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.