Kalhu
Capital of Assyria in the ninth and eighth centuries BC, on the Tigris. Shalmaneser III set up the Black Obelisk here, with its picture of Jehu’s tribute. Genesis knows the city as Calah.
Kalhu stood on the east bank of the Tigris, at the site now called Nimrud. Ashurnasirpal II made it the capital of Assyria in the ninth century BC, and his son Shalmaneser III added a great arsenal and completed the temple tower. Genesis lists it, as Calah, among the cities of Assyria (Genesis 10:11–12).
Austen Henry Layard found the Black Obelisk here in 1846. Its reliefs show the tribute of Jehu of Israel being brought before the Assyrian king (Black Obelisk caption 2 (RIAo 88)); see Jehu’s Revolt and Tribute to Assyria. The tribute itself was received in the west, during the campaign of 841 BC, and not at Kalhu.
What happened here
- 841 BC, firm dateJehu’s Revolt and Tribute to Assyria
The army commander Jehu, anointed at Elisha’s word, kills the kings of Israel and Judah, Jezebel and the house of Ahab, and destroys the temple of Baal in Samaria. In the same year Assyrian records show him paying tribute to Shalmaneser III.
Primary sources
Scripture
The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
- Black Obelisk caption 2 (RIAo 88)oracc.museum.upenn.edu