Jehosheba יהושבע

One sentence in the book of Kings—and the whole further history of the house of David rests on it: "Jehosheba, daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being put to death—him and his nurse—into the bedchamber; and they hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death."

Chronicles adds the detail that explains everything: she was the wife of Jehoiada the priest. Hence the place where a child could be hidden so that the queen would not find him: the House of the LORD. For six years the boy lived there while Athaliah reigned over the land.

The scale of the act is visible only from a distance. The house of David had been promised that its throne would stand forever. On that day the whole house came down to one one-year-old child—and he lived because a woman made a decision in a matter of minutes and carried him out of the room.

She does not appear again in the Tanakh: not a word of her speech, not a line about what became of her.