Product Code Database
Jehu (; , meaning "Jah is He"; ; ) was the tenth king of the northern Kingdom of Israel since Jeroboam I, noted for exterminating the house of Ahab. He was the son of Jehoshaphat,Jehu's father was not the roughly contemporaneous King Jehoshaphat of Judah, whose own father was King Asa of Judah. "Generally Jehu is described as the son only of Nimshi, possibly because Nimshi was more prominent or to avoid confusing him with the King of Judah ( R’Wolf)". Scherman, Nosson, ed., "I–II Kings", The Prophets, 297, 2006. See () grandson of Nimshi, and possibly great-grandson of Omri,Amitai Baruchi-Unna, Jehuites, Ahabites, and Omrides: Blood Kinship and Bloodshed, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 41.1 (2017) pp. 3–21 although the latter notion is not supported by the biblical text. His reign lasted 28 years.
William F. Albright has dated Jehu's reign to 842–815 BCE, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 841–814 BCE.Edwin Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, (1st ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1951; 2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965; 3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983). , The principal source for the events of his reign comes from 2 Kings. Bible
Jehu proceeded to enter the premises of the palace at Jezreel. Jezebel watched him with contempt from the palace window and mockingly compared him to King Zimri. Jehu later commanded Jezebel's eunuchs to throw her out of the palace window. They obeyed his commands and Jezebel was instantly killed. Jehu trampled over her body, and when he decided later to arrange a proper burial due to her royal descent, only her skull, hands and feet remained. The rest of her body had been eaten by dogs.
Now master of Jezreel, Jehu wrote to command the chief men in Samaria to hunt down and kill all the royal princes. They did so, and the next day they piled the 70 heads in two heaps outside the city gate, as Jehu commanded. Ahab's entire family was slain. Shortly afterward, Jehu encountered the 42 "brothers of Ahaziah" (since the brothers of Ahaziah had been taken away and probably killed by the Philistines, Bible these must have been relatives of Ahaziah in a broader sense, like nephews and cousins) at "Beth-eked of the shepherds". They told Jehu they were visiting the royal family. Jehu killed them all at "the pit of Beth-eked".
After Jehu's slaughter of the House of Ahab, he met Jehonadab the Rechabites and convinced him that he was pro-Yahweh. Jehonadab quickly allied with him, and they entered the capital together. In control of Samaria, he invited the worshippers and priests of Baal to a ceremony, then trapped and killed them. Bible He then destroyed their idols and temple, and turned the temple into a latrine. Bible
This suggests that Jehu offered tribute to Shalmaneser III, as depicted on his Black Obelisk, in order to gain a powerful ally against the Arameans. Bit-Khumri was used by Tiglath-Pileser III for the non-Omride kings Pekah (733) & Hoshea (732),Kitchen, K A (2003) The Reliability of the Old Testament, Cambridge, Eerdmans, p. 24 hence House/Land/Kingdom of Omri could apply to later Israelite kings not necessarily descended from Omri. According to others, this description should be taken very literally, as in this period Assyrians were very closely following the events in this area, with control slipping in later years.
The destruction of the house of Ahab is commended by the author of 2 Kings as a form of divine punishment. Yahweh rewards Jehu for being a willing executor of divine judgment by allowing four generations of kings to sit on the throne of Israel. Bible Jehu and his descendants Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Zachariah ruled Israel for 102 years. Nonetheless, according to the Book of Hosea, God punished the House of Jehu through the hands of the Assyrians for Jehu's massacre at Jezreel, Bible and some Biblical commentators reasoned that this was because Jehu's motives may not have been entirely pure in his massacre.
According to the Obelisk, Jehu severed his alliances with Phoenicia and Judah, and became subject to Assyria. Apparently, faced with the aggression of Aram-Damascus in the north and also rebellion of the Moabites (see Mesha stele) in the east, Jehu had no other options then yield to the Assyrians, who would resume their attacks at Aram-Damascus, thus relieving the pressure on Israel.
Drive Like Jehu was an American post-hardcore band from San Diego active from 1990 to 1995. The band's name was derived from 2 Kings 9:20: "And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously".
|
|
