Each Wednesday, we are continuing our bible study on bad girls of the Bible and someone asked me who I thought was the wickedest woman in the Bible. There were several names that came to mind, including Jezebel, Herodias, and Potiphar's wife. But I guess my vote would have to go to Athaliah. Who? (see, you need to spend at least one hour a week studying the bible!)
What did she do? Well, besides being Ahab’s and Jezebel’s daughter…
What she did was to kill all her grandsons, when her son died, so that she could take the throne for herself. 2 Kings 11:1 describes this killing. One of her grandsons escaped, because his aunt Jehosheba hid six-year-old Joash from his grandmother. Eventually, Jehoiada, the High Priest, brought young Joash forward as king, and had the wicked Athaliah killed.
The story is also told in 2 Chronicles 22-23.
Destroying your own grandsons, to further your own ambition, strikes me as about as evil a thing as one can do. I can't imagine any grandmother I know doing that, and it's hard to imagine any grandmother I don't know doing it, either.
I don't know who the wickedest woman in the Bible was, but Athaliah is a candidate, I guess.
And who said Wednesday Bible study is boring?
1 comment:
I loved the connection between strong women in the bible and Sarah Palin. I watched her speech thinking about the leadership of Deberoh the judge. Thank for one of the best bible studies I have ever attended!
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