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JOASH SAVED BY JEHOSHABEATH.

So

ATHALIAH, daughter of Omri king of Samaria, and wife of Jehoram king of Judah, was, next to Jezebel, one of the most profligate women mentioned in sacred history. Upon the death of Ahaziah, who was slain by a party of Jehu's troops, which, pursuing him as he fled from the presence of the king, mortally wounded him in his chariot-his ambitious mother usurped the kingdom, and, with a view to her political security, ordered all the children which Jehoram had by another wife to be destroyed, together with all their offspring. "But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not*." Jehoshabeath was the sister of Ahaziah by a different mother; she was, however, the daughter of Jehoram, and therefore one of those whom the vindictive queen had doomed to destruction. While the royal mandate was in course of execution, she escaped the family massacre, and taking the infant son of her late brother, kept him and his nurse concealed for the space of six years, in an apartment of the temple. How signally did the divine chastisements fall on the families of the idolatrous kings of Israel! The whole offspring of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab, was cut off. The kings of Judah, likewise, having contracted an affinity with the house of Ahab, and being by them seduced into the practice of idolatry, their families were destroyed by three successive massacres. First, Jehoram slew all his brethren; then Jehu put to death all his brother's children; and next Athaliah destroyed all that remained. Thus are human delinquencies visited with the severest punishments. In the print, Jehoshabeath is seen fleeing with the infant, accompanied by its nurse, from the destroyers of her relatives; when her husband, Jehoiada the priest, receives them, and conducts them into a place of security.

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JOASH SAVED BY JEHOSHABEATH.

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