Again, those patterns do not mean that women lack significance. Where mothers of kings are named, that reminds us of their influence in raising their sons. One example is Judah’s bad king Abijam, son of Rehoboam.
Abijam… reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father (1 Kings 15:1-3).
Though this text highlights the father’s bad example, we know that Maacah is an idolater. Thus, when good King Asa succeeds Abijam, he cancels the status of Maacah, his grandmother.
Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done…. He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah (1 Kings 15:11, 13).
An example in Israel is Ahab and his wife Jezebel from Sidon. He is the official “king,” but she is the power behind the throne. She promotes Baal worship, kills God’s people and opposes God’s prophet Elijah (1 Kings 18-21).
There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited (1 Kings 21:25).
On the positive side is a widow of Sidon, selected by God to feed Elijah during a famine. Her faith puts God’s people to shame (1 Kings 17; Luke 4:26). A wealthy woman of Shunem provides a guest room for Elisha (2 Kings 4). Elisha blesses a widow of one of “the sons of the prophets” with a miraculous supply (2 Kings 4).