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(a shortened form of : “ Yahweh is he” [the Lord])

1. Son of Obed, a descendant of the Jerahmeelite family of the tribe of Judah.
2. The Son of Josibiah, the head of a Simeonite family at the time of Hezekiah king of Judah.
3. The Anathothite, one of the Benjamite warriors who joined David at Ziklag.
4. The son of Hanani, a prophet during the reign of Baasha king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah (I Kgs 16:1, 7, 12; II Chr 19:2; 20:34). He prophesied the end of Baasha’s dynasty (I Kgs 16:2-4) and criticized Jehoshaphat for taking part in Ahab’s war against the Arameans (II Chr 19:2-3). It is assumed that Jehu fled from Israel to Judah at the time of Jezebel and there chronicled Jehoshaphat’s reign (II Chr 20:34).
5. The son of Jehoshaphat and grandson of Nimshi (II Kgs 9:2, 14; in parallel passages: the son of Nimshi – I Kgs 19:16; II Kgs 9:20; II Chr 22:7). He become king of Israel (842-814 B.C.), founding a new dynasty.Jehu was a commander in the Israelite army and took the throne by force. His rebellion was supported by religious elements: the prophet Elisha, who dispatched one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu (II Kgs 9:1-13), and the Rechabites (II Kgs 10:15-16), who were opposed to the cult of the Tyrian Baal and Astarte ; and by army commanders (II Kgs 9:13) critical of King Joram’s military policy (II Kgs 9:13), and by others dissatisfied with the country’s economic and social situation(II Kgs 4:1-7, 38-43). As described in II Kings chapters 9-10, Jehu went to Jezreel where King Joram was recuperating after being wounded in the battle at Ramoth Gilead (II Kgs 8:28-29); he killed both Joram and King Ahaziah of Judah (II Kgs 9:21-27; cf II Chr 22:9) as well as Jezebel the queen mother (II Kgs 9:31-35). Jehu executed Ahab’s entire family with the aid of the officials in Samaria (II Kgs 10:1-11) thereby fulfilling the prophecy of Elijah (I Kgs 21:17ff). On his way to Samaria Jehu killed 42 brethren of Ahaziah (II Kgs 10:13-14; cf II Chr 22:8); reaching the city, he completed the destruction of the house of Ahab (II Kgs 10:17) and exterminated the priests and worshipers of Baal (II Kgs 10:18-28). The downfall of the Omride dynasty severed the ties between Israel, Judah and Tyre. Israel was left isolated in her conflict with the Arameans who under Hazael captured parts of Israelite territories in Transjordan (II Kgs 10:32-33). Jehu reigned for 28 years and was buried in Samaria (II Kgs 10:35-36).Extra-biblical sources complete the picture of the events during Jehu’s reign. Israel came under the yoke of Assyria, as recorded clearly in the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III king of Assyria, where “Yau, son of Omri” is listed among the rulers who paid tribute. It also depicts Jehu as actually presenting this tribute to the king.

Concordance
JEHU 1: I Chr 2:38
JEHU 2: I Chr 4:35
JEHU 3: I Chr 12:3
JEHU 4: I Kgs 16:1, 7,12. II Chr 19:2; 20:34
JEHU 5: I Kgs 19:16-17. IIKgs 9:2, 5, 11,13-22, 24-25,27, 30-31; 10:1, 5, 11,13, 15, 18-21,23-25, 28-31,34-36; 12:1; 13:1; 14:8; 15:12. II Chr 22:7-9; 25:17. Hos 1:4


 
 
('hyū) .

1 King of Israel. He was anointed king by Elisha, who led the revolt against the house of Ahab. Jehu murdered King Jehoram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah and the rest of the house of Ahab. Jehu's rapid chariot driving has become proverbial. To receive protection from Assyria, Jehu paid tribute to Shalmaneser III, an event depicted on the black obelisk in the British Museum. His son Jehoahaz succeeded him.

2 Prophet under Kings Baasha and Jehoshaphat.

3 Descendant of Judah.

4 Simeonite.

5 One of those who joined David at Ziklag.

 
Dictionary: Je·hu  ('hyū) pronunciation, Ninth century B.C..

King of Israel who, according to the Bible, slew Ahab, Jezebel, and the prophets of Baal. He is proverbially known for his swift chariot driving.


 
Wikipedia: Jehu
Yehu redirects here, for the instrument, see Yehu (instrument).
Jehu son of Omri kneeling at the feet of Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk.
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Jehu son of Omri kneeling at the feet of Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk.

Jehu (Hebrew: יְהוּא, Standard Yehu Tiberian Yəhû ; "The Lord is He") was king of Israel, the son of Jehoshaphat [1], and grandson of Nimshi. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 842 BCE-815 BCE, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 841 BCE-814 BCE. The principal source for the events of his reign comes from 2 Kings 9-10.

The reign of Jehu's predecessor, Jehoram, was marked by the Battle of Ramoth-Gilead against the army of the Arameans, where Jehoram was wounded and afterwards returned to Jezreel to recover, and where Ahaziah, the king of Judah and his nephew, had also gone to attend on Jehoram (2 Kings 8:28f). The author of Kings describes, while the commanders of the army were assembled away from the eyes of the king, that the prophet Elisha sent one of his students to this meeting, where this student led Jehu away from his peers and anointed him king in an inner chamber, then immediately departed (2 Kings 9:5,6). 2 Kings is silent about the exact identity of this student. Jehu's companions, inquiring after the object of this mysterious visit, were told, and immediately, with enthusiasm, blew their trumpets and proclaimed him king (2 Kings 9:11-14).

With a chosen band, Jehu set forth with all speed to Jezreel, where he slew Jehoram with his own hand, shooting him through the heart with an arrow (9:24). The king of Judah, when trying to escape, was fatally wounded by one of Jehu's soldiers at Beth-gan. The author of Kings describes how Jehu entered the city without any resistance, and saw Jezebel, the mother of king Jehoram, presenting herself from a window in the palace, who received him with insolence; Jehu commanded the eunuchs of the royal palace to cast her down into the street; the fall was fatal, and her mangled body was devoured by the dogs (9:35-7).

However, Nadav Na'aman of Tel Aviv University has interpreted the evidence of archaeological excavations at the site of the city of Jezreel to show it had been taken by a successful siege, perhaps by the Aramean army of Hazael. Further, the author of the Dan Stele (found in 1993 and 1994 during archaeological excavations of the site of Laish) claimed to have slain both Ahaziah, and Jehoram; the most likely author of this monument is Hazael of the Arameans. Although the inscription is a contemporary witness of this period, kings of this period were inclined to boast and make exaggerated claims; it is not clear whether Jehu killed the two kings (as the Bible reports) or Hazael (as the Dan Stele reports). This suggests that this memorable scene was created (perhaps as a tradition) long after the principals of the coup had died.

Now master of Jezreel, Jehu wrote to the chief men in the capital Samaria, and commanded them to send to him by the morning the heads of all the royal princes of the kingdom. Accordingly, seventy heads were brought to him, which he had piled up in two heaps at his gate. Shortly afterwards, Jehu encountered the "brethren of Ahaziah" at "the shearing-house" (10:12-14), and slaughtered another forty-two people connected with the Omrides (10:14).

Jehu's revolt was rooted in more than his quest for power and the favor of the God of Israel. This account frequently invokes the slogan of "avenging the blood of Naboth" (9:21,25,26), whose vineyard Jehoram's father Ahab had taken by force (1 Kings 21:4); this fact suggests that perhaps the burden of making the northern kingdom a regional power had grown too heavy for its citizens, and Jehoram's defeat at Ramoth-Gilead gave them an opportunity to throw this burden off.

Following Jehu's slaughter of the Omrides, he met Jehonadab the Rechabite, whom he took into his chariot, and they entered the capital together. This adds support to the inference that, at least at the beginning of his reign, Jehu was supported by the pro-God of Israel faction. Once in control of Samaria, he summoned all of the worshippers of Baal to the capital, slew them (2 Kings 10:19-25), and destroyed the temple of that deity (10:27).

Beyond his bloody coup d'etat, and his tolerance for the golden calves at Dan and Bethel (which drew the disdain of the author of Kings), little is known of the events of Jehu's reign. He was hard pressed by the predations of Hazael, king of the Arameans, who is said to have defeated his army "throughout all of the territories of Israel" beyond the Jordan river, in the lands of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh (10:32f). This would explain why Jehu is offering tribute to Shalmaneser III on his Black Obelisk (where his name appears as mIa-ú-a mar mHu-um-ri-i or "Jehu son of Omri"); Jehu was encouraging the enemy of the Arameans into being his friend.

Jehu in sources

Aside from the Hebrew Bible, Jehu appears in Assyrian documents, notably in the Black Obelisk where he is depicted as kissing the ground in front of Shalmaneneser III. In the Assyrian documents he is simply referred to as "Jehu son of Omri," that is, Jehu of the House of Omri, an Assyrian name for the Kingdom of Israel.

Notes

  1. ^ 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 (2 Kings 9:2)
  • The name Jehu has also been adopted by natives of Ghana, who previously went by the name 'Appiah'. In order to separate themselves from other Appiahs in Ghana, they chose to extend their surname to the double barrelled name Jehu-Appiah. The founding Minister of one of the biggest and most renowned churches in Ghana, the Musama Disco Christo Church, (MDCC), translated to mean the Army of the Cross of Christ, was also a Jehu-Appiah, who went by the name of Jemisimiham Jehu-Appiah, Akaboah I.
Prophets of Judaism & Christianity in the Hebrew Bible
Abraham · Isaac · Jacob · Moses · Aaron · Miriam · Eldad · Medad ·The seventy elders of Israel · Joshua · Phinehas Black_Star_of_David.svg

Deborah · Samuel · Saul · Saul's men · David · Solomon | Gad · Nathan · Ahiyah · Elijah · Elisha | Isaiah · Jeremiah · Ezekiel

Hosea · Joel · Amos · Obadiah · Jonah · Micah · Nahum · Habakkuk · Zephaniah · Haggai · Zechariah · Malachi Christian_cross.svg

Shemaiah · Iddo · Azariah · Hanani · Jehu · Micaiah · Jahaziel · Eliezer · Zechariah ben Jehoiada · Oded · Huldah · Uriah

Judaism:
Sarah · Rebecca · Joseph · Eli · Elkanah · Hannah · Abigail · Amoz · Mordecai · Esther · (Baruch)
Christianity:
Abel · Enoch · Daniel
Non-Jewish: Kenan · Noah · Eber · Bithiah · Beor · Balaam · Job · Eliphaz · Bildad · Zophar · Elihu



Jehu
House of Jehoshaphat
Preceded by
Jehoram
King of Israel
Albright: 842 BC – 815 BC
Thiele: 841 BC – 814 BC
Galil: 842 BC – 815 BC
Succeeded by
Jehoahaz

 
 

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Copyrights:

Bible Guide. Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible. Copyright © 1986 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jehu" Read more

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