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Etymology •
& Meaning •
Hebrew •
Greek •
Bible •
Names •
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Meaning and etymology of the Hebrew name Athaliah
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Athaliah 
The name Athaliah is assigned to one woman and and two men in the Bible. The first Athaliah we meet is the granddaughter of king Omri of Israel, who was the father of king Ahab (1 Kings 16:29, 2 Kings 8:26). Athaliah's husband is her nephew, king Jehoram, their daughter is named Jehosheba and their son is named Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:25-26), who was possibly named after his uncle Ahaziah, the son of Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kings 22:51-52).
Queen-mother Athaliah has a handful of screws loose. When her son is assassinated by Jehu, she kills all the royal offspring, which would either be her nephews or her grandchildren or both, and rules the land herself (2 Kings 11:1-3). When seven year old Joash, the sole survivor, shows up six years later and his adjutants claim his throne, Athaliah is subsequently murdered (2 Kings 11:16). This Athaliah is also know as Athaliahu.
The two male Athaliah's are a son of Jeroham of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 8:26) and the father of Jeshaiah of Elam, who returned with Ezra from the Babylonian exile (Ezra 8:7).
The name Athaliah consists of two elements. The final part of the name is the appellative  , Jah, which in turn is an abbreviated form of the Tetragrammaton  , YHWH, or Yahweh.
About the first part of the name Athaliah the sources are in disagreement, and that's because the section  ('tl) doesn't occur in the Hebrew Bible. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names goes with an Arabian root meaning to handle violently, and reads Taken Away Of The Lord. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't offer a translation of the name Athaliah but proposes roots in an Assyrian verb that means to grow great, and a related adjective that means great exalted. NOBS Study Bible Name List agrees with BDB and reads Yahweh Is Exalted.
A related name is Athlai.
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