which he had struck was, however, felt even in Sama- ria. When, therefore, he wrote to the persons in au- thority there the somewhat ironical but designedly in- timidating counsel, to set up one of the young princes in Samaria as king and tight out the matter which lay between them, they sent a very submissive answer, giv- ing in their adhesion, and professing their readiness to obey in all things his commands. A second letter from Jehu tested this profession in a truly horrid and ex- ceedingly Oriental manner, requiring them to appear before him on the morrow, bringing with them the heads of all the royal princes in Samaria. A fallen house meets with little pity in the East; and when the new king left his palace the next morning, he found seventy human heads piled up in two heaps at his gate. There, in the sight of these heaps, Jehu took occasion to explain his conduct, declaring that he must be re- garded as the appointed minister of the divine decrees, pronounced long since against the house of Ahab by the prophets, not one of whose words shoiUd fall to the ground. He then continued his proscriptions by exter- minating in Jezreel not only all in whose veins the blood of the condemned race flowed, but also — by a considera- ble stretch of his commission — those officers, ministers, and creatures of the late government who, if suffered to live, would most likely be disturbers of his own reign. He next proceeded to Samaria. So rapid had been these proceedings, that on his way, at " the shearing- house" (or Betheked), he encountered forty-two sons or nephews (2 Chron. xx, 8) of the late king of Judah, and therefore connected by marriage with Ahab, on a visit of compliment to their relatives, of whose fall, seemingly, they had not heard. These also were put to the sword at the fatal well, as, in the later historj-, of Mizpah, and, in our own days, of Cawnpore (2 Kings X, U). (See Kitto's Duily Bible I/lust, ad loc.) As he drove on he encoimtered a strange figure, such as might have reminded him of the great Elijah. It was Jehon- adab, the austere Arab sectarj^, the son of Rechab. In him his keen eye discovered a ready ally. The austere A'irtue and respected character of the Rechabite would, as he felt, go far to hallow his proceedings in the eyes of the miUtitude. He took him into his chariot, and they concocted their schemes as they entered Samaria (2 Kings X, 15, 16). See Jehoxadab. In that capital Jehu continued the extirpation of the persons more in- timately connected with the late government. This, far from being in any way singular, is a common cir- cumstance in Eastern revolutions. But the great stroke was yet to come ; and it was conceived and executed with that union of intrepid daring and profound secrecy which marks the whole career of Jehu. His main ob- ject was to exterminate the ministers and more devoted adherents of Baal, who- had been so much encouraged by Jezebel. There was even a temple to this idol in Samaria; and Jehu, never scrupulous about the means of reaching objects which he believed to be good, laid a snare by which he hoped to cut off the main body of Baal's ministers at one blow. He professed to be a more zealous servant of Baal than Ahab had been, and proclaimed a great festival in his honor, at which none but his true servants were to be present. The proph- ets, priests, and officers of Baal assembled from all parts fur this great sacrifice, and sacerdotal vestments were given to them, that none of Jehovah's worshippers might be taken for them. Soldiers were posted so that none might escape. The vast temple at Samaria raised by Ahab (1 Kings xvi, 32; Josephus, Ant. x, 7, G) was crowded from end to end. The chief sacrifice was of- fered, as if in the excess of his zeal, by Jehu himself. Jehonadab joined in the deception. Tliere was some apprehension lest worshippers of Jehovah might be found in the temple; such, it seems, had been the inter- mixture of the two religions. As soon, however, as it was ascertained that all, and none but the idolaters were there, the signal was given to eighty trusted guards, and a sweeping massacre removed at one blow the whole
heathen population of the kingdom of Israel. The in- nermost sanctuary of the temple (translated in the A. V. " the city of the house of Baal") was stormed, the great stone statue of Baal was demolished, the wooden flgiu-es of the inferior divinities sitting round him were torn from their places and burnt (Ewald, GescJi. iii, 526), and the site of the sanctuary itself became the public resort of the inhabitants of the city for the basest uses (2 Kings x).
Notwithstanding this zeal of Jehu in exterminating the grosser idolatries which had grown up under his immediate predecessors, he was not prepared to subvert the policy whicli had led Jeroboam and his successors to maintain the schismatic establishment of the golden calves in Dan and Beth-el. See Jekoboaji. This was, however, a crime in him — the worship rendered to the golden calves being i)lainly contrary to the law; and he should have felt that he who had appointed him to the throne Avould have maintained him in it, notwithstand- ing the ap]iarent dangers which might seem likely to ensue from permitting his subjects to repair at the great festivals to the metropolis of the rival kingdom, which was the centre of the theocratical worship and of sacer- dotal service. Here Jehu fell short : and this very pol- icy, apparently so prudent and far-sighted, by which he hoped to secure the stability and independence of his kingdom, was that on account of which the term of ride granted to his dynasty was shortened. For this it was foretold that his dynasty should extend only to four generations; and for this the divine aid was withheld from him in his wars with the Syrians under Hazael on the eastern frontier. Hence the war was disastrous to him, and the Syrians were able to maintain themselves in the possession of a great part of his territories beyond the Jordan (2 Kings x, 29-33). He died in quiet, and was buried in Samaria, leaving tlie throne to his son Jehoahaz (2 Kings x, 34-36). B.C. 855. His name is thought to be the first of the Israelitish kings which ap- pears in the Assyrian monuments. It seems to be found on the black obelisk discovered at Nimrud (Layard, Nineveh, i, 39G), and now in the British IMuseum, among the names of kings who are bringing tribute (in this case gold and silver, and articles manufactured in gold) to Shalmaneser I. His name is given as "Jehu" (or " Yahua"), "the son of Khumri" (Omri). This substi- tution of the name of Omri for that of his own father may be accounted for either by the importance which Omri had assumed as the second founder of the north- ern kingdom, or by the name of " Beth-Khumri," only given to Samaria in these monuments as " the House or Capital of Omri" (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. G43 ; Rawlinson's Ilerodot. i, 465).