11:12 made him king. God had long ago promised David that “thy throne shall be established for ever” (II Samuel 7:16). Queen Athaliah thought that she had destroyed the Davidic line when she “destroyed all the seed royal” after the death of her son, King Ahaziah (II Kings 11:1). She herself was daughter of Ahab, descendant of Omri, the usurper of the throne of the northern kingdom, and of Jezebel, a Phoenician princess. But God keeps his word. She apparently did not even know of the existence of baby Joash, safely hidden away in the temple by the godly priest Jehoiada and his wife Jehosheba, who had been Ahaziah’s sister (probably not a daughter of Athaliah but of another of Joram’s wives). But God saw that David’s line was preserved!