Many women in the Bible save children or infants, and their efforts later have major payoffs. I often think of two of Pharaoh’s employees, mentioned at the start of Exodus, who spared many of the infants Pharaoh had deemed ready to slaughter. Pharaoh had, after all, decided to kill all the Hebrew male children to control the population of his slaves. I also think of Moses’ mother and sister, who saved Moses from assured destruction and found him a comfortable home in the Pharaoh’s palace until it was his time to rescue the Israelites from slavery. And although we may have a familiarity with these stories, we may not have heard about one other infant-saver. Jehosheba.
Jehosheba saw the destruction of a person by the name of Queen Athaliah. Jehosheba gathers the only child the queen hasn’t murdered yet and takes him to a secret place for safekeeping. Today’s article will uncover her story and what we can learn from her tale of bravery.
Who Was Jehosheba in the Bible?
We first meet Jehosheba in 2 Kings 11. For those unfamiliar with the timeline of the kings, the kingdom of Israel split into two factions. The northern faction had all rotten rulers. Not a single one chased after God. The lower faction, Judah, had a few good eggs. But like their northern counterpart, most of their kings turned out to be very evil.
Jehosheba is the daughter of King Jehoram, a former ruler of Judah. When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, sees that her son is dead, she decides to make a move. She kills the former king’s sons to secure her rule as Queen.
The kingdom of Judah only had one queen, and she didn’t get it through proper succession. She must not know of all the king’s sons to miss one going missing, which we’ll later touch on.
What Do We Learn about Jehosheba Outside the Bible?
Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t list Jehosheba by name again after 2 Kings 11.
We can look into some extra-biblical documents to learn more about her background. Josephus’ Histories tell us that she married the high priest Jehoiada. This certainly plays a role later in the story.
Israel must have been fine with royalty marrying someone from the priesthood of Israel. Perhaps they saw the two roles as equal standing.
The Midrash—rabbinical writings on Jewish literature—say she’s one of twenty-something righteous women in Israel.
Unfortunately, beyond these, we don’t have much to go off of. We don’t know what Jehosheba was truly like: if she had a quiet or bold disposition. If she had a devout relationship with God or a distant one.
However, what most scholars seem to highlight in her story is her bravery and patience in rescuing a future royal—saving him from the destruction of a bloodthirsty queen.
Who Did Jehosheba Save?
Jehosheba saves the only son of Ahaziah to survive the slaughter of the queen…Joash. As he’s an infant at the time, he can’t defend himself from any attack.
She grabs his wetnurse and hides them in a palace bedroom. After the carnage, Jehosheba takes the child and wetnurse to the temple to hide out for six years. If she was married to the high priest, as Josephus indicates, then it would make sense why she’d have access within the temple walls to hide the future king.
Scripture also tells us that the Queen didn’t know about his existence. We can assume that the former king had so many children that she didn’t feel the need to keep track. We can imagine there was some distance between the royals and the children of the palace. Perhaps governesses handled the young children until they were old enough to be at social gatherings with their parents.
Because Jehosheba saves Joash, she saves the future king of the land.
Later, the queen is deposed—rather violently—and the young king can take his place on the throne. We imagine he didn’t get to weigh in on political matters at first since he was only seven years old. Perhaps they trusted in a female advisor—as they often did until a male ruler was ready to make informed decisions. Who knows? Perhaps they had even trusted Jehosheba to help with diplomatic matters.
In the end, Jehosheba preserves one of the few good kings of Judah.
What Tribe Did Jehosheba Come From?
Jehosheba would’ve hailed from the tribe of Judah. If that sounds familiar…that’s because Jesus came from this very same tribe. Jesus comes from the line of David—i.e., From the tribe of Judah.
Want to know an equally important role Jehosheba played in the line of Judah?
Not only did she preserve a good king who would lead Judah back to God for some time, but she also preserved the line of Jesus.
Had she allowed the young future king to die, Jesus’ birth line would’ve been cut short.
Although Jehosheba may not have known at the time that she played a much bigger role in the biblical narrative, she certainly followed her calling. She bravely put her life on the line to protect the child God had truly called to the throne.
And not some ruler who bloodied her way onto it.
Lessons from Jehosheba and Her Life
As you can imagine, we can learn a lot from Jehosheba’s bravery. Although we don’t get much more than a verse of background info from Scripture, it’s full of information. Jehosheba is a fantastic model of what it looks like to obey God without asking questions or showing hesitation.
We don’t know how much time she had to hide the child in a bedroom. Given the location (inside the palace, in a bedroom), we can imagine she didn't have much time. Maybe minutes to preserve him from his doom.
She springs into action, and because of her, the line of Jesus continues. Here are three lessons we can take away from her life.
First, God values children.
Time and time again, we see God call people to rescue children from assured destruction. Infanticide is frequent in the biblical narrative, and we can see God’s anger burn, for he cares about the vulnerable, for those who cannot defend themselves. Jehosheba takes this seriously and hides the future king. In the same way, do we feel the call to help the vulnerable? Or do we see this topic with indifference?
Second, Jehosheba saw the value of sanctuary.
Not only had Jehosheba married the high priest, but she saw the temple as a haven away from evil. David, during his reign, also hid in a religious place. May we, in the same way, create churches that are safe places. Places that feed the hungry, care for the lost and are hiding places for the hurting.
Finally, Jehosheba’s actions played a much bigger role.
Jehosheba certainly didn’t know the name Jesus. Perhaps she was privy to some early Messianic prophecies about him, but Jesus was still hundreds of years away from appearing on earth. Even so, she didn’t question her calling. She knew she had to save the infant from destruction. Not only did the infant grow up to bring about religious reforms and steer God’s people back to God…
But that child would be part of a line of people who gave birth to the world's Savior. Through Jesus, men can be saved to spend an eternity with God in heaven.
In the same way, when God asks us to do something small, we have no idea what impact it will have. Perhaps we can bring others to him; perhaps we can rescue yet another soul from destruction. Just like what Jehosheba had done.
Photo Credit:©GettyImages/kieferpix
Hope Bolinger is an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, book editor for hire, and the author of almost 30 books. More than 1500 of her works have been featured in various publications. Check out her books at hopebolinger.com for clean books in most genres, great for adults and kids. Check out her editing profile at Reedsy.com to find out about hiring her for your next book project.
This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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