Jehu (/ˈdʒiːhuː/; Hebrew: יֵהוּא, romanized: Yēhūʾ, meaning "Yah is He"; Akkadian: 𒅀𒌑𒀀 Ya'úa [ia-ú-a]; Latin: Iehu) was the tenth king of the northern Kingdom of Israel since Jeroboam I, noted for exterminating the house of Ahab.

Meanwhile, according to the writer of the Books of Kings, the prophet Elisha ordered one of his students to go to Ramoth-Gilead and separate Jehu, a military commander at the time, from his companions.

There, he was to anoint Jehu as king in an inner chamber and explain to him that he was to act as an agent of divine judgment against the house of Ahab.

Jehu trampled over her body, and when he decided later to arrange a proper burial due to her royal descent, only her skull, hands and feet remained.

Now master of Jezreel, Jehu wrote to command the chief men in Samaria to hunt down and kill all the royal princes.

[12] Other than Jehu's bloody seizure of power and tolerance for the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, which was criticized as a "heretical" interpretation of Yahwism, little else is known of his reign.

He was hard pressed by Hazael, king of the Arameans, who defeated his armies "throughout all of the territories of Israel" beyond the Jordan River, in the lands of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh.

[13] This suggests that Jehu offered tribute to Shalmaneser III, as depicted on his Black Obelisk, in order to gain a powerful ally against the Arameans.

Yahweh rewards Jehu for being a willing executor of divine judgment by allowing four generations of kings to sit on the throne of Israel.

[18] The author of the Tel Dan Stele (9th century BCE, found in 1993 and 1994) claimed to have slain both Ahaziah of Judah and Jehoram of Israel.

Most scholars identify Hazael of Damascus (c. 842 – 806 BCE) as the author, the Damascan king who fought a great war against Israel and Juda.