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.

41 In the seventh month Ishmael^(A) son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood and had been one of the king’s officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. While they were eating together there,

Athaliah and Joash^(A)

¹⁰ When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah. ¹¹ But Jehosheba,^[a] the daughter of King Jehoram, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Because Jehosheba,^[b] the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of the priest Jehoiada, was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill him. ¹² He remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

²⁵ In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated^(A) Gedaliah and also the men of Judah and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.^(B)

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

⁷ Now the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the temple of God and had used even its sacred objects for the Baals.

³⁸ “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir.^(A) Come, let’s kill him^(B) and take his inheritance.’^{(C) 39} So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

²⁷ When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan.^[a] Jehu chased him, shouting, “Kill him too!” They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam,^(A) but he escaped to Megiddo^(B) and died there.

²⁶ Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah,^(A) a granddaughter of Omri^(B) king of Israel.

The Escape to Egypt

¹³ When they had gone, an angel^(A) of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.^(B) “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”^(C)