Whatever motive actuated the worthy daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, Athaliah reduced the Judæans to so complete a subservience to her will that no one dared oppose her evil courses. The nation and the priests bowed before her. Even the high priest, Jehoiada, who was connected with the royal house, kept silence. At the very time when Jehu was destroying those emblems of idolatry in Samaria, there was erected in Jerusalem an image of Baal, with altars and pointed pillars, and a high priest, named Mattan, with a number of subordinate priests, was appointed and installed. Did Athaliah leave the temple on Mount Moriah untouched and undesecrated? It appears that she, less consistent in her daring and more timid than later sovereigns, did not venture to introduce an image of Baal into the sanctuary which Solomon had erected, but merely inhibited its use for divine services. The Carians, mercenary troops employed by Athaliah, and the old royal body-guard were placed at the entrance of the Temple, to keep off the people. For this purpose, they were divided into three bodies, which by turns guarded the Temple from Sabbath to Sabbath. For six years (887-881) Athaliah governed the political and religious affairs of the nation, the more aristocratic of the Jewish families probably being of her party. Only the nearest relative of the royal family, the high priest Jehoiada, remained true to the ancient teachings and to the house of David. His wife, Jehoshebah, was a daughter of King Jehoram of Judah, and the sister of the king Ahaziah who had been slain by Jehu.