Zibiah: Edit history

Biblical Record

Zibiah is mentioned once in 2 Kings 12:1 and once in 2 Chronicles 24:1. Both passages record the accession of Joash as king of Judah and state that "his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba." Second Kings states that Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, king of Israel, and 2 Chronicles states that Joash was seven years old at the time. Both books record that Joash reigned forty years in Jerusalem.

Because Joash was the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 11:2; 2 Chronicles 22:11), Zibiah is understood to have been Ahaziah's wife, although the text never directly calls her his wife. After Ahaziah's death, when his mother Athaliah destroyed the royal family, it was Ahaziah's sister Jehosheba who hid Joash and saved his life (2 Kings 11:1–3). Scripture does not say what became of Zibiah at that time.

Significance Within Scripture

When the books of Kings record the accession of a king of Judah, they usually give the name and place of origin of the king's mother. Zibiah's name has been preserved in keeping with this convention. Beersheba was a town at the southern edge of the land of Judah.

Zibiah does not appear in the New Testament. The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 moves directly from Joram to Uzziah (Matthew 1:8), omitting Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah. As a result, neither Joash nor Zibiah appears in that genealogy.

Interpretation and Discussion

Zibiah's name is commonly understood to mean "gazelle" or "doe" in Hebrew. Some interpreters draw attention to the fact that Joash's mother came from Beersheba in southern Judah, and they read her in contrast to Athaliah, who belonged to the house of Omri in the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Chronicles 22:2). This, however, is only an interpretation; the text says nothing about Zibiah's character, her faith, or any role she may have played in raising Joash.

First Chronicles 8:9 mentions a man of the tribe of Benjamin with a similar name, but he is a different person from the subject of this article.

In the Korean Church

Sermons or church school lessons that treat Zibiah as a subject in her own right are rare. She is usually mentioned only briefly, as part of the accession record, when Joash's coronation or Jehosheba's hiding of Joash is discussed.