Omrides

The Omrides, Omrids or House of Omri were a ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) founded by King Omri. According to the Bible, the Omride rulers of Israel were Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah and Jehoram. Ahab's daughter (or perhaps sister) Athaliah also became queen regnant of the Kingdom of Judah.

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(Italics indicate a disputed
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House of Omri (Omrides)
CountryKingdom of Israel (northern)
Kingdom of Judah (southern)
FounderOmri
Final rulerJehoram (Israel)
Athaliah (Judah)[1]
Titles
  • King of Israel
  • Queen of Judah

Five Assyrian records, some of which with known duplicates, are known to refer to either "Land of Omri" or "House of Omri".[2][3][4] An archaeological reference to Omri and his unnamed son is found in the Mesha Stele, the only Northwest Semitic inscription known to reference this name.

Biblical account

The Bible generally portrays the Omrides unfavorably, stressing their apostasy from the religion of Yahweh in favor of Baal. It devotes little attention to Omri aside from noting his establishment of the dynasty and foundation of Israel's new capital of Samaria. In contrast, his son Ahab is the subject of an extended narrative focusing on his troubled relations with the prophets Elijah and Elisha. He is depicted as a weak personality allowing himself to be led by his strong-willed wife Jezebel of Tyre, who advocated worship of Baal and the persecution of Yahwists. Note is also made of the dynasty's diplomacy, which connected it by marriage to Tyre and Judah and brought about a rapprochement with the latter after a long series of wars. The biblical account of the later Omrides concerns the revolt of Moab, their conflict with Damascus over Ramoth-Gilead, the dynasty's extinction in Israel at the hands of Jehu, and Athaliah's usurpation of the throne of Judah upon the death of her son King Ahaziah.

List of reigning Omrides

Most modern historians follow either the older chronologies established by William F. Albright or Edwin R. Thiele,[5] or the newer chronologies of Gershon Galil and Kenneth Kitchen,[6] all of which appear below.

Common/Biblical name Regnal Name and style Albright Thiele Galil Kitchen Notes
Omri עמרי מלך ישראל
’Omri, Melekh Yisra’el		 876–869 BCE 885–874 BCE 884–873 BCE 886–875 BCE Reigned over Israel in Samaria for 12 years. Death: natural causes
Ahab אחאב בן-עמרי מלך ישראל
Ah’av ben ’Omri, Melekh Yisra’el		 869–850 BCE 874–853 BCE 873–852 BCE 875–853 BCE Reigned over Israel in Samaria for 22 years. Death: shot by an archer during the battle at Ramoth Gilead. He died upon his arrival at Samaria.
Ahaziah אחזיהו בן-אחאב מלך ישראל
’Ahazyahu ben 'Ah’av, Melekh Yisra’el		 850–849 BCE 853–852 BCE 852–851 BCE 853–852 BCE Reigned over Israel in Samaria for 2 years. Death: he fell through the lattice of his upper room and injured himself. Elijah the prophet told him he would never leave his bed and would die on it.
Joram יורם בן-אחאב מלך ישראל
Yehoram ben ’Ah’av, Melekh Yisra’el		 849–842 BCE 852–841 BCE 851–842 BCE 852–841 BCE Reigned over Israel in Samaria for 12 years. Death: killed by Jehu, the next king of Israel.
Athaliah עתליה בת-עמרי מלכת יהודה
‘Atalyah bat ‘Omri, Malkat Yehudah		 842–837 BCE 841–835 BCE 842–835 BCE 841–835 BCE Queen Mother, widow of Jehoram and mother of Ahaziah. Reigned over Judah in Jerusalem for 6 years. Death: killed by the troops assigned by Jehoiada the Priest to protect Joash.

Religion

The Bible notes a conflict in the time of Ahab between Israel's traditional Yahweh cult and that of Baal, which it represents as imported from Phoenicia by Ahab's queen Jezebel and promoted by her. Biblical scholar Edward Lipiński has speculated that the biblical name "Baal" actually refers not to the Phoenician deity but to Yahweh of Samaria, with the two possibly having been equated due to Samarian Yahwism being regarded as heretical by the priests of Judah, whose traditions are reflected in the biblical account.[7] The Bible, however, presents the conflict as internal to the Omride realm, and the primary defenders of Yahwism (Elijah and Elisha) as prophets native to that kingdom. Most evidence confirms the customary predominance of Yahwism. King Mesha of Moab, a contemporary of the later Omrides, notes in the Mesha Stele the presence of vessels devoted to Yahweh in the Israelite city of Nebo at the time he conquered it. ("And Chemosh said to me, Go take Nebo against Israel, and ... and I took it: ... and I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them before Chemosh.") Lipiński and Łukasz Toboła also note that Omride royal names (Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah) tend to be theophoric and refer to Yahweh.[7][8]

Historicity

Israel Finkelstein's The Bible Unearthed presents a very different picture of the Omrides, making them responsible for the great empire, magnificent palaces, wealth, and peace in Israel and Judah that the Bible credits to the much earlier kings David and Solomon. According to Finkelstein, the reason for this discrepancy is the religious bias of the Biblical authors against the Omrides for their polytheism, and in particular their support for elements of the Canaanite religion.[9] However, the Bible acknowledges that Ahab built ivory houses and numerous cities. [10]

Finkelstein maintains that the writers of the Book of Kings may have omitted possible widespread public construction that both Omri and his son Ahab commissioned during their reigns. Finkelstein and his student Norma Franklin have identified monumental construction at Samaria, Jezreel, Megiddo, and Hazor that is similar in design and build.

Archaeological evidence

The Mesha Stele bears a Moabite inscription of about 840 BCE by Mesha, ruler of Moab, in which Mesha tells of the oppression of Moab by "Omri king of Israel" and his son after him, and boasts of his own victories over the latter. It is also notable as the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to ancient Israel (the "House of Omri").

Though the Bible claims that Jehu killed the last Omride king Jehoram and his ally King Ahaziah of Judah in a coup about 841 BCE, afterwards going on to destroy most remaining members of the House of Omri, archaeological evidence cast some doubt on this account. The author of the Tel Dan Stele (usually identified as King Hazael of Damascus (c.842–806 BCE)) appears himself to have claimed to have killed the two kings,[11] In addition, the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser, an Assyrian archaeological remain dating from times contemporary with Jehu, names Jehu as a "son of Omri."[12][13] However the reference to "son of Omri" in the Black Obelisk in the expression "Jehu son of Omri" may be a reference to the "House of Omri", which is believed to have been the Assyrian name for the Kingdom of Israel. Assyrian kings frequently referred to Omri's successors as belonging to the "House of Omri" (Bit Hu-um-ri-a).[14]

List of proposed Assyrian references to the House of Omri

The table below lists all the historical references to Omri in Assyrian records.[15]

Assyrian King Inscription Year Transliteration Translation
Shalmaneser III Black Obelisk, Calah Fragment, Kurba'il Stone, Ashur Stone 841 BCE mar Hu-um-ri-i[n 1] "of the people of the land of Omri"[16][17]
Adad-nirari III Nimrud Slab 803 BCE KUR Bīt-Hu-um-ri-i "the land of the house of Omri"
Tiglath-Pileser III ND 4301 + 4305, III R 10,2 731 BCE KUR E Hu-um-ri-a "the land of Omri"
Sargon II Palace Door, Small Summary Inscription, Cylinder Inscription, Bull Inscription[n 2] 720 BCE mat KUR Bit-Hu-um-ri-a "all the land of the house of Omri"
  1. Historically translated as "son of Omri"
  2. All four items share the same inscription

References
  1. 2 Kings 8:26
  2. Lemche, Niels Peter (2008). The Old Testament Between Theology and History: A Critical Survey. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 147–148. ISBN 9780664232450.
  3. Davies, Philip R. (1995). In Search of "Ancient Israel": A Study in Biblical Origins. A&C Black. p. 64. ISBN 9781850757375.
  4. McNair, Raymond F (2012). Key to Northwest European Origins. Author House. p. 172. ISBN 9781468546002.
  5. Edwin Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, (1st ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1951; 2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965; 3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983). ISBN 0-8254-3825-X, 9780825438257
  6. On the Reliability of the Old Testament (2003) by Kenneth Kitchen. Grand Rapids and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-4960-1.
  7. Edward Lipiński "Studia z dziejów i kultury starożytnego Bliskiego Wschodu" Nomos Press, 2013, ISBN 978-83-7688-156-0
  8. Łukasz Toboła "Ba'al in the Omrides' history: The Historical-theological Study", Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Faculty of Theology ; 162 ISBN 9788363266141
  9. Israel Finkelstein, The Bible Unearthed : Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, New York: The Free Press, 2001. ISBN 0-684-86912-8.
  10. "1 Kings 22:39".
  11. Hallvard Hagelia, "Philological Issues in the Tel Dan Inscription," in Lutz Edzard and Jan Retso, eds., Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon, Harrassowitz, 2005, 235.
  12. Daniel D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. I, Chicago 1926, §§ 590, 672.
  13. Jewish Encyclopedia, "Omri"
  14. James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969, 283. ISBN 0-691-03503-2
    • Kelle, Brad (2002), "What's in a Name? Neo-Assyrian Designations for the Northern Kingdom and Their Implications for Israelite History and Biblical Interpretation", Journal of Biblical Literature, 121 (4): 639–666, doi:10.2307/3268575, JSTOR 3268575
  16. Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament - Robert William Rogers
  17. Bezold, Carl; King, L. W. (1889). Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum. British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan. ISBN 1145519350.

See also
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