Queen Maacah II

Queen Maacah is described as the daughter of Prince Absalom she was therefore from a branch of the family that had recently rebelled against the authority of King David, founder of the dynasty.

History
She was also linked, through her father, to the idea of Kingship by popular acclaim, rather than through inheritance. King David struggled against this, he wanted Kingship by inheritance, so that his own dynasty could rule. Prince Absalom preferred the ancient method of choosing a King by popular choice.

When it was time for Princess Maacah to marry, her cousin Prince Rehoboam was chosen. He already had at least one other wife who had given him sons, but Princess Maacah was his favorite. He is said to have loved her more than any of his other wives and concubines. She remained in the palace harem, where she had grown up. A modern reader might balk at the idea of 2 such closely related people marrying, but marriage between a man and his father’s brother’s daughter was seen as the ideal alliance in ancient Israel.

The 2 young people were not necessarily full first cousins, since the brother might be a half-brother, as Prince Absalom was to King Solomon. Prince Rehoboam later chose Princess Maachah’s son Prince Abijah to succeed him. She has other sons, Prince Attai, Prince Ziza and Prince Shelomith. Her husband Prince Rehoboam reigned from 928 - 911BC and she was Queen Mother in the years 911 - 908BC. Prince Rehoboam was the son of an Ammonite Princess and this probably played some part in his selection as heir. It shored up the valuable alliance Ammon, a threatening neighbor.

By the time that King Solomon died, Prince Rehoboam was already 41, no longer young. The last few years had been increasingly difficult. The 10 northern tribes were taxed more heavily than the 2 tribes living in the south, in Judah and when King Solomon died they used the opportunity to negotiate for better conditions. The northern tribes insisted that Prince Rehoboam’s coronation be held at Shechem, a pro-northern centre. Prince Rehoboam gave in to their wish. At his coronation the situation came to a head.

Face to face with their King, the northern chieftains demanded reforms. The levies and taxes imposed by King Solomon were unendurable. They balked at the drain in money and manpower. They also saw King Rehoboam as being heavily biased in favour of the southern tribes, which he was. King Rehoboam played for time. He consulted with his advisers. The older and more experienced among them told him to concede, to give the tribes what they asked for. The young men in King Rehoboam’s entourage, on the other hand, advised him to take a firm hand.

They felt there had already been too many concessions made by King Solomon and that to continue this would be a sign of weakness. Not only that, but they urged him to speak in insulting terms to the tribal leaders, to put them in their place and show who was boss. Instead of negotiating as King Solomon would have done, he threatened to raise the taxes even higher. One wonders where Queen Maacah II stood in all of this. Her father had died for the principle of popular selection by the tribes as well as many other grievances against King David.

But she, as the favorite wife, must have had some part in King Rehoboam’s decision to flout the tribes and behave autocratically. There was a violent reaction to King Rehoboam’s ultimatum. The northern tribes refused outright to accept his demands and withdrew to the safety of their own territories. King Rehoboam responded by sending his tax collector, Adoram, to impose his will, but the unfortunate man was captured and stoned to death.

The coronation was aborted and King Rehoboam retreated to Jerusalem, where he assumed the crown of Judah, but not Israel. After a breathing space of some months, he assembled a large army to invade and subdue the northern tribes, but one of his advisers, Shemaiah, persuaded him that the odds were against him. He abandoned his plan and in doing so lost all the rich territories of the north. Henceforth he ruled only tiny Judah. 5 years later he faced another national emergency.

The Egyptian Pharaoh Shishaq I and his allies invaded Judah. There had been an alliance between King Solomon and the Egyptian rulers and one of the most important wives of King Solomon had been the daughter of Pharaoh. But her family was gone, replaced by Pharaoh Shishaq I. He invaded Judah with a striking force of 1,200 chariots and the Lybian and Nubian infantry and the entire territory of Judah was left open to rape and pillage. Jerusalem and it’s palaces were sacked.

The wealth of the city was looted and among the items stolen were the golden shields that King Solomon had made for his body guard, treasured items that had been stored in his Temple. The jewelry belonging to Queen Maacah II and the other women of the royal harem would have been prised from their fingers and given into the coffers of Pharaoh Shishaq I. When King Rehoboam returned he replaced the shields, but without the resources of King Solomon he was forced to replace them with brass, not gold.

What resources he had were funnelled into the building of a series of fortresses and defensive walls around his territory. These were working defense centres for storing food and arms, all within riding distance of each other, all watching and reporting back to King Rehoboam’s central command centre in Jerusalem. The jewelry of the royal women would not have been replaced. 12 years later King Rehoboam died. He had 18 wives and 60 concubines, who had born him 88 children. He chose Queen Maacah II’s son Prince Abijah to succeed him.

Now Queen Maacah II came into the full power of a Great Lady and Queen Mother. This position would normally be held for the rest of her life or until her son died, if that was before her own death. The Gebira was very powerful indeed. This was especially so for Queen Maacah II because her son tolerated the fertility religions. Where did The Gebira’s power come from? Her role seems to have been an official office, including cultic tasks related to the cult of The Goddess, Asherah. She may have been the high priestess of Asherah, representing her on earth, standing beside The God, Yahweh.

Yahweh was the spiritual father and guide of the King. Asherah was his spiritual mother. But King Abijah reigned for only 2 years. Why? The Bible text does not tell us. He may have died a natural death, or been murdered in a palace coup. This is a possibility, since he was fiercely hated and opposed by the Yahwist party. After his death the Yahwist party came into ascendancy. It dominated the successor to the throne, King Abijah’s son or brother Prince Asa.

Queen Maacah II would not have taken this lying down. She was still The Gebira. But she must have been out-manouvred, because the young King Asa got rid of her. According to The Bible text, she was accused of making an image of Asherah. But there are hints all through The Bible that worship of the fertility Gods and Goddesses continued alongside worship of Yahweh and there were hill-shrines, sacred pillars, poles and high places scattered throughout the country. Judah-Israel was, after all, dependent on agriculture and the fertility rituals regulated the dates for planting and harvesting crops.

So the fight about religion would seem to be a power struggle between the new monarch King Asa and his Yahwist supporters on the one hand and Queen Maacah II and the fertility religions on the other. King Asa had to strike a deal with the Jahwist priests to gain their support in his grab for the throne. Queen Maacah II lost. She, for so long the most powerful woman in the Kingdom, was now forced to live out the rest of her life in the claustrophobic harem.