A one-year-old baby survived a massacre that wiped out the entire royal family of Judah. Athaliah, daughter of the infamous Ahab, heard that her brother Joram, her son Ahaziah, and the rest of the ruling house were dead. Her response was not grief. It was opportunity. She ordered every remaining heir of the House of David slaughtered so she could seize the throne for herself.
She nearly succeeded. But a woman named Jehosheba, Ahaziah's sister, found the infant Jehoash hidden among the corpses, still alive with his nurse. She smuggled the child into a secret chamber and handed him to her husband, the High Priest Jehoiada. For six years, while Athaliah ruled Jerusalem unchallenged, this baby grew up in hiding inside the Temple itself.
In the seventh year, Jehoiada made his move. He recruited five captains of hundreds, swore them to secrecy, and revealed the child prince. The priests distributed weapons from King David's own armory, stored in the Temple for exactly this kind of moment. Armed Levites formed a human wall around the boy. They placed the royal crown on his head, anointed him with oil, and the crowd erupted: "God save the king!"
Athaliah heard the commotion and rushed to the Temple with her guards. When she saw the child standing on a pillar wearing the crown, she tore her clothes and screamed for his death. But Jehoiada's men dragged her out to the Valley of Kidron and executed her there, refusing to defile the Temple with her blood. The people demolished Ahab's temple to Baal, killed its priest, and restored the worship of God. Jehoash was seven years old when he took the throne. As long as Jehoiada lived, the boy-king kept the laws and honored the God of Israel.