Assyria, in northern Mesopotamia played only a minor role in history until the beginning of the first millennium BC. The Assyrians began their rise toward becoming the greatest power the Near East had ever seen. In 876 BC, Assurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) led the Assyrian army west into Syria while Omri (885 - 874 BC) was king of Israel. The Assyrians did not advance beyond Syria but they must have learned of Omri because since that point they referred to the kings of Israel as being from the “house of Omri.” Shalmaneser III took the throne of Assyria in 858 BC when Ahab was in his last years as king of Israel and he was on the battlefield nearly every year of his reign. In 841 BC, Shalmaneser III marched west when Jehu had just begun his reign over Israel (841 – 814 BC). Then the Assyrian army moved southwest to Mount Carmel, where the annals say they received tribute from Tyre, Sidon, and Jehu, the “son of Omri.” Here is an event in the reign of an Israelite king which is only recorded extra-biblically.
Jehu’s tribute is commemorated on what we call today the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser. On this obelisk Jehu is shown kneeling before Shalmaneser III, and the text lists the gifts he paid to placate the Assyrians. The Bible implies that though Jehu had a relatively long reign, he was never a particularly strong ruler and the Black Obelisk supports this impression. The Black Obelisk is made of fine-grained black limestone streaked with white and this was discovered at Nimrud (ancient Calah) by Austin Henry Layard in 1846. Layard was responsible for the first archaeological excavation at Nimrud, unearthing finds beneath the mound at the site, including a pair of colossal winged bulls from the time of Shalmaneser III and the great wall panels from the palaces of Tiglath-pileser III and Ashurnasirpal II.
The obelisk is shaped like a ziggurat with its top narrowing in steps and on each of its four sides are five panels that contain relief drawings depicting various individuals bringing their tribute to the king. The main text of the inscription is written above and below the groupings of panels while above each panel is a brief epigraph describing the scene in the panel. The inscription begins with an invocation of the various Mesopotamian gods and a list of the royal name and descriptive phrases for Shalmaneser III. It also boasts of the major military conquests and subjugations of the reign of Shalmaneser and lists them year by year from the first year through his thirty-first year. Since the last listing is for his thirty-first year, or 828 BC, the obelisk was likely written in 828 or 827 BC.
Of particular interest is the record of his conquest during the eighteenth year of his reign when he had crossed the Euphrates for the sixteenth time. When Hazael of Damascus attacked, Shalmaneser took away from him 1,121 of his chariots, 470 of his cavalry together with his camp. Hazael was the king of Aram (modern day Syria) from 842 to 810 BC. It was Hazael who was a thorn in the side of Israel during the reigns of Jehoram, Jehu, and Jehoahaz. It was during the reign of Jehoram, Hazael murdered Ben-Hadad and fulfilled Elisha’s prophetic word regarding torment of the Israelites: “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women” (2 Kings 8:12). During the days of Jehu, the Lord used Hazael to reduce the size and importance of Israel as “Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh) from Aroer by the Arnon gorge through Gilead to Bashan (2 Kings 10:32-33). Also, during the reign of Jehoahaz, Hazael continued his assault on the Israelites and as 2 Kings mentions, it was only the mercy of God that prevented Hazael from decimating Israel a hundred years prior to the time when they would ultimately fall in 722 BC.
The payment of tribute to Shalmaneser by Jehu, King of Israel is depicted in the row of panels second from the top on each side of the obelisk. One side of the panel depicts Shalmaneser beneath a parasol along with four other Assyrians accepting the tribute from Jehu who is prostrating himself on the ground before the king. The panels on the other three sides depict two Assyrian officials receiving the tribute from a total of thirteen Israelite tribute bearers. The tribute bearers wear “long garments with fringed cloaks over them, shoes with upturned toes, soft, pointed caps” and the inscription on the panel reads “I received the tribute of Jehu (Ia-u-a) (the man) of Bit-Humri: silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden goblet, golden cups, golden buckets, tin, a staff of the king’s hand, (and) javelins.” The identification of Jehu, as “man of Omri” is incorrect because Jehu was not a descendant of Omri but was responsible for bringing the Omri dynasty to an end. But the Assyrians frequently referred to the rulers of a country by the name of the dynasty that was in control at the time of their first encounter with that country. So, Jehu is referred by them as “house of Omri” because the Omride dynasty had previously been the ruling dynasty. As it turns out, King Sargon of Assyria who deported the residents of Israel is also mentioned in the archaeological records.
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