KING OF ISRAEL · TWO KINGDOMS

Jehu. Twenty-eight years in Samaria, after ending the house of Ahab.

REIGNEDi

28 years c. 841–814 BC (dates vary)

CAPITAL

Samaria

HOUSE

House of Jehu 10th of 19 in Israel

VERDICT

◐ Mixed “Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart”

PROPHETS

Elijah the Tishbite · Elisha · The young prophet · Hosea

ISRAEL (THE NORTH): 19 RULERS JEROBOAM I → HOSHEA

THE ANOINTING

How Jehu was anointed

  • At Horeb Elijah was told: “Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel”. 1 Kings 19:16
  • Elisha sent one of the sons of the prophets to Ramoth-gilead with a box of oil; he anointed Jehu in an inner room and fled. 2 Kings 9:1–10
  • The captains spread their garments under him on the stairs, blew trumpets and said “Jehu is king”; then “Jehu ... conspired against Joram”. 2 Kings 9:13–14

SUCCESSION

The two kingdoms

THE VERDICT

How Scripture judges the reign

“Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart”

2 Kings 10:31 (KJV) →

“from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them”

2 Kings 10:29 (KJV) →

BUT ALSO

  • The LORD's word to him: “thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes ... thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel”. 2 Kings 10:30
  • But “he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam”: the golden calves at Beth-el and Dan stayed. 2 Kings 10:29 2 Kings 10:31
  • Hosea, in a later reign: “I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu”. Hosea 1:4
  • Kings notes the promise kept when his great-great-grandson Zechariah was killed: “And so it came to pass.” 2 Kings 15:12

ISRAEL (THE NORTH): 19 RULERS

✓ Did right ✕ Did evil ◐ Mixed ● No verdict formula

THE KINGDOM

Samaria and the places of the reign

Israel (the north). Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

Each mark sits at the year of the reign the Bible gives for it.

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE NATION

What the nation did

  • Baal destroyed out of Israel; the calves at Beth-el and Dan kept. 2 Kings 10:28–29

PROPHETS

Prophets of the reign

  • El Elijah the Tishbite Was told to anoint Jehu; Jehu cites Elijah's word at Jezebel's death and over Ahab's house.
  • El Elisha Sent the young prophet with the oil.
  • Th The young prophet “I have anointed thee king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel”
  • Ho Hosea “I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu”

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

ARAM (SYRIA) OF DAMASCUS

Hazael

ASSYRIA

Shalmaneser III

JUDAH

Ahaziah · Athaliah

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · SHALMANESER'S 18TH YEAR: 841 BC IN YOUNG'S TABLES (MACK, 1915: 842)

Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, British Museum (from Nimrud)

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · SHALMANESER'S 18TH YEAR (841 BC IN YOUNG'S TABLES)

Shalmaneser III's annals, 18th year

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · ABOUT 840 BC

Tel Dan stele

TWO ACCOUNTS

Where Kings and Chronicles differ

Each ribbon joins the two accounts of one matter, passage to passage.

The death of Ahaziah of Judah

2 KINGS

2 CHRONICLES

The princes of Judah

2 KINGS

2 CHRONICLES

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

THIELE, AS REVISED BY MCFALL AND YOUNG

c. 841–814 BC[1]

841 to 814/813 BC

ALBRIGHT (1945)

c. 842–815 BC[24]

Printed form: c. 842–815 (p. 21); 28 years.

TRADITIONAL (USSHER, 1658)

884–856 BC[2]

Years of the world 3120–3148 (Annals, pp. 49–51)

“Son of Omri” as a dynastic label

D. D. Luckenbill (1926), §§590, 672

Luckenbill translates the phrase “Jehu, son of Omri” (Assyrian mar Humri); Assyrian texts also call Israel “Humri”, so the phrase names the realm, not Jehu's father.[4][6]

“Of the land of Omri”

R. W. Rogers (1912), p. 304, note 2, following Bezold

Rogers translates “Jehu, of the land of Omri” and notes that mar Humri, “formerly translated ‘son of Omri,’ means rather ‘the people of the land of Omri’”.[14]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 6

1 Kings 19 2 Kings 9 2 Kings 10 2 Kings 15 2 Chronicles 22 Hosea 1

PASSAGES · 6

1 Kings 19:15–17 2 Kings 9:1–37 2 Kings 10:1–36 2 Kings 15:12 2 Chronicles 22:7–9 Hosea 1:4

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Kings does not mention any tribute from Jehu to Assyria; that is known from Shalmaneser's records.
  • Kings gives no cross-date for Jehu's own accession; the dating comes from Judah's Jehoash, who began “in the seventh year of Jehu” (2 Kings 12:1).
  • Scripture gives no age or mother's name for Jehu.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • Called “Jehu the son of Nimshi” and “Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi”. 1 Kings 19:16 2 Kings 9:2
  • From the textNot the prophet Jehu son of Hanani (1 Kings 16:1), and his father Jehoshaphat is not Jehoshaphat king of Judah.

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • Rodger C. Young, Chronological tables: Table 1, Chronology of the Kings of Israel; Table 3, Synchronisms, Israel to Judah (Thiele's system as revised by McFall and Young; dates cited as facts only) (undated web tables, read 2026-10-07), Tables 1 and 3.
  • James Ussher, The Annals of the World (English translation of the Annales) (1658), The fifth Age of the World, pp. 40–69 (read from the page scans).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §594 (the Monolith Inscription from Kurkh) and §611, p. 223.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §553 (the Black Obelisk) and §590, p. 211.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §672, p. 243 (annals, 18th year).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§732, 739–740, pp. 260–263 (Adad-nirari III: reign dates; the slab from Calah).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §772, p. 276 (Tiglath-pileser III, annals).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §779, pp. 279–280 (Tiglath-pileser III).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§815–816, p. 293 (Tiglath-pileser III, fragmentary annals text).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2 (Sargon onward) (1927), §4, p. 2 (Sargon's annals, year 1).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2 (Sargon onward) (1927), §55, p. 26 (Sargon's display inscription).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2 (Sargon onward) (1927), §1198, p. 437 (eponym list with notes, years 727–723).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 296 (Monolith, Qarqar).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 304 (Black Obelisk, with Rogers's note 2 on “mar Humri”).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 308 (Tiglath-pileser and “Pulu”).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 316 (Tiglath-pileser's annals, line 150).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), pp. 319–321 (Tiglath-pileser on Pekah and Hoshea).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), pp. 323, 326 and 331 (Sargon and the fall of Samaria).
  • S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel (Appendix: the Inscription of Mesha) (1890), pp. lxxxvii–lxxxviii (translation), lxxxix and xciv.
  • A. H. Sayce, “Moabite Stone”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 3 (1915), p. 2072 (checked against the 1915 scan).
  • Edward Mack, “Chronology of the Old Testament”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1 (1915), pp. 639–640 (checked against the 1915 scan).
  • A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, Chronicle 1 (facts only; copyrighted, read in Livius's reproduction) (1975), Chronicle 1, column i, lines 27–28.
  • A. Biran and J. Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan” (1993) and “The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment” (1995), Israel Exploration Journal 43 and 45 (facts only; copyrighted) (1993, 1995), IEJ 43 (1993) 81–98; IEJ 45 (1995) 1–18.
  • W. F. Albright, "The Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 100 (facts only) (1945), Chronological table, pp. 20–22.

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