Jehoash of Judah
Encyclopedia
Jehoash or Joas , sometimes written Joash or Joás , was the eighth king of the southern Kingdom of Judah
, and the sole surviving son of Ahaziah
. His mother was Zibiah
of Beersheba
.
William F. Albright
has dated his reign to 837 – 800 BC, while E. R. Thiele
offers the dates 835 – 796 BC.
While yet an infant, he was saved from the general massacre commanded by Athaliah
of the family by his aunt Jehosheba
(or Josaba in Douay-Rheims), and was apparently the only surviving male descendant of his grandfather Jehoram
. His great-uncle, the high priest Jehoiada
, brought him forth to public notice when he was seven years of age, and had Jehoash crowned and anointed king. Athaliah was taken by surprise when she heard the shout of the people, "Long live the king"; and when she appeared in the temple to challenge this coup, Jehoiada commanded her to be led forth out of the Temple to be put to death .
While the High Priest
lived, Jehoash favored the worship of God and observed the Law
; but on his death Jehoash was led into supporting other gods; Zechariah
, the son and successor of the High Priest, was put to death. For these deeds, the author of the Books of Kings
believed Jehoash brought down on the land the judgement of God, and it was oppressed by the Aramean
invaders. He was buried in the City of David .
He is one of the four kings omitted by Matthew
in the genealogy of Jesus
, the other three being Ahaziah
, Amaziah
, and Jehoiakim
. However, his killing of Zechariah ben Jehoiada
is referred to in .
In 2001, an unprovenanced inscription was published, known as the Jehoash Inscription
or Temple Inscription, which appears to be a record of repairs made to Solomon's Temple
during Jehoash's reign. Following extensive scientific tests the Israeli archaeological authorities declared it to be a forgery and are prosecuting the perpetrator, although a number of experts maintain that it is not a forgery.
When the Syrian king Hazael
marched against Jerusalem, Joash bribed him with the gold of the royal and sacred treasuries to turn back ( (AV 17-18)); this proved fruitless for the Syrian army persisted to destroy all the princes of Judah and the soldiers "executed judgment against Joash," and they left him severely wounded. Joash was assassinated by his own servants at Beth-milo, after a reign of forty years, and his assassination is recorded as an act of revenge for the blood of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada ; ).
Joash was buried together with his fathers in the city of David , although he was "not (buried) in the sepulchres of the kings" .
was considered a divine retribution for David's responsibility for the extermination of the priests by Saul
, who had commanded his servant Doeg
to perform this task (comp. ). Joash escaped death because in the latter case one priest, Abiathar
, survived (Sanh. 95b). The hiding-place of Joash was, according to R. Eleazar, one of the chambers behind the Holy of Holies; according to R. Samuel b. Naḥman, one of the upper chambers of the Temple (Cant. R. i. 66).
Although a king who is the son of a king need not be anointed, exception was made in the case of Joash, as well as of Solomon
and Zedekiah
, the succession of each of whom was contested (Lev. R. x. 8). Particular mention is made of the crown placed on Joash's head , because it fitted exactly, showing that he was qualified for kingship (Ab. Zarah 44a).
He was assassinated by two of his servants, one of whom was a son of an Ammon
ite woman and the other the offspring of a Moab
ite ; for God said: "Let the descendants of the two ungrateful families chastise the ungrateful Joash" (Yalk., Ex. 262). Ironically, Moab and Ammon were the two offspring of Lot's tryst with his two daughters as described in .
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
, and the sole surviving son of Ahaziah
Ahaziah of Judah
Ahaziah of Judah was king of Judah, and the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, the daughter of king Ahab of Israel. He is also called Jehoahaz ....
. His mother was Zibiah
Zibiah
Zibiah, or Sibia, was the consort of King Ahaziah of Judah, and the mother of King Jehoash of Judah. She was from Beersheba. Zibiah is also a Hebrew given name....
of Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
.
William F. Albright
William F. Albright
William Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist and expert on ceramics. From the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the universally acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement...
has dated his reign to 837 – 800 BC, while E. R. Thiele
Edwin R. Thiele
Edwin R. Thiele was an American missionary in China, an editor, archaeologist, writer, and Old Testament professor. He is best known for his chronological studies of the Hebrew kingdom period.- Biography :...
offers the dates 835 – 796 BC.
While yet an infant, he was saved from the general massacre commanded by Athaliah
Athaliah
Athaliah was the queen of Judah during the reign of King Jehoram, and later became sole ruler of Judah for six years. William F. Albright has dated her reign to 842–837 BC, while Edwin R. Thiele's dates, as taken from the third edition of his magnum opus, were 842/841 to 836/835 BC...
of the family by his aunt Jehosheba
Jehosheba
Jehosheba , or Josaba, was the sister of King Ahaziah of Judah and the wife of Jehoiada, the High Priest of Judah. According to 2 Kings 11:2, she saved and hid her infant nephew Jehoash from the massacre ordered by his grandmother Athaliah...
(or Josaba in Douay-Rheims), and was apparently the only surviving male descendant of his grandfather Jehoram
Jehoram of Judah
Jehoram of Judah was the king of the southern Kingdom of Judah, and the son of Jehoshaphat .According to , Jehoram became king of Judah in the fifth year of Jehoram of Israel, when his father Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, indicating a co-regency. The author of Kings also speaks of both Jehoram...
. His great-uncle, the high priest Jehoiada
Jehoiada
Jehoiada in the Hebrew Bible, was a prominent priest during the reigns of Ahaziah, Athaliah, and Joash. By his arranged marriage with the princess Jehosheba , he became the brother-in-law of King Ahaziah...
, brought him forth to public notice when he was seven years of age, and had Jehoash crowned and anointed king. Athaliah was taken by surprise when she heard the shout of the people, "Long live the king"; and when she appeared in the temple to challenge this coup, Jehoiada commanded her to be led forth out of the Temple to be put to death .
While the High Priest
Kohen Gadol
The High Priest was the chief religious official of Israelite religion and of classical Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem...
lived, Jehoash favored the worship of God and observed the Law
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
; but on his death Jehoash was led into supporting other gods; Zechariah
Zechariah ben Jehoiada
Zechariah Ben Jehoiada was the son of Jehoiada, the high priest in the times of Ahaziah and Jehoash of Judah .After the death of Jehoiada, Zechariah boldly condemned both king Jehoash and the people for their rebellion against God...
, the son and successor of the High Priest, was put to death. For these deeds, the author of the Books of Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
believed Jehoash brought down on the land the judgement of God, and it was oppressed by the Aramean
Aram Damascus
Aram Damascus was an Aramaean state around Damascus in Syria, from the late 12th century BCE to 734 BCE.Sources for this state come from texts that can be divided into three categories: Assyrian annals, Aramaean texts, and the Hebrew Bible....
invaders. He was buried in the City of David .
He is one of the four kings omitted by Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
in the genealogy of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, the other three being Ahaziah
Ahaziah of Judah
Ahaziah of Judah was king of Judah, and the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, the daughter of king Ahab of Israel. He is also called Jehoahaz ....
, Amaziah
Amaziah
Amaziah or Amasias may refer to:#Amaziah of Judah, the king of Judah#A Levite, son of Hilkiah, of the descendants of Ethan the Merarite #A priest of the golden calves at Bethel...
, and Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim .On Josiah's death, Jehoiakim's younger brother Jehoahaz was proclaimed king, but after three months pharaoh Necho II deposed him and replaced him with the eldest son, Eliakim, who adopted the name Jehoiakim and became king at the age of twenty-five...
. However, his killing of Zechariah ben Jehoiada
Zechariah ben Jehoiada
Zechariah Ben Jehoiada was the son of Jehoiada, the high priest in the times of Ahaziah and Jehoash of Judah .After the death of Jehoiada, Zechariah boldly condemned both king Jehoash and the people for their rebellion against God...
is referred to in .
In 2001, an unprovenanced inscription was published, known as the Jehoash Inscription
Jehoash Inscription
The Jehoash Inscription is the name of a controversial artifact rumored to have surfaced in the construction site or in the Muslim cemetery near the Temple Mount of Jerusalem...
or Temple Inscription, which appears to be a record of repairs made to Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....
during Jehoash's reign. Following extensive scientific tests the Israeli archaeological authorities declared it to be a forgery and are prosecuting the perpetrator, although a number of experts maintain that it is not a forgery.
When the Syrian king Hazael
Hazael
Hazael was a court official and later an Aramean king who is mentioned in the Bible. Under his reign, Aram-Damascus became an empire that ruled over large parts of Syria and Palestine....
marched against Jerusalem, Joash bribed him with the gold of the royal and sacred treasuries to turn back ( (AV 17-18)); this proved fruitless for the Syrian army persisted to destroy all the princes of Judah and the soldiers "executed judgment against Joash," and they left him severely wounded. Joash was assassinated by his own servants at Beth-milo, after a reign of forty years, and his assassination is recorded as an act of revenge for the blood of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada ; ).
Joash was buried together with his fathers in the city of David , although he was "not (buried) in the sepulchres of the kings" .
Chronological notes
The calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri (in the fall) and that of Israel in Nisan (in the spring). Cross-synchronizations between the two kingdoms therefore often allow narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king to within a six-month range. For Jehoash, the Scriptural data allow the narrowing of his accession to some time between Nisan 1 of 835 BC and the day before Tishri 1 of the same BC year. For calculation purposes, this should be taken as the Judean year beginning in Tishri of 836/835 BC, or more simply 836 BC. His death occurred at some time between Nisan 1 of 796 BC and the day before Tishri 1 of that BC year, i.e. in 797/796, or more simply, 797 BC. During his reign, the Judean court recorders were still using the non-accession system of measuring years that was adopted in the days of Jehoshaphat from the practice of the northern kingdom, whereby the king's first partial year in office was counted as his first year of reign.In rabbinic literature
The extermination of the male descendants of DavidDavid
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
was considered a divine retribution for David's responsibility for the extermination of the priests by Saul
Saul
-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
, who had commanded his servant Doeg
Doeg the Edomite
Doeg was an Edomite, chief herdsman to Saul, King of Israel.He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible book of First Samuel, chapters 21 and 22, where he is depicted as responsible for the deaths of a large number of priests.-Biblical account:...
to perform this task (comp. ). Joash escaped death because in the latter case one priest, Abiathar
Abiathar
Abiathar , in the Hebrew Bible, son of Achimelech or Ahijah, High Priest at Nob, the fourth in descent from Eli and the last of Eli's House...
, survived (Sanh. 95b). The hiding-place of Joash was, according to R. Eleazar, one of the chambers behind the Holy of Holies; according to R. Samuel b. Naḥman, one of the upper chambers of the Temple (Cant. R. i. 66).
Although a king who is the son of a king need not be anointed, exception was made in the case of Joash, as well as of Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
and Zedekiah
Zedekiah
Zedekiah or Tzidkiyahu was the last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by Babylon. He was installed as king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, after a siege of Jerusalem to succeed his nephew, Jeconiah, who was overthrown as king after a reign of only three months and...
, the succession of each of whom was contested (Lev. R. x. 8). Particular mention is made of the crown placed on Joash's head , because it fitted exactly, showing that he was qualified for kingship (Ab. Zarah 44a).
He was assassinated by two of his servants, one of whom was a son of an Ammon
Ammon
Ammon , also referred to as the Ammonites and children of Ammon, was an ancient nation located east of the Jordan River, Gilead, and the Dead Sea, in present-day Jordan. The chief city of the country was Rabbah or Rabbath Ammon, site of the modern city of Amman, Jordan's capital...
ite woman and the other the offspring of a Moab
Moab
Moab is the historical name for a mountainous strip of land in Jordan. The land lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over...
ite ; for God said: "Let the descendants of the two ungrateful families chastise the ungrateful Joash" (Yalk., Ex. 262). Ironically, Moab and Ammon were the two offspring of Lot's tryst with his two daughters as described in .