144 



MARTIN L. KOUSE, ESQ., B.L., ON 



tribute from Jaua, son of Khumri. That is, evidently, the Jehu 

 of the Bible who was the contemporary of Hazael and the near 

 successor of Omri, the founder of Samaria. This is the only 

 Assyrian notice as yet found of a force of Israelites fighting 

 outside their country ; and we see that the name there applied to 

 them is Sir'ilaR, not Beth Khumri. But where the capital or the 

 territory of northern Israel is mentioned, there we find the latter 

 expression used. Thus King Sargon (the Sargon of Isaiah xx) 

 tells how he has settled Thamudites and other colonists in Bit 

 Khumri,* and Tiglath-Pilezer III. speaks thus : " The country 

 (mat) of Bit Khumri [I occupied] ; all its men [as well as their 

 possessions] I carried away to Assyria. Pekah, their king [1] 

 slew, and I appointed Hoshea to be king over theni."t And 

 lastly, Adad Niraii III., grandson of Shalmanezer IJ., when 

 enumerating his vassal states, speaks of the land of Khumri 

 simply, without an intervening Bit. Both Sayce and Pinches 

 hold that I)it Khumri means not the house or people of Israel, 

 for calling whom by the name Khumri there is otherwise no 

 cause known to anyone, but "the house of Omri "—that is, 

 Samaria, the city which Omri built and made his capital.^ It 

 certainly could have had no other origin, as the fact that Jehu 

 was called a son of Khumri by contemporary Assyrians also 

 shows : and if the Anglo-Israelites, accepting this origin, say 

 that the name was afterwards extended to the people themselves, 

 arrd borne with them upon all their travels and through the 

 ages, it would be strange indeed and contrary to the usual 

 decrees of God, who wills not that the name of the wicked 

 should be had in remembrance, especially on the lips of His 

 earthly people ; ibr we read of Omri in the inspired record that 

 " he did that which was evil irr the sight of the LOIiD and 

 dealt wickedly above all that were before hiirr."§ 



As for Jehu's being called a " son of Omri," when he had 

 obtained the throne by slaying Omri's grandson, it is probable 

 that the Assyrian royal scribes did not trouble their heads about 

 such details ; he reigned at Samaria, which had l)eerr founded 

 l)y Omri (a powerful king, as the Moabite stone proves, for he 

 had made Mesha's predecessor his vassal) ; therefore in the 

 thought of the scribes Jehu was a son of Omri. And yet after 

 all he may have been a descendant through the female line from 

 that kin«.', and have obtained his captaincy, as Amasa obtained 

 his cliief captaincy from Absalom, because he was a relative ; 



* Sayce, 544, cp. for s])elliiig, Pinches, 332. 

 t Sayce, 410 ; Puiclios, 352, 354. 



I I Kiiifrs xvi, 23, 24. § 1 Kings xvi, 25. 



