"Jehu"

Jehu (r. 842-814 B.C.E.) – The son of Jehoshaphat ben Nimshi of the tribe of Manasseh, who, like Baasha and Zimri before him, put to death the remnants of the preceding royal house. After slaying Jehoram, Jehu had Jehoram’s mother Jezebel thrown out of a window to her death; he then collected the heads of Ahab’s 70 sons, killed off all of Ahab’s officers, friends, and priests, and finished off Jehoram’s sons and nephews. Thus Jehu extinguished the Omride dynasty.

He then laid a trap for the devotees of Baal by convening an assembly in that pagan god’s temple and appointing 80 men to slaughter the worshipers once they sacrificed to their deity. Baal’s temple was destroyed and turned into a garbage dump.

By annihilating the House of Omri, with its marriage ties to both the Kingdom of Judah and the Phoenicians, Jehu found himself surrounded by hostile neighbors, and thus turned to Assyria for assistance. He paid tribute to Shalmanesser III of Assyria to rescue Israel from the invading Arameans (and is mentioned on that king’s black obelisk). Assyria campaigned against Aram, which nonetheless recovered and continued to plague the kingdoms of Israel and Judah alike.

The prophet Hosea warned of retribution against Jehu’s line for its horrors. The much-bloodied king was buried in Samaria.