The old man and ....

It has been harsh days for the house of David. And they brought the line of promise to the eve of extinction. The northern kingdom of Israel had been for decades under the influence of the religion of Baal. In the year 841 BC Jehu overthrew the reigning dynasty of Omri. Jehu exterminated all the worshippers of Baal. Nevertheless Juda already had taken the infection.
Years before the revolution of Jehu the king of Juda, Jehoshaphat, allied himself with the kingdom of Israel through a marriage of his son Jehoram with Athaliah, a daughter of Jezebel. The priestess of a Canaanite cult got a foothold in the city of David. Shortly after this unholy alliance bore its fruits. After the death of Jehoshaphat his son Jehoram became king of Juda. He quickly showed his character. “When Jehoram had taken over the kingdom of his father and made himself secure, he killed all his brothers with the sword, and some of the rulers of Israel also.” (2 Chronicles 21:4). Sometime later during a raid of Jerusalem all his sons except Ahaziah, the youngest, were killed. In that fateful year 841Jehoram died and his only leftover son, Ahaziah, became king in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 22:1).
The young king Ahaziah went shares with his uncle, king of Israel. When the latter took some rest to recover from injuries, taken during a common campaign, his nephew Ahaziah came for a visit. It was not the best day for a sick call. The revolution under Jehu had started and wiped away not only the ruler of Israel. Also Ahaziah and several of his relatives found their death in that upheaval (2 Chronicles 22:8-9).
In Jerusalem the mother of Ahaziah Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, came to power. She exterminated all what was left over from the royal offspring (2 Kings 11, 1), i.e. all male candidates for the throne. Only the infant Joash, a son of Ahaziah survived. He was hidden by Jehoshabeath and he was the only one of the house of David who survived to become king of Juda later on.
Jehoshabeath was the “daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah)” (2 Chronicles 22:11). It is unlikely that she was a daughter of Athaliah. Most likely, she was a stepsister of Ahaziah. Athaliah held to the tradition of faithfulness to Baal and Asherah. It is unlikely that her daughter would have been on Yahweh's side, have married a High Priest and have hidden the successor to the throne. The marital relation between the royal house and the High Priest is worthy of notice though.
We have to do some mathematics to inquire this case. Jehoiada died at the age of 130 years (2 Chronic. 24:15). The following two years help to date his death. Joash died in 796 BC. At that time Jehoiada was already dead. The repair of the temple began in the twenty third year of Joash’s reign (814) (2 Kings 12:7). The death of Jehoiada must have been in the second half of this time span (ca. 805 – 798). Hence, he was born in between 935 and 928. His father-in-law Jehoram was born in 881 B.C. (compare with 2 Chronicles 21:20). If we assume that Jehoshabeath was born early, Jehoram might have been at the age of 16 years. The earliest year for the birth of Jehoiada’s wife is 865 (881 minus 16). As a result, the difference in years between Jehoiada and his wife is 63 years, probably even more. If we consider a marriage age of 13 for the girl, the High Priest was already in his seventies.
This disparity indicates that this was a political marriage. Jehoram intended to attach the head of the priesthood to himself through this marriage. However, Jehoiada did not fall under influence of the royal house that had turned away from Yahweh. He even managed to bring his young wife to the Lord. She did not walk in the ways of her father’s house. She remained faithful to the house of David and rescued the successor to the throne of David from the hands of murderers.

Dates are mainly drawn from Thiele: Mysterious Numbers