Proposed Solutions

Klein delineates four common approaches for unraveling the complexities of Maacah’s identity and family relations (Klein, 2 Chronicles, 197–98). The first solution proposes that the daughter of Abishalom/Absalom (1 Kgs 15:2, 10; 1 Chr 11:20) and the daughter of Uriel (2 Chr 13:2) are two different women:

• Micaiahu (Uriel’s daughter) is the mother of Abijah, and Maacah (daughter of Abishalom/Absalom) is the wife of Abijah and mother of Asa. This approach regards 1 Kgs 15:2 and 2 Chr 11:20–22 as corrupt.

The other solutions proceed from the premise that the daughter of Abishalom/Absalom and the daughter of Uriel are the same woman. Maacah could be Uriel’s daughter and Absalom’s granddaughter, but 1 Kgs 15:2, 10 and 1 Chr 11:20 do not make this distinction; instead, they simply use the Hebrew word for “daughter” (בַּת, bath) when describing Maacah’s relationship to Absalom. Based on this reading, three options are possible:

• Maacah mothered Abijah and Asa, who were in fact brothers—contrary to 1 Kgs 15:8, 1 Chr 3:10, and 2 Chr 14:1, which all present Abijah and Asa as father and son.

• Maacah mothered Abijah and Asa—and Abijah later fathered Asa through incest (Provan, 1 and 2 Kings, 126). This implication contributes to a negative appraisal of Abijah’s reign.

• Maacah was mother to Abijah and grandmother to Asa; in 1 Kgs 15:13 and 2 Chr 15:16, the Hebrew word “mother” (אֵם, em) actually refers to Asa’s grandmother. Note that both verses describe Maacah as “queen mother” (גְבוּרָה, gevurah) during Asa’s reign, suggesting that Maacah persisted as queen after Rehoboam’s death.

Selman (2 Chronicles, 370–71, 379) suggests that Uriel might be one of Absalom’s three sons, in agreement with the view that Maacah was daughter of Uriel and granddaughter of Absalom. However, this possibility is unlikely since Absalom’s “sons do not appear to have survived childhood” (2 Sam 18:18; Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 99).

Sweeney (I & II Kings, 191) elaborately speculates that Rehoboam married the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah (the home of Saul) as a political maneuver. This union brought forth Rehoboam’s heir, Abijah. The early death of Abijah’s mother, however, prompted Rehoboam to elevate another wife, Maacah, daughter of Abishalom, to the position of “queen mother” (גְבוּרָה, gevurah), thereby “facilitat[ing] the identification of her as mother of Abijah/Abijam” and Asa. The lack of familial bonds would explain Asa’s willingness to depose “his mother” (1 Kgs 15:13; 2 Chr 15:16).

In all cases, speculation over the precise identification of Maacah is unavoidable because “no one solution can encompass all the evidence” (Japhet, I & II Chronicles, 671).