Whose loving aunt preserved the line of David?

2 Kings 11:2 – [Jehosheba] stole [Joash] away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered.

King Joash of Judah (reigned 835–796 BCE) was hidden by his aunt, Jehosheba, in the temple for six years to protect him from his murderous grandmother, Athaliah.

Jehosheba and her brother, King Ahaziah, were children of King Jehoram, a descendant of King David. After Ahaziah died, his mother, Athaliah, made herself Queen and ordered the massacre of the royal family.

Jehosheba took Ahaziah’s infant son, Joash, and hid him and his unnamed nurse in the temple. When Joash was seven, Jehoiada the priest, Jehosheba’s husband, revealed the boy king’s existence and instigated the Athaliah’s overthrow. King Joash “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” while Jehoiada lived and advised him. For more about the later years of his reign, see 1 Kings 12.