Maacah: Rehoboam's Best-Loved Wife and the Queen Mother Asa Deposed

A Woman of the United Kingdom

Maacah (Hebrew מַעֲכָה) belongs to the era of the united kingdom, placed at around 1095 BC to 975 BC on Ussher's chronology (1650). She is reckoned with the tribe of Judah. Scripture gives her eight verses across two books, from 1 Kings 15:2 to her last mention in 2 Chronicles. She is never the subject of a scene of her own; she appears in royal records, in the formulas that introduce kings, and in one act of reform that was carried out against her. Her name also belongs to a people, a tribe and a land, so most occurrences of the word in Scripture have nothing to do with this woman.

Loved Above All the Others

She first comes into view in the household of Rehoboam. "After her, he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom; and she bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters" (2 Chronicles 11:20-21). That is a remarkable sentence in a household of that size. Out of seventy-eight women, one is named as the one he loved most.

The love had a political result. "Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah to be chief, the prince among his brothers; for he intended to make him king" (2 Chronicles 11:22). Her son was set over his brothers, not by birth order that the text records, but by his father's intent. Maacah's place in the king's affection shaped who would sit on the throne.

Named in the King Lists

When Abijah's reign is summed up, she is named again: "He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom" (1 Kings 15:2). The Chronicler's version of the same formula reads differently: "He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam" (2 Chronicles 13:2). The two lines stand side by side in Scripture, one calling her Maacah the daughter of Abishalom, the other Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. The record in this dossier also lists Tamar as her mother, though none of the quoted passages says so.

The next king's formula names her once more: "He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom" (1 Kings 15:10). Whatever the exact relation, the same name stands behind two consecutive reigns in Jerusalem. She was not merely a king's wife; she held standing as queen mother into a second generation.

The Image at the Brook Kidron

Her story ends with her sin named without softening. "He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah. Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron" (1 Kings 15:13). The Chronicler tells it with one detail more: "Also Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah; so Asa cut down her image, ground it into dust, and burned it at the brook Kidron" (2 Chronicles 15:16).

The woman Rehoboam loved above all his wives, the mother named at the head of a king's reign, used her position to make an abominable image. The text does not excuse her, does not explain her motives, and does not record any repentance. Her office is taken from her by her own descendant, and the thing she made is cut down, ground into dust and burned. The verbs pile up until nothing of it is left.

What We Are Not Told

We are not told when or where she was born, or when she died. We are not told how she came to make the image, nor what she said or did when Asa removed her. Scripture does not tell us what became of her after her deposition, nor anything of her children Attai, Ziza and Shelomith beyond their names in 2 Chronicles 11:20. The difference between "Maacah the daughter of Abishalom" (1 Kings 15:2) and "Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah" (2 Chronicles 13:2) is left standing in the text without explanation, and it is honest to leave it standing rather than to settle it with guesswork.

A Sober Reading

Maacah shows how much a favored position can accomplish and how little it can protect. Being loved above all the king's wives (2 Chronicles 11:21) put her son on the throne. It did not keep her from an Asherah, and it did not shield her when a king who feared God found the image she had made. No New Testament passage refers to her, so her story is left where Kings and Chronicles leave it: at the brook Kidron, with the ashes of what she made.