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The Bible in stone
Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
Black limestone pillar, 2 m high · c. 825 BC · found 1846 at Nimrud
This four-sided stone pillar, about 2 meters high, records the wars of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III during the first 31 years of his reign. Austen Henry Layard dug it up in 1846 at Nimrud, the ancient Assyrian city of Calah, and it is now in the British Museum. Five rows of carved scenes run around all four sides, with cuneiform writing between them, and they show tribute brought from five lands of the empire.
In the second row a man kneels with his face to the ground before the king, while Israelites carry gifts behind him. The writing calls him “Jehu, son of Omri” and lists his tribute: bowls and vessels of silver and gold, tin and a royal staff. It is the only known picture of an Israelite king made in his own lifetime. The tribute was paid in 841 BC, in the same campaign in which Shalmaneser fought Hazael of Damascus, and the Bible does not mention it. Jehu was not of Omri’s family — he had overthrown it (2 Kings 9–10) — but the Assyrians went on naming the kingdom of Israel after Omri.
Key verses
From that land he went forth into Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,Then the LORD said to him, “Go back by the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you arrive, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram. You are also to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah to succeed you as prophet.So Jehu got up and went into the house, where the young prophet poured the oil on his head and declared, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the LORD’s people Israel.In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territorySo the duration of Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Black Obelisk*; Shalmaneser; Inscriptions: Inscriptions on Monuments
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
