QUEEN ATHALIAH:
THE DAUGHTER OF AHAB OR OMRI?
REUVEN CHAIM (RUDOLPH) KLEIN
In the Books of Kings, Athaliah emerges as the most notable female character not only because she is the only queen who ruled alone, but also because she serves as a bridge between the royal families of Judah (the Davidic
dynasty) and Israel (the Omride dynasty). That is, her lineage links her to the
Omride dynasty and she reigned as the sovereign regent of Judah by virtue of
her marriage to Jehoram, a scion of the Davidic line. However, due to an inconsistency in the Bible, there is a controversy over the exact placement of
Athaliah in the genealogy of the Omride family: some passages in the Bible
seem to imply that her father was Omri, yet in other passages it seems that
Ahab was her father. The problem is compounded by her marriage into the
Davidic family – a halakhic issue because of other marriages between members of the Davidic and Omride dynasties.
THE PROBLEMATIC MARRIAGES
After the death of Zimri, king of Israel, the people of Israel split into two
factions; one supported Tibni son of Ginath as the new king, while the other
supported Omri. The Bible (I Kgs. 16:21-22) reports that the supporters of
Omri prevailed and, upon Tibni's death, Omri became the undisputed king of
1
Israel. Rashi and Kimhi explain in the name of Seder Olam Rabbah (ch. 17)
that when Asa, king of Judah, married his son Jehoshaphat to Omri's daughter
(in what was probably a politically motivated move), Omri was seen as the
more powerful of the two, and Tibni was then assassinated to eliminate the
pretender. Accordingly, the royal families of Judah and Israel were related by
virtue of Jehoshaphat's marriage to the daughter of Omri. This was the first
instance of marriage between the two royal houses. It is not mentioned explicitly in the Bible.
Additionally, the Bible relates that King Jehoshaphat of Judah was connected to Ahab through marriage (II Chron. 18:1). While Rashi (to II Chron.
Reuven Chaim (Rudolph) Klein is a graduate of Emek Hebrew Academy and Yeshiva Gedolah of
Los Angeles. He is currently a fellow at the Kollel of Yeshivat Mir in Jerusalem. He lives with his
wife and children in Beitar Illit, Israel.
12
REUVEN CHAIM (RUDOLPH) KLEIN
22:2) explains that this refers to the above-mentioned marriage between Jehoshaphat and the daughter of Omri,2 Kimhi (II Chron. 18:1) says this means
that Jehoshaphat took Ahab's daughter as a wife for his son Jehoram. Indeed,
the Bible later mentions that Jehoram strayed from the path of his righteous
forefathers and explains: He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did
the house of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife; and he did that
which was evil in the sight of the Lord (II Kgs. 8:18, II Chron. 21:6).
This implies that the wife of Jehoram was the daughter of Ahab – the son
and successor of Omri. However, when introducing the reign of Jehoram's
son Ahaziah, king of Judah, the Bible writes:
In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did
Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign. Two
and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he
reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was
Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel. And he walked in the
way of the house of Ahab, and did that which was evil in the sight
of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab; for he was the son-in-law of
the house of Ahab (II Kgs. 8:25-27).
This implies that Athaliah (the wife of Jehoram and mother of Ahaziah)
was actually the daughter of Omri, not Ahab. The same is implied in II
Chronicles 22:2. This is the above-mentioned contradiction as to whether
Athaliah was the daughter of Omri or of Ahab.3 As explained below, the various commentators seek to reconcile this discrepancy by clarifying that one
passage is literal while the other is not. Some affirm that Athaliah was indeed
the daughter of Omri, while others state that she was really the daughter of
Ahab. Either way, Athaliah, a scion of the Omride family, was married to
Jehoram, king of Judah, creating a second union between the two families.
A third marriage between the two families is found in the above-mentioned
passage which notes that Ahaziah was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.
This implies that Ahaziah was the son-in-law of Ahab.4
Among these unions, Jehoshaphat, the father of Jehoram, is said to have
married a daughter of Omri, and Ahaziah, a son of Athaliah and Jehoram, is
said to have married a daughter of Ahab. Accordingly, if Athaliah was a
daughter of Omri, it would seem that her husband Jehoram married his aunt
by marrying Athaliah (for Jehoshaphat his father also married a daughter of
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QUEEN ATHALIAH: THE DAUGHTER OF AHAB OR OMRI?
13
Omri); and if Athaliah was a daughter of Ahab, it would seem that her son
Ahaziah married his aunt by marrying a daughter of Ahab (for his mother
Athaliah was also a daughter of Ahab). Thus, wherever one places Athaliah
in the genealogy of the Omride family a problem arises, for one must explain
how a king of the Davidic dynasty was apparently allowed to marry his
mother’s sister, an act biblically proscribed in Leviticus 18:13.
ATHALIAH AS THE DAUGHTER OF AHAB
Most of the classical rabbinic commentators elucidate that Athaliah was
indeed the daughter of Ahab. According to this opinion, one must explain
why Athaliah is also referred to as the daughter of Omri and how her son
Ahaziah seemingly married his own aunt. Kimhi (to II Chron. 22:2 and II
Kgs. 26) writes that Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab, but was nonetheless
"attributed" to her grandfather, Omri. His explanation is that since "grandsons
are tantamount to sons,"5 Athaliah could be considered a daughter of Omri,
even though she was really a daughter of his son Ahab. Gersonides (to II
Kgs. 8:18) also writes that Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab, but concedes
that sometimes the Bible traces her lineage to her father and sometimes to her
grandfather. Abrabanel (to II Kings Ch. 8) adds that since Athaliah was
raised as part of the household of her grandfather Omri, she is considered like
his daughter, even though she was really his granddaughter. Rabbi Haim D.
Rabinowitz (1911-2001) explains that although Athaliah was really the
daughter of Ahab, she is mentioned as a daughter of Omri to stress that her
lineage to Omri through Ahab was legitimately recognized since she was
born to Ahab by a Jewish wife and not by Jezebel, who was not Jewish.6 Had
Athaliah's mother been Jezebel, Athaliah would not have been considered
Jewish and according to Jewish law would not be considered a descendant of
Omri.7 These explanations account for the apparent contradiction regarding
the parentage of Athaliah.8
However, one must still address the issue as to how her son Ahaziah could
have been the son-in-law of Ahab if one is forbidden to marry one's mother's
sister. These commentators are therefore forced to assume that Ahaziah was
not literally a son-in-law of Ahab.9 Kimhi (to II Kings 8:26) explains that
when Ahaziah is referred to as the son-in-law of the house of Ahab, it does
not mean that Ahaziah married a daughter of Ahab; it actually means that his
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father Jehoram was the son-in-law of Ahab (because he married Athaliah,
who was Ahab's daughter). Therefore, Kimhi declares, Ahaziah is called
Ahab's "son-in-law" because he was related to Ahab through marriage. Kimhi
remains consistent in his view that Athaliah was a daughter of Ahab. Nonetheless, Kimhi's explanation is hard to accept, not only because Ahaziah was
related to Ahab through his father's marriage to Ahab's daughter, but also
because his mother was Ahab's daughter, making him a grandson of Ahab! It
seems very odd to say that a man is related to his maternal grandfather
"through marriage" (that of his parents) when the relationship is simply due
to the fact that his mother's father was his grandfather! Rabbi Samuel Laniado of Aleppo, Syria (d. 1605), offers an alternate way of answering the difficulty: he notes that the Bible calls Ahaziah a son-in-law of the house
of Ahab: it does not say that Ahaziah was the actual son-in-law of Ahab.
Therefore, he writes, it is quite plausible to explain that Ahaziah married a
daughter of one of Ahab's wives who was not fathered by Ahab. Such a marriage (to one's mother's father's wife's daughter) is completely permissible.
This accounts for the wording the house of Ahab, because Ahab's wives and
their children are all considered members of his household, even if they are in
no way biologically related to him.
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15
Accordingly, one can explain that Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab without
having to explain that Ahaziah married his own aunt, because Ahaziah did
not actually marry a daughter of Ahab – he married a step-daughter of
Ahab.10
ATHALIAH AS THE DAUGHTER OF OMRI
Some modern-day academic researchers have concluded that Athaliah was
actually the daughter of Omri, not Ahab. They justify their claim through
synchronization with the projected timeline of King Ethbaal of Tyre and Sidon (father of Jezebel). According to this explanation, Athaliah is referred to
in the Bible as the daughter of Ahab simply because she was raised in the
household of her older brother Ahab.11
Though not noted by academic scholars, there are actually medieval rabbinic sources which also assume that Athaliah was the daughter of Omri.12 Rabbi
Bahya ben Asher (d. circa 1340) writes that the Hebrew word for "daughter"
can also mean "sister."13 He makes this assertion because of the following
biblical passage:
And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with guile, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their
sister, and said unto them: 'We cannot do this thing, to give
our sister…But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be
gone' (Gen. 34:13-17).
In this passage, Jacob's sons first refer to Dinah as their sister and then later
as their daughter. To reconcile this discrepancy, Bahya posits that bat, the
Hebrew word for "daughter", can also refer to a sister. Bahya writes that the
same is true of Athaliah, i.e., she was really the sister of Ahab even though
she is referred to as his daughter. The same idea is presented in two recently
published medieval commentaries on the Pentateuch, Moshav
Zeqanim14 and Perushei Rabbenu Hayyim Paltiel al Ha-Torah.15 Bahya
proves that Athaliah was really the sister of Ahab from the fact that Ahab had
no daughters,16 as II Kings 10:1 only refers to his having seventy sons, no
daughters being mentioned.17 However, one can just as easily argue that the
Bible simply did not feel the need to mention Ahab's daughters or that "seventy sons" really means "seventy children." In fact, according to Hebrew
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grammar, when a plurality of males and females together is referenced, the
word is always written in its masculine form.
As noted above, if one explains that Athaliah was really a daughter of Omri, one must also explain how she married Jehoram according to Seder Olam
Rabbah, which records that Jehoram’s father, Jehoshaphat, married a daughter of Omri, making Athaliah Jehoram’s aunt. In fact, Laniado had considered
the possibility that Athaliah was really the daughter of Omri, suggesting that
she is referred to as the daughter of Ahab to emphasize that she was wholly a
sinner like her brother Ahab.18 Laniado then rejected such an approach, specifically because of this problem, and (as mentioned above) determined instead that one cannot maintain that Athaliah was the daughter of Omri, since
she must have been Ahab's daughter.19 Dayan Yehezkel Abramsky of London (1886-1976) makes the same assumptions as Rabbi Laniado and offers a
solution to his problem:20 Abramsky points out that the Bible does not say
who was Jehoram's mother. He therefore argues that Jehoshaphat fathered
Jehoram through another wife, not through the daughter of Omri. Consequently, both Jehoshaphat and his son Jehoram could have married daughters
of Omri without Jehoram having engaged in any illicit marriages, because
Athaliah the daughter of Omri was not his aunt, but rather his stepmother’s
sister. 21
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17
Another answer can be offered, based on a textual emendation to Seder
Olam Rabbah. R. Eliyyahu ben Shlomo Zalman, the Vilna Gaon (17201797), in his glosses to Seder Olam Rabbah, emends the text to read "Asa
married his grandson Jehoram to a daughter of Omri" instead of "Asa married
his son Jehoshaphat to a daughter of Omri." Elijah Gaon (known also as HaGra) justifies this emendation by explaining that the marriage referred to in
Seder Olam Rabbah is that of Jehoram to Omri's daughter Athaliah.22 Of all
three marriages between the royal families, two are mentioned explicitly in
the Bible (that of Jehoram to Athaliah, and that of Ahaziah to a daughter of
Ahab), yet this particular marriage is only mentioned in Seder Olam Rabbah
and is not even alluded to in the Bible. The omission seems to lend credence
to Ha-Gra's emendation. Others, however, declare that this emendation is
unfounded, on the basis of earlier sources such as the Tosefta (Sotah 12:3),
Kimhi, Rashi, and early manuscripts of Seder Olam Rabbah, all of which
state that Asa married his son Jehoshaphat to a daughter of Omri.23
CONCLUSION
The Bible relates that Jehu was commanded to slay the entire "house of
Ahab" (II Kgs. 9:8) and that he did indeed kill "all that remained of the house
of Ahab," leaving no survivors (II Kgs. 10:10-11). However, based on the
above discussion, this passage is problematic because Athaliah, a member of
the Omride family, remained alive and actually reigned as queen regent in
Judah after Jehu's rebellion. R. Ya'akov Hayyim Sofer asks this question and
presents two different answers in consonance with the above explanations.
He writes that if Athaliah was a daughter of Omri, she was not included in
the decree to destroy the "house of Ahab" because she was not one of Ahab's
descendants. Alternatively, he explains, even if one understands that Athaliah
was a daughter of Ahab, she still would not have been included because the
decree applied only to the male descendants of Ahab, not to the females. In
fact, the literal wording of the prophecy foretelling Ahab's doom runs: The
entire house of Ahab shall perish; and I will obliterate from Ahab all who
urinate against the wall and anyone who survives or remains at large in Israel (II Kgs. 9:8). The phrase all who urinate against the wall (mashtin bekir) is understood by Gersonides to refer specifically to males (see Gersonides there and to I Sam. 25:22, I Kgs. 14:10).24
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In summation, there seem to be two legitimate traditions concerning the
parentage of Athaliah. Both traditions are forced to explain that some verses
in the Bible are not literal. Some commentators propose that the word
"daughter" can refer to a granddaughter, and that Athaliah was really the
daughter of Ahab and is sometimes called the daughter of Omri because she
was his granddaughter. Other commentators, who maintain that the word
"daughter" can refer to a sister, therefore assert that Athaliah was really the
daughter of Omri and is sometimes called the daughter of Ahab because she
was his sister. According to the former stance, one must also explain that
Ahaziah, Athaliah's son, was not literally a son-in-law of Ahab because that
would entail marrying his mother's sister; while according to the latter stance,
one must explain that Jehoshaphat did not marry a daughter of Omri or that
even if he did, his son Jehoram was not a product of that union.
NOTES
Special thanks are due to Avi Levine, who designed the charts for this article.
1. Alternatively, Kimhi explains that Tibni committed suicide when he realized that his influence
had waned owing to Omri’s success in politically engaging the kingdom of Judah.
2. See W. B. Barrick, "Another Shaking of Jehoshaphat's Family Tree: Jehoram and Ahaziah
Once Again", Vetus Testamentum, vol. 51, fasc. 1 (Jan. 2001) pp. 9-25. Barrick entertains the
possibility that it was actually Jehoshaphat himself, not his son Jehoram, who married Athaliah.
However, this explanation has no basis in the Bible.
3. Interestingly, one can regard Ahab's Hebrew name, Ahav, as a portmanteau word meaning
"brother-father." This alludes to both sides of the debate surrounding the lineage of Athaliah;
Ahab was either her brother or her father.
4. The name given for the mother of Ahaziah's son and eventual successor, Joash, is Zibiah of
Beersheba (II Kings 12:2). This may or may not refer to a daughter of Ahab. The fact that she is
from Beersheba seemingly implies that she was not a daughter of Ahab, since Beersheba is located in the territory of Judah, not Israel. However, Rashbam (to Gen. 26:33) writes that there
were two cities named Beersheba, based on the wording of I Kings 19:3, and [he] came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, implying that another Beersheba is located elsewhere. See S.
Maimon, Simhat Yehoshu'a al Ha-Torah (Jerusalem, 2007) p. 20, for further discussion about
these two cities.
5. Kimhi compares this to the midrash (Sifrei to Num. 10:29, cited in Rashi to Exodus 18:1)
which states that Reuel was the father of Jethro, although Jethro's daughters called Reuel their
father (Ex. 2:18) since a grandfather is also called a father. All of this is based on a Talmudic
postulate (TB Yevamot 62b) mentioned in regard to fulfilling the commandment of procreation
through grandsons in the event of the death of one's children. See Sedei Hemed, vol. 1 (Warsaw,
1891) p. 130: 384, where the author proves from this discussion that the postulate extends to
granddaughters, not just grandsons. The other commentators may have eschewed Kimh'is explanation simply because they understood the Talmudic postulate to apply only to grandsons.
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6. R. David Luria (1798-1855) wrote that Athaliah was indeed the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel:
see Midrash Rabbah: Ruth, vol. 6 (Jerusalem: Wagschall/Moznaim Publishing, 2001) p. 35. See
also footnote 9 below concerning the view of Abrabanel.
7. H. D. Rabinowitz, Da'at Soferim: Melakhim (Jerusalem/New York, 1962) p. 89.
8. Cf. I. Weinberg, Perush Niv Olam al Seder Olam (Beit Shemesh, 2001) p. 133, who argues
against the explanation of Rabbi Rabinowitz.
9. Abrabanel, in his commentary to II Kings 8:18, explains that Jehoram married Jezebel the
daughter of Ahab and she caused him to stray. This is printed in all extant editions of Abrabanel
including his Perush al Nevi'im Rishonim (Leipzig, 1686) p. 279b; Sefer Melakhim (Hamburg,
1687) p. 57a, and Perush al Nevi'im Rishonim (Tel Aviv, 1954). However, this is most certainly
an error because nowhere else does one find that Ahab had a daughter named Jezebel (he had a
wife with that name) or that Jehoram married a a woman named Jezebel. Therefore, it seems that
the proper reading of Abrabanel should be "Athaliah" instead of "Jezebel." In fact, Gersonides
(to II Kgs. 8:26) explicitly identifies the daughter of Ahab mentioned in regard to Jehoram's
straying as Athaliah. From this it appears that Abrabanel subscribed to the view that Athaliah
was a daughter of Ahab; and this is also evident from the passage of Abrabanel mentioned above
in which he explained that although Athaliah was a daughter of Ahab, she was raised in the
house of Omri. Nevertheless, Abrabanel (to Deut. 27:14) writes that Ahaziah is mentioned as the
son-in-law of Ahab because he sinned by following in the path of his mother-in-law Jezebel
through the influence of his wife, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. He thus appears to believe
that Ahaziah was literally a son-in-law of Ahab. If so, then Abrabanel must have understood that
Athaliah was not a daughter of Ahab, but rather of Omri. There is therefore a contradiction in
Abrabanel's stance regarding this issue.
10. E. Batzri, Keli Yakar: Melakhim 2 (Jerusalem: Ha-Ketav Institute, 1994) p. 190.
11. H. J. Katzenstein, "Who were the Parents of Athaliah?," Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 5,
no. 3 (1955) pp. 194-197; William W. Hallo, "From Qarqar to Carchemish: Assyria and Israel in
the Light of New Discoveries," The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 23, no. 2 (May, 1960) p. 41, fn.
32; J. M. Miller, "The Fall of the House of Ahab," Vetus Testamentum, vol. 17, fasc. 3 (July
1967) p. 307; Susan Ackerman, "The Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel," Journal of
Biblical Literature, vol. 112, no. 3 (Autumn 1993) p. 395, fn. 37.
12. Independent of these sources, R. Ze'ev Wolf Einhorn of Horodna (d. 1862) also assumed that
Athaliah was a daughter of Omri. See Midrash Rabbah: Ruth, vol. 6 (Jerusalem: Wagschall/
Moznaim Publishing, 2001) p. 35.
13. C. Chavel, Rabbenu Bahya al Ha-Torah: Bereshit (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1966) p.
292.
14. S. Sasson, Moshav Zeqanim (London, 1959) p. 61.
15. I. S. Lange, Perushei Rabbenu Hayyim Paltiel al Ha-Torah (Jerusalem, 1981) p. 107 (his
wording, however, is rather obscure). See I. M. Ta-Shma, "Hayyim Paltiel ben Jacob," Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., vol. 8 (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007) p. 483. Ta-Shma
theorizes that the author of this work (mentioned as "still unpublished" in his article) was R.
Hayyim Paltiel ben Jacob, a noted German scholar of the late thirteenth century.
16. R. Yomtov Lipmann Heller (1579-1654) wrote that Bahya did not prove that Athaliah was a
sister of Ahab from the fact that she is referred to in the Bible as the daughter of Omri (Ahab's
father) because those passages can be reinterpreted in light of Kimhi's and Gersonides' explanaVol. 42, No. 1, 2014
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REUVEN CHAIM (RUDOLPH) KLEIN
tions to not mean that she was literally a daughter of Omri, as mentioned above. See A. Heller, Tuv Ta'am al Rabbenu Bahya: Bereshit (Benei Berak, 1992) p. 214.
17. Bahya also notes that Targum Yonatan translates "daughter of Ahab" as "sister of Ahab."
However, this is not found in any extant editions of Targum Yonatan.
18. It seems that throughout rabbinic literature Ahab is viewed as a paragon of sin, or at least
more so than his father. For example, see TB Sanhedrin 90a, which counts Ahab as one of three
kings who lost their portion in the World to Come (including Manasseh of Judah and Jeroboam
ben Nebat of Israel); see also Rashi (to Gen. 48:8), who states that Jeroboam and Ahab were
wicked men descended from Ephraim, but does not mention Omri, Ahab's father. Cf. T. Ishida,
"The House of Ahab," Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 25, nos. 2/3 (1975) pp. 135-137, and E.
Ben Zvi, "The House of Omri/Ahab in Chronicles," Ahab Agonistes: The Rise and Fall of the
Omri Dynasty (London/New York: T & T Clark and the Library of Biblical Studies, 2007) pp.
41-52.
19. E. Batzri, Keli Yakar: Melakhim 2 (Jerusalem: Ha-Ketav Institute, 1994) p. 183.
20. Y. Abramsky, Hazon Yehezkel: Tosefta Nashim, vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 1963) pp. 55b-56a.
21. See R. Margolios, Sefer Hasidim (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1927) p. 20, who discusses a prohibition against a father and son marrying two sisters.
22. M. D. Yerushalmi, Seder Olam im Bi'ur Ha-Gra (Jerusalem, 1955) p. 55, #57, and Seder
Olam Rabbah (Warsaw, 1905) pp. 47:51. However, see Me'ir Ayin there who points out that this
explanation is unlikely because if Asa was still alive during Jehoram's marriage to Athaliah,
Jehoram could have been at most two years old at the time of his marriage!
23. Y. M Weinstock, Seder Olam Rabbah Ha-Shalem, Seder Zemannim (Jerusalem, 1956) p.
270, and S. Mirsky, Midrash Seder Olam (Jerusalem, 1988) pp. 35b-36a.
24. Y. H. Sofer, Torat Ya'akov al Ha-Torah (Jerusalem, 2002) pp. 686-691; and Kovetz Beit
Aharon ve-Yisrael (Karlin), vol. 95 (Sivan 5761) pp. 130-133. In the JPS, mashtin be-kir is euphemistically translated as "male" or "manchild" [Ed.].
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