Difference between revisions of "Jehu" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
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Elijah, however, had left this task unfulfilled, and it was left to Elisha to accomplish it.
 
Elijah, however, had left this task unfulfilled, and it was left to Elisha to accomplish it.
[[Image:Jehu-summoned.jpg|thumb|330px|Elisha's prophetic messenger prepares to anoint Jehu.]]
 
  
 
===Jehu's call===
 
===Jehu's call===
 +
[[Image:Jehu-summoned.jpg|thumb|300px|Elisha's prophetic messenger prepares to anoint Jehu.]]
  
 
Jehu's story begins when he was serving as a commander of chariots under [[Jehoram of Israel|Joram]] after the battle of [[Ramoth-Gilead]] against the army of the Syrians. There, Joram (also called Jehoram) had been wounded and returned to [[Jezreel]] to recover. Joram's ally and nephew, King [[Ahaziah of Judah|Ahaziah]] of [[kingdom of Judah|Judah]],<ref>Not to be confused with Ahaziah of Israel, who was Joram's brother and immediate successor.</ref> had also gone to Jezreel to attend on Joram (''2 Kings'' 8:28). While the commanders of the army were assembled and Ramoth-Gilead, the prophet [[Elisha]] sent one of his disciples to anoint Jehu as the future king of Israel.<ref>A rabbinical tradition holds that this young man was the future [[prophet]] Jonah. (See [[Book of Jonah]].)</ref> The messenger found Jehu meeting with other officers and led him away from his peers. Pouring oil on Jehu's head, the young [[prophet]] declared God's words:
 
Jehu's story begins when he was serving as a commander of chariots under [[Jehoram of Israel|Joram]] after the battle of [[Ramoth-Gilead]] against the army of the Syrians. There, Joram (also called Jehoram) had been wounded and returned to [[Jezreel]] to recover. Joram's ally and nephew, King [[Ahaziah of Judah|Ahaziah]] of [[kingdom of Judah|Judah]],<ref>Not to be confused with Ahaziah of Israel, who was Joram's brother and immediate successor.</ref> had also gone to Jezreel to attend on Joram (''2 Kings'' 8:28). While the commanders of the army were assembled and Ramoth-Gilead, the prophet [[Elisha]] sent one of his disciples to anoint Jehu as the future king of Israel.<ref>A rabbinical tradition holds that this young man was the future [[prophet]] Jonah. (See [[Book of Jonah]].)</ref> The messenger found Jehu meeting with other officers and led him away from his peers. Pouring oil on Jehu's head, the young [[prophet]] declared God's words:
Line 29: Line 29:
  
 
===Jehu's coup===
 
===Jehu's coup===
 
+
[[Image:Jehu-slays-joram.jpg|thumb|250px|Jehu slays King Joram at Jezreel.]]
Jehu and his supporters promptly rode to [[Jezreel]], where [[Jeoram of Israel|Joram]] was recovering from his wounds. "Do you come in peace, Jehu?" the king asked. Jehu replied: "How can there be peace, as long as all the [[idolatry]] and [[witchcraft]] of your mother [[Jezebel]] abound?" Jehu then shot Joram in the back with an arrow as he turned to flee. Jehu also ordered the murder of [[Ahaziah]] in the coup.
 
 
 
 
[[Image:The Death of Jezebel.jpg|thumb|220px|At Jehu's command, Joram's mother Jezebel is cast down and trampled to death.]]
 
[[Image:The Death of Jezebel.jpg|thumb|220px|At Jehu's command, Joram's mother Jezebel is cast down and trampled to death.]]
 +
Jehu and his supporters promptly rode to [[Jezreel]], where [[Joram of Israel|Joram]] was recovering from his wounds. "Do you come in peace, Jehu?" the king asked. Jehu replied: "How can there be peace, as long as all the [[idolatry]] and [[witchcraft]] of your mother [[Jezebel]] abound?" Jehu then shot Joram in the back with an arrow as he turned to flee. Jehu also ordered the murder of [[Ahaziah]] in the coup.
  
 
Seeing his duty to destroy the entire "house of Ahab," Jehu turned next to Joram's monther Jezebel, Ahab's widow. The queen-mother died after being thrown down from a high window by her own [[eunuchs]] at Jehu's command. Following this, Jehu engineered the killing of 70 of Ahab's male descendants, ordering their heads left in piles at the gates of Jezreel.
 
Seeing his duty to destroy the entire "house of Ahab," Jehu turned next to Joram's monther Jezebel, Ahab's widow. The queen-mother died after being thrown down from a high window by her own [[eunuchs]] at Jehu's command. Following this, Jehu engineered the killing of 70 of Ahab's male descendants, ordering their heads left in piles at the gates of Jezreel.
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It is easy to confuse Jehu with another, roughly contemporaneous biblical figure of the same name, and also to confuse his lineage with the royal lineage of Judah.
 
It is easy to confuse Jehu with another, roughly contemporaneous biblical figure of the same name, and also to confuse his lineage with the royal lineage of Judah.
  
Jehu was the son of a man named Jehosophat, but this was not the Jehoshaphat who reigned as King of Judah one generation earlier. The royal Jehoshaphat of Judah was the father of King Ahaziah of Judah, whom Jehu order slain during his coup against Joram of Israel. To make matters even more confusing, both Judah and Israel had kings named Ahaziah, and both Judah and Israel had kings name Joram/Jehoram, all within a few decades of each other.
+
Jehu was the son of a man named Jehosophat, son of Nimshi. This was not the [[Jehoshaphat]] who reigned as King of Judah one generation earlier. The royal Jehoshaphat of Judah was the father of King [[Ahaziah of Judah]], whom Jehu order slain during his coup against Joram of Israel. To make matters even more confusing, both Judah and Israel had kings named Ahaziah, and both Judah and Israel had kings name Joram/Jehoram, all within a few decades of each other.
  
 
Jehu should also not be confused the Jehu the son of Hanani, a [[prophet]] active both before and during the reign Jehoshaphat of Judah and who criticized Jehosphat for his alliance with Ahab (2 Chron. 19: 2-3).
 
Jehu should also not be confused the Jehu the son of Hanani, a [[prophet]] active both before and during the reign Jehoshaphat of Judah and who criticized Jehosphat for his alliance with Ahab (2 Chron. 19: 2-3).
  
 +
{{start}}
 +
{{s-bef|before=[[Jehoram of Israel|Jehoram (Joram)]]}}
 +
{{s-ttl|title=[[Kingdom of Israel|Jehu, King of Israel]]|years=<small>[[William F. Albright|Albright]]: </small>842 B.C.E. &ndash; 815 B.C.E.<br><small>[[Edwin R. Thiele|Thiele]]: </small>841 B.C.E. &ndash; 814 B.C.E.<br><small>[[Gershon Galil|Galil]]: </small>842 B.C.E. &ndash; 815 B.C.E.}}
 +
{{s-aft|after=[[Jehoahaz of Israel|Jehoahaz]]}}
 +
{{end}}
  
 
== Notes ==
 
== Notes ==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
  
 +
==References==
 +
*Bright, John. ''A History of Israel'', Westminster John Knox Press; 4th edition, 2000. ISBN 0664220681
 +
 +
*[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=293&letter=E&search=elisha Elisha] ''Jewish Encyclopedia''. Retrieved March 14, 2007.
 +
 +
*Galil, Gershon. ''The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah'', Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1996. ISBN 9004106111
 +
 +
*[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=208&letter=J&search=jehu Jehu] ''Jewish Encyclopedia''. Retrieved May 13, 2007.
  
{{start}}
+
*Lowrie, John M. ''The Prophet Elisha''. Reprint Series. Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library, 2005. ISBN 978-1425527532
{{s-bef|before=[[Jehoram of Israel|Jehoram (Joram)]]}}
+
 
{{s-ttl|title=[[Kingdom of Israel|Jehu, King of Israel]]|years=<small>[[William F. Albright|Albright]]: </small>842 B.C.E. &ndash; 815 B.C.E.<br><small>[[Edwin R. Thiele|Thiele]]: </small>841 B.C.E. &ndash; 814 B.C.E.<br><small>[[Gershon Galil|Galil]]: </small>842 B.C.E. &ndash; 815 B.C.E.}}
+
*Grant, Michael. ''The History of Ancient Israel'', Charles Scribner's Sons, 1984. ISBN 0684180812
{{s-aft|after=[[Jehoahaz of Israel|Jehoahaz]]}}
+
 
{{end}}
+
*Keller, Werner. ''The Bible as History'', Bantam, 1983. ISBN 0553279432
 +
 
 +
*Miller, J. Maxwell. ''A History of Ancient Israel and Judah'', Westminster John Knox Press, 1986. ISBN 066421262X
  
  
 
{{credit|100942331}}
 
{{credit|100942331}}

Revision as of 02:56, 14 May 2007


File:Jehu-chariot.jpg
A sentry spots Jehu on his way to assassinate King Joram of Israel.

Jehu (יְהוּא, Yehu—"The Lord is he") was king of Israel, 842–815 B.C.E. He assumed the throne after being anointed by a messenger of the prophet Elisha and carried out one of history's most violent coups. In the process he killed both the regining King of Israel, Joram, and the King of Judah, Ahaziah, at the same time. An adamant opponent of Baal worship, Jehu also murdered the infamous Queen Jezebel, Joram's mother, whom the prophets blamed for the resurgence of Baal in Israel, and went on to slaughter dozens of her husband Ahab's sons, as well as numerous members of the royal house of Judah. He ended his coup by gathering the priests of Baal in their temple in the city of Samaria and killing them all. While the Bible strongly praises Jehu for these acts, the Book of Kings—our principal source for the events of his reign—criticizes him for failing to destroy the Isarelite shrines at Bethel and Dan which competed with the Temple of Jerusalem for the loyalty of Israel's worshipers.

As king, Jehu's military record was not nearly as successful as his immediate predecessors against the Syrians, and he lost coniderable territories to the Hazael of Damascus. Outside the Bible, Jehu is depected on the Black Obelisk of Shalmanezzer III as prostrating himself and offering tribute before the Syrian king. The recently discovered Tel Da inscription condradicts some of the main events in biblical story of Jehu, giving credit to Hazael for some of Jehu's most famous deeds.

While the Book of Kings considers Jehu one of Israel's few good kings, the prophet Hosea appears to denounce his coup and to predict that God would strongly punish Israel for Jehu violent deeds.

Biography

Background

Jehu's story is cast against the background of the reign of the Omride dynasty, consisting of Omri, Ahab, and Ahab's two sons, Ahaziah and Joram/Jehoram.[1] These kings, especially Ahab, were considered evil by the biblical writers because of their tolerance of Baal worship.[2] While each of these kings seems to have honored Yahweh personally, they also allowed and even supported Baal worship, in part because of the influence of Ahab's wife Jezebel, who was not an Israelite but a Phoenician princess. In Jehu's time, a militant Yahweh-only faction led by the prophet Elisha, the successor of the mighty Elijah, had emerged as a significant political faction opposed to the Omrides. This faction also seems to have been critical of the kings of Judah during this period as well, beginning with Jehoshaphat, who allied himself with Ahab against the Syrians and allowed Ahab and Jezebel's daughter Athaliah to marry into the Davidic lineage.

So strong was the opposition of this prophetic movement to Ahab's line that they resolved to inspire a violent coup against his descendants. In 1 Kings 19, God had commissioned Elijah to anoint Jehu as king of Israel and to anoint Hazael as king of Syria:

Go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram (Syria). Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. (1 Kings 19:15-17)

Elijah, however, had left this task unfulfilled, and it was left to Elisha to accomplish it.

Jehu's call

File:Jehu-summoned.jpg
Elisha's prophetic messenger prepares to anoint Jehu.

Jehu's story begins when he was serving as a commander of chariots under Joram after the battle of Ramoth-Gilead against the army of the Syrians. There, Joram (also called Jehoram) had been wounded and returned to Jezreel to recover. Joram's ally and nephew, King Ahaziah of Judah,[3] had also gone to Jezreel to attend on Joram (2 Kings 8:28). While the commanders of the army were assembled and Ramoth-Gilead, the prophet Elisha sent one of his disciples to anoint Jehu as the future king of Israel.[4] The messenger found Jehu meeting with other officers and led him away from his peers. Pouring oil on Jehu's head, the young prophet declared God's words:

You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord's servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. (2 Kings 9:1-10).

Jehu's companions, inquiring after the object of this mysterious visit, greated the news of prophetic support for Jehu with enthusiasm, blowing a trumpet and cheering him as king (2 Kings 9:11-14).

Jehu's coup

File:Jehu-slays-joram.jpg
Jehu slays King Joram at Jezreel.
At Jehu's command, Joram's mother Jezebel is cast down and trampled to death.

Jehu and his supporters promptly rode to Jezreel, where Joram was recovering from his wounds. "Do you come in peace, Jehu?" the king asked. Jehu replied: "How can there be peace, as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?" Jehu then shot Joram in the back with an arrow as he turned to flee. Jehu also ordered the murder of Ahaziah in the coup.

Seeing his duty to destroy the entire "house of Ahab," Jehu turned next to Joram's monther Jezebel, Ahab's widow. The queen-mother died after being thrown down from a high window by her own eunuchs at Jehu's command. Following this, Jehu engineered the killing of 70 of Ahab's male descendants, ordering their heads left in piles at the gates of Jezreel.

Turning toward the northern capital of Samaria, Jehu encountered 42 relatives of Ahaziah coming from Judah to pay their respects to Joram and Jezebel. These too, he slaughtered. Arriving at Samaria, Jehu continued the bloodbath: "He killed all who were left there of Ahab's family." (2 Kings 10:17)

Carrying Elisha's program to its logical conclusion, Jehu then summoned the priests of Baal, whom Joram had tolerated, to a solemn assembly in the capital. His invitation declared: "Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much." Once they assembled in Baal's temple, Jehu—supported by the Yahwist partisan Jehonadab son of Recab—proceeded to order them all slaughtered, demolishing the temple, and turning it into a public latrine.

Jehu as king

Despite his uncompromising zeal for Yahweh, Jehu's reign does not receive the complete endorsement of the authors of the Books of Kings. He is particularly criticized for failing to destroy the shrines at Dan and Bethel, which competed with Judah's central shrine at Jerusalem.[5] Nevertheless, the biblical writers preserve a prophecy in which God tells Jehu:

Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. (2 Kings 10:30)

The prophet Hosea, on the other hand, took the opposite view to that of the authors of Kings, indicating that God would not reward but would instead punish the House of Jehu for the slaughter of Ahab's family at Jezreel. Indeed, Hosea's prophecy seems to indicate that Jehu's actions there were responsible for the destruction of Israel as a kingdom:

So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel." (Hosea 1:3-4)

Militarily, Jehu was hard pressed by Hazael of Syria. Paradoxically, this enemy of Israel hismelf had been anointed to his office by none other than the prophetic kingmaker Elisha. This leads some commentators suggest that Jehu may even have acted as Hazel's agent in the destruction of Ahab's dynasty. The account in Kings clearly indicates that both Hazael and Jehu had the support of one prophetic faction, even though not of the later prophet Hosea. Adding to the complications in unraveling the mystery of the "historical" Jehu is the fact that the Tel Dan Stele, discovered in 1993-94 gives the credit for killing Joram and Ahaziah to a Syrian king, apparently Hazael.

The Tel Dan inscription credits Hazael, not Jehu, for killing Joram and Ahaziah.
Jehu, center, kneels before Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk.

In any case, the biblical account admits that Jehu's army was defeated by Hazael "throughout all of the territories of Israel" beyond the Jordan river, in the lands of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh (10:32). This would explain why the one extra-biblical mention of Jehu, the the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, depicts him Jehu as offering tribute to the Syrian king.

Who Jehu is not

It is easy to confuse Jehu with another, roughly contemporaneous biblical figure of the same name, and also to confuse his lineage with the royal lineage of Judah.

Jehu was the son of a man named Jehosophat, son of Nimshi. This was not the Jehoshaphat who reigned as King of Judah one generation earlier. The royal Jehoshaphat of Judah was the father of King Ahaziah of Judah, whom Jehu order slain during his coup against Joram of Israel. To make matters even more confusing, both Judah and Israel had kings named Ahaziah, and both Judah and Israel had kings name Joram/Jehoram, all within a few decades of each other.

Jehu should also not be confused the Jehu the son of Hanani, a prophet active both before and during the reign Jehoshaphat of Judah and who criticized Jehosphat for his alliance with Ahab (2 Chron. 19: 2-3).


Preceded by:
Jehoram (Joram)
Jehu, King of Israel
Albright: 842 B.C.E. – 815 B.C.E.
Thiele: 841 B.C.E. – 814 B.C.E.
Galil: 842 B.C.E. – 815 B.C.E.
Succeeded by: Jehoahaz

Notes

  1. Not to be confused with the two kings of the same name who ruled in Judah during the same era.
  2. Another issue the prophets had against Ahab was his mistreatment of a man named Naboth, whose property Ahab usurped after having him killed. Naboth is mentioned several times in the Jehu narrative, and it is in Naboth's field that Jehu ends up assassinating Ahab's son Joram.
  3. Not to be confused with Ahaziah of Israel, who was Joram's brother and immediate successor.
  4. A rabbinical tradition holds that this young man was the future prophet Jonah. (See Book of Jonah.)
  5. Most scholars believe these shrines honored Yahweh, although the biblical writers make much of the golden calf icons which these sites featured.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Bright, John. A History of Israel, Westminster John Knox Press; 4th edition, 2000. ISBN 0664220681
  • Elisha Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 14, 2007.
  • Galil, Gershon. The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1996. ISBN 9004106111
  • Jehu Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 13, 2007.
  • Lowrie, John M. The Prophet Elisha. Reprint Series. Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library, 2005. ISBN 978-1425527532
  • Grant, Michael. The History of Ancient Israel, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1984. ISBN 0684180812
  • Miller, J. Maxwell. A History of Ancient Israel and Judah, Westminster John Knox Press, 1986. ISBN 066421262X


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