Jehu Depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

The panel shown on the next page is part of an obelisk that contains a long inscription summarizing the triumphs of Shalmaneser until the thirty-third year of his reign. The panel depicts Jehu, king of Israel (reigned 842–814 BCE), bowing before Shalmaneser. The caption above it reads: “I received the tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: silver, gold, a gold bowl, a gold vase (?), gold goblets, gold buckets, tin, a royal scepter, and javelins.” “Son of Omri” means, in effect, “of Israel.” Jehu was not actually a son of Omri, but Assyrian scribes referred to certain kingdoms by the names of their founders, as in the reference to the Northern Kingdom as “the land of the House of Omri” in the inscription of Tiglath-pileser II. There is no mention of this event in the history of Jehu’s reign in 2 Kings 9–10.