Jehu’s payment of tribute to the Assyrian king in 842 B.C. was probably due to a question of policy, and in the main it may be considered as a cheap way of avoiding misfortune, for he might easily have been worsted in an encounter with Shalmaneser. What Tyre and Sidon thought fit to do, could hardly but be recognized as policy for Israel as well. It was important for Jehu that he should consolidate his power, hence this submission, though, to say the truth, he could not have been certain that he would be attacked. Was it that he felt strong enough to resist the Assyrian king which made him withhold the payment of tribute when, in 839 B.C., Shalmaneser again marched against Hazael? It would seem so. On this occasion four towns of the king of Damascus were captured, and tribute again received from Tyre and Sidon, Gebal likewise buying peace in the same way. That Jehu, who destroyed the house of Omri, should be called “son of Omri” in the inscriptions of Shalmaneser II. of Assyria, is strange, and needs explanation. Perhaps the successor of a king could loosely be spoken of as his son, as occupying the place of such a relative; and, as is well known, Belshazzar, in the book of Daniel, is called son of Nebuchadnezzar, which, according to the Babylonian inscriptions, he certainly was not. That Jehu may have been in some way related with Jehoram, and therefore a descendant of Omri, is possible and even probable. That he was not descended from him in a direct line is certain. It is noteworthy that the Assyrian form of the name, Yaua, shows that the unpronounced aleph at the end was at that time sounded, so that the Hebrews must have called him Yahua (Jehua). Omri was likewise pronounced in accordance with the older system, before the ghain became ayin. Ḫumrî shows that they said at that time Ghomrî. After the rebellion which embittered the closing years of Shalmaneser’s life, the great Assyrian king died, and his crown went to his younger son Šamši-Adad III. (825-812 B.C.). The first work of the new ruler was the pacification of his country, and this having been successfully done, he tried to restore Assyrian influence beyond the borders of his kingdom. During his reign of about thirteen years, he warred on the N., N.E., N.W. and S. (Babylonia), but never came nearer to Syria than Kar-Shalmaneser on the Euphrates, near Carchemish.