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The Good News
Photos courtesy trustees of the British Museum
Jehu kneels before an Assyrian king
‘Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the Because of the wicked rule of the “house house of Ahab all that was in My heart, of Omri,” God sentenced Ahab, Jezebel and your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to their descendants to death. He would use a the fourth generation.’But Jehu took no general of the Israelite army, Jehu, to accom- heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of plish most of these sentences. God told the Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart prophet Elijah: “Go, return on your way to from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you Israel sin. In those days the LORD began to arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael conquered you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as them in all the territory of Israel . . .” king over Israel. And Elisha . . . you shall (2 Kings 10:28-32). anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be During the spiritual decline of Jehu that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Assyria again began directly to threaten Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the Israel. Soon Israel was paying Assyria sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill” (1 Kings tribute—protection money—to spare itself 19:15-17). God would not allow the enorwarfare and invasion. The Assyrians carved mously wicked acts of the House of Omri an impressive monument, called the Black to go unpunished. Obelisk, to the achievements of King ShalJehu eventually killed not only Jezebel, maneser III. The monument includes but all of Ahab’s children, in effect extermi- detailed panels portraying King Jehu (or his nating the dynasty of Omri. Although Jehu emissary) bringing tribute to the Assyrian became God’s rod of retribution, he failed king. This elaborate illustration is the earlito purge Israel of all vesest known depiction of an Israelite (king tiges of false religion. or commoner). This famous monument of the ninth century B.C., now prominently displayed in the British Museum in London, was discovered in 1846 in the Assyrian city of Nimrud. It includes scenes depicting the tribute given to the king and the bearers of that tribute. On one side, in the second scene from the top, the inscription reads, “Tribute of Iaua [Jehu], son of Omri. Silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden beaker, golden goblets, pitchers of The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III records Assyria’s domination gold, tin, staves for the hand of the of its neighbors. Included among the scenes of the tribute king, [and] javelins, I [Shalmaneser] brought to Shalmaneser is the Israelite king Jehu (or his reprereceived from him” (Biblical sentative) bowing before the Assyrian monarch. Archaeology Review, January“Thus Jehu February 1995, p. 26). “Whether paneling for the wall or decoradestroyed Baal from The scene is startling. There tion for furniture, the houses of ivory— Israel. However before the Assyrian king is either based on a highly sophisticated Phoenician Jehu did not turn Jehu himself or one of his chief ivory industry—were for the Hebrew away from the sins representatives kneeling in subprophets symbols of social oppression and of Jeroboam the mission. The monument, includinjustice; the ‘ivory houses’[mentioned in ing not only his name but his Amos 3.15] were also evidence of participa- son of Nebat, who had made Israel picture, is remarkable evidence of tion in the barbarous pagan practices and heathen worship of Phoenicia. Based on the sin, that is, from this biblical king. archaeological evidence, the prophets knew the golden calves This series in The Good News that were at Bethel what they were talking about” (Biblical will continue covering archaeoand Dan. And the Archaeology Review, September-October logical discoveries relating to the LORD said to Jehu, 1985, p. 46). later kings of Israel. GN
ian evidence for the existence of King Ahab. While excavating Samaria they have found indications of another biblical description connected to Ahab’s reign—his house of ivory. The Bible says of Ahab, “Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, the ivory house which he built and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?” (2 Kings 22:39). Herschel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, writes: “An important ivory find from the Iron Age comes from Ahab’s capital in Samaria where over 500 ivory fragments were found . . . The Bible speaks of Ahab’s ‘house of ivory’(1 Kings 22:39). Does this refer to the paneling of the walls or to the furnishings? To put the matter differently, did the ivory fragments found at Samaria decorate the walls of the building or the furniture? There is some evidence from Nimrud that a room in an Assyrian palace was, in fact, paneled with ivory veneer. Was this the case at Samaria? On the basis of the evidence at hand, it is difficult to tell.