Ahab’s death was disastrous to the kingdom. Soon the Aramean enemies captured border areas in the north and east of Israel. They began to penetrate even to Sea of Galilee surroundings. But soon the situation seemed to be stabilized. Ahazia, Ahab’s son and Athaliah’s brother, (he had the same name as her son’s) had been crowned and became the successor. He was forced to pay high amounts of ransom pledged by the enemy Aram. By that - the bleeding country earned stillness, if not full peace for a few years.
In those days Athaliah was like a blooming tulip- in her tall, dark haired, green-brown eyes, and pretty face, that was beaming cleverness and pride. She had a special voice, that indicated her womanish tenderness. There were rumors in Samaria, as well as in Jerusalem, that since her childhood she could compete with most brave and smart males - in sports, games of memory and knowledge in history, religion and witchcraft. She had made an outstanding impression on whoever had met her. The people who had known her were filled with adore, mixed with a wonder and fear about the source of her mysterious power.
Athaliah planned her next visit to Samaria (Shomron, in Hebrew)- a year after her father’s death. She liked that capital of North Israel, which had been built by her grandpa Omri, and rennovated by her father Ahab. She wanted this time to bring her children with her, and her husband had not opposed that idea. However, her expected vacation was hindered by king Jehoshafat, her husband’s father. He was afraid from her decision to take the kids with her.
“A first visit in their mother’s native land is blessed,” he said, “but not in the dense atmosphere still existing in Samaria. The cloud of dust of the enemy’s horseriders is hanging on Northern Israel.”
His order that she would stay at home, was also based on a message sent to him by a God’s priest (his name had not been mentioned in the Bible). He informed the king of Judea about the hard conflict that exists in the life of the couple Athaliah and Jehoram. King Jehoshafat took care to keeping the political alliance agreement between him and the late king Ahab. He had not imagined how dim and breakable is Northern Israel kingdom. He suspected now, that if Athaliah would intend to rescue herself from Judea’s grip and run away, that may entail an un-necessary quarrel between the two kingdoms. He ordered to his plicemen to look after Athaliah’s moves. Also the men on the ‘Royal way’ cheking points had been requested to lead her back to Jerusalem’s track, if she tries to break his order.
But next summer – Athaliah’s husband Jehoram persuaded his father to allow his wife’s travel; though without her children. Athaliah decided to obey the elderly king, after a protrest. She went to meet him in his palace, but could not convince him to permit also the children join her to Samaria. He showed her a worrisome letter, that he had just received from Jezebel, her influential mother. The old widow of Ahab had begged the king of Jerusalem to permit her daughter get out to Samaria, because: “Athaliah’s brother, Ahaziahu – Israel’s king- has become very sick in his stomach. Nobody knows what the coming days would bring…”
This time Athaliah took her personal girl servant with her. Jezebel met them while they arrived in the palace in an early evening hour. She told Athaliah that there was no change in her son’s health situation. However, in the following morning Jezebel sent her maid urgently to Athaliah. She was called to arrive immediately at her mother’s apartment in the upper floor.
“Has something happened to my brother, the King ?” asked Athaliah.
Jezebel’s maid shrugged her shoulders. She did not know anything, she said - and ran out.
Athaliah was wearing her blue velvet long dress very quickly. It exposed her nice legs while strolling around or climbing high stairs, and she liked that. She indicated her maidservant not to join her, closed her room’s door and went to a small corridor leading to the upper surface of the palace, over her room. She was bending her head while reaching a low corridor, and moved forward on to a hallway, then climbed a staircase. From it she turned left and heard a small waterfall that trinkled down on a marble wall. It was draining into a small pool framed with red flowering plants. Beneath the water were discerned some water-snakes. Athaliah was terrified for a second from that sight, but soon recovered and moved on. She had arrived to the square paved courtyard of the palace. Not so far, on its northern edge, she saw her mother in black.
Jezebel was sitting on the stone pavement, her hands rising like bare branches of a cut out tree, shouting something. Athaliah’s elder brother, prince Joram, was standing at his mother’s side. Jezebel’s main personal guard - and head of secret police, Gera – (to whom Athaliah had dedicatd her virginity years before), was staying there too. He was as handsome as he had been before, but Athaliah, who approached Jezebel, could not enjoy looking at his figure now. She had heard her mother’s terrible sob, and arrived to her place in a rush. She discerned a stain of blood not far from that place. Athaliah understood immediately, that a terrible event had happened. Her mother had been stricken again by bereavement.
Jezebel was about forty five at that time. Her red eyes discerned her daughter approach, and she soon was elbowed by her. Athaliah heard her brother, Joram, saying:
“Please, help me to raise Mom up. Let us take her inside”
Jezebel had a tall figure. She was slim, and her body was well shaped in the dark dress she was wearing. Her son and daughter stretched their hands to raise her, and she became standing erect on her place. Her wet eyes from sob were still straying while she was looking toward Athaliah - her beloved daughter. Then she glanced at the balcony over the yard, and pointed on it. Her body was quivering while she spoke:
“From there - he had fallen…my elder son, your poor brother…” Her voice was broken. Joram caressed her hand, like intending to bring by that some warmth into to her freezing heart.
“The servants had taken him into the Hall,” she exclaimed, “but I won’t be able to look again at him…You must do that, my children. Gaze at what had come out of your father’s heir. He has left us so quickly…My son was murdered, I’m sure! Prophet Elija himself had cursed him: ‘The bed on which you lie- you would not rise from it’- so the hateful prophet had declared .”
They crossed the palace entry, and she mumbled: “Yes, Ahaziahu was assasinated, woe to us. Oh, I could not rescue him! I had not taken care enough of him...”
Athaliah had known that her Mom had been sometimes ‘theatrical’. This time, however, she thought that Jezebel had ben right to panic. ‘But no,’ she reflected, ‘the dead could not be brought back alive. So, we must ...consult what will happen now. First of all – manage the funeral.’
Her brother Joram tried to hold his spirit strong.
“I’ve called the servants to wash his poor body…” he said, “Let them finish that.”
“I will come as close as I can- to his bed,” said Jezebel suddenly, quite in contrary to her previous saying, that she would prevent looking again at the corpse, “I must swear there to him. Vow to revenge. In the names of Baal and Ashera, my Idols of paradize and hell.”
The mourners’ small group walked slowly in the palace’s Hall. A canopy bed was set up in the its center, covered by grey sheepskins. Jezebel approached it, but turned her face aside. Athaliah thought about her Mom’s broken heart - while standing at her side. Then she removed a part of the canopy’s cover, and was looking at her dead, bloodshed brother. She covered again the canopy bed by the dark sheepskin.
At that moment three servants, headed by a capped Flower Priest of God, had arrived therby. They removed the canopy and raised the corpe from the bed, one grabbing the cracked blooded head, stretching under it a piece of cloth. They laid it on a stoned table at the side, and began to wash and purify the corpse. Jezebel and her grown ups walked to the other side of the hall. The dead king’s mother prevented gazing at their activity, but her son and daughter took a short glimpse of dread at the blooded brain liquid, oozing from the cracked skull…
“I can’t understand what had happened,” whispered Athaliah to
her brother Joram, while Jezebel became seated on a stone chair, not far. Her eyes was turned to the direction of her son and daughter, but her look was enstranged.
“It was early in the morning,” Joram told Athaliah, “a fearful scream, followed by a tremendous crack had been heard. I rushed outside, to the courtyard. My eyes had seen the horrible sight.”
He burst in a short whimper and went to the window. From there he gazed at two slaves who had arrived in the courtyard. They poured water on its bloodstained pavement. Then they washed it over, using wet rags. They squeezed the dirty liquid into a ceramic jar.
“My son, King Ahaziahu, was loved by all,” burst Jezebel in a sudden fury, and rose on her feet, “except by the Prophets! The prophets had poisoned him.”
Joram turnded to her, and she saw his dread.
“Are you sure about that ,Mom?” he asked. His face became severe, while he tried to restrain a nervy tremble in his chin.
“I had known it - since the day he fell sick,” she said, “But I had not told anybody. His health seemed to improve recently, so we all had hoped. Therefore…”
“Therefore the fanatic God Believers…” Atahaliah interrupted her, “had found another way to kill him? I see. Mother is absolutely right,” she turned to Joram, “The prophets of God are guilty. They rejoiced, while they heard about our father’s killing in the battle.”
“Their God has had always hated us,” said Jezebel, “and now they have succeeded …Their abominable hand had pushed my son down to his death,” Jezebel stretched her right hand, like in a vow while preaching to a crowd, “Cut their murderous heads, Oh Baal!.”
“Oh, Baal, Oh Ashera!” Athaliah and her mother Jezebel mumured together.
“I can’t …agree to your suspicions, mother” said Joram, trying to be heard reasonable, “the palace has been surrounded by our guards. All were selected by you, by your secret police…Maybe our minds - have gone to far, got astrayed by the shock. Nobody has discerned any intruder penetrating into the palace or into my brother’s room. It’s hard to believe that there was somebody waiting...in the balcony…”
“I’ll soon know, for sure,” said Jezebel hysterically, “I’ll catch the assassin. I’ll strangle that prophets in my own hands! My son was always healthy, and they caused his malady. Then – they brought his death! Probably by one of the guards.”
“But couldn’t it be possible,” asked Joram, “that my dear brother himself…wished to put an end to his suffer?… Such stomach pains, that had terrified him. He may …have crushed himself down…from over the balcony.”
“Shame on you - to say that!” screamed Jezebel, “He was always so vivid, so ready to enjoy life, so devoted to Baal Idol. The Prophets of God had understood, that he would follow his father’s way: That he won’t allow only Israel’s God worship in this kingdom!”
“Mom, enough with accuses. I should be crowned next week,” said Joram in fear, “I request you- do not smirch the prophets and their youths. They might bring additional disasters, if we face them directly and forcefully…”
“Beware that I would not suspect you in the disaster... Though I know that you’ve loved Ahaziahu, and worshipped him…”
Joram held his head in frustration and looked at Athaliah. Jezebel cried hysterically again: ”Murderers, Murderers all around!”
All of a sudden she became relented, and apologized to Joram, her only son now.
“We should fasten the royal guard to defend you,” told him Jezebel. “Excuse me for my condemnations. I’ve become maddened – out of this event. I feel crazy from rage and nervousness.”
She broke again into a weep, but soon recovered. She seemed intending to apologize to her two remaining grown ups, by saying:
“Your late father had nominated me for the job of protecting the king’s life. I haveo selected his own security headguards. I have failed in that. Israel’s God had made me delude myself, that everything was well done. Now I will lead the investigation of this cruel murder. My Torture Cellar will not become quiet even on Sabbath, I swear!”
“Well, mother,” said Joram and held Jezebel by the sleeve, Within an hour - many people will arrive to the funeral…”
“Please, Mom,” told her Athaliah, “don’t talk about your suspicions to anybody. We should calculate our further steps very cautiously.”
Two hundred of Israel’s nobleman and Ahab’s close family relatives were gathering on the palace courtyard. The stain blood on it had already been sweeped by the slaves, and the place was dry. The crowd was waiting in silence for the arrival of the Priest of God, Azaryah. The Baal priest of Samaria, - ShmarBaal - had been there already, chatting by whisper with Ahab’s elder brother, who was known to Jezebel as a mild and sick man. She had know that the man would refuse to be a king, even proposed. Other two brothers of Ahab had been known for their foolishness, and no one suspected they had a hand in the enigmatic death of the late king. ...Rumors cut the air as by a sharp knife. The prophets and the Arameans were the main suspects. However, some condemned Joram, in a mouth to ear talk. ‘He is the younger brother of the king,’ so rumors said, ‘and very ambitious. Such assassinations within the royal family - could happen even in the most respectable families. We know it had happened to the Phoenicians and Greeks and Arameans. So why not in this case?’... However, no one had dared to speak loudly about it - at this sad meeting. Some women slandered about young Ahaziahu, telling each other what their husbands had gossiped about the rulers death: That he had been a real coward. This- and nothing elase- was fundamental reason for any murderer. Many people were thinking that the new king Joram will unite the people under the name of God, and dismiss all Baal wordhippers from the troops. By that he will strengthen the army. Then he will become powerful enough- to revenge Aram for all its attacks on Israel in the past. Clear cut, very simple. ‘At last he will have to kill his sinful mother too’- mocked a ‘know-all’ womanish source. ‘Well, let him do it,’ nodded another…
God’s priest Azaryah was late, because he had to arrive from far away Beth-El. Main God’s Temple, which wa called the Calf Temple- had been built there about a hundred years before, to compete with God’s Temple, built by king Solomon in Jerusalem.
When God’s Priest arrived at last, Joram scolded him, and asked why he could not change his old limping horse.
“Beth El priests of God,” murmured the old the High Priest, “haven’t got enough charity money recently.” He wanted to let the supposedly new king Joram know about his problem. But Joram did not stay with him any more. He ordered the coffin carriers to start the funeral’s procession.
Priest Azariah was walking ahead of it - followed by six flower priests, who carried the gasket. They were followed by Baal’s chief priest and his flower priests. It was a sad, gloomy event. The professional women mourners were crying: ‘Oh sir, Oh lovely king – woe to your glory,’ and so on. Some men were organized as a choir and singing a Psalm chapter: ‘The Heavens are telling the glory of God, and His Blue Expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”
After the funeral and burial ceremony had ended, only the royal family members went back to the palace. According to the tradition they would eat in the hall ‘the Israeli healthy feast’. Both religions had required that, so the palace servants had already carried the ‘hard to digest food’ for such a mourning event: The notion that life has been changed to be almost un-bearable, without the deceased person, would be symbolized by eating foods hard for the viscera. Therefore beans and peas, as well as live dry weat grains(that horses are regularly used to eat) - all were served half boiled, so that the hardness of food would be felt. The most close relatives males of the dead king- had also to put grit and hard barley itching grains under their feet, inside their shoes or sandals. It was a sign for the mourner. He should physically suffer from the sensation of bereavement.
On the following day the small bereaved family members were sitting again on the hard fl
oor. They were waiting for condolers from remote parts of the country, also from Judea. Chief of Secret Police ,Gera, had suddenly appeared in the Hall. He interrupted the polite and painful conversations with the new visitors. He whispered to Jezebel, that some arrests had already been made. Prophets Elija and Elisha, however, had succeeded to hide.
Shortly afterward the visitors had left. Joram went out with the secret police head, and Jezebel and her daughter remained alone in the hall. Jezebel had thought that now was the right moment for her to foretell a gloomy future to her beloved daughter.
“I feel it in my heart,” she told Athaliah, “and you should know: This is not the end of our struggle. I doubt it, if the Gods will let Joram rest with a victory garland on his head.”
“You mean, that a tragedy we have just seen – may be repeated?” asked Athaliah in dread.
“Joram is the last male in our small family. I fear he is in a great danger,” Jezebel uttered her solemn words in a hoarse voice, like her throat was choked, “and if the worst happens, I see you, my dear daughter…You should not let the crown fall from the dignified family of your father and forefathers. I am a daughter of the king of Tsydon. I’m proud of it. So, you bear on your both shoulders two heavy yokes. Remember all your life this sad meeting with me. Draw this picture clear in your mind. From time to time recollect the gloomy vision that I have provoked in you. Be fit for your fate!”
“Oh, Mother, I’m in such a dread from your ideas. I know well that they may realize, but hopefully all will become better than you think. I promise you to keep within me all your words, good or not so good…whatever happens.”
“I believe in fate,” said Jezebel, “ Look to the stars from time to time, Athaliah. They can tell and foretell things - not seen in first view. Regular human eyes, of flesh and blood, are always mistaken.”
“I shall remember!” said Athaliah. Both fell to ebbrace one another’s and sobbed…
Joram returned, as they had just wiped their wet eyes and cheeks. He told the women that no evidence was found to validate his mother’s suspects.
CHAPTER 3