Yahu-Bihdi (

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

: 𒅀𒌑𒁉𒀪𒁲 ''ia-ú-bi-ʾ-di'') also called Ilu-Bihdi (

: 𒀭𒁉𒀪𒁲 ''ìl-bi-ʾ-di'') was a governor of

Hamath , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

appointed by the

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...

n government. He declared himself king of Hamath in 720 BC and led a revolt which was promptly suppressed. Yahu-Bihdi himself was flayed alive. His revolt occurred roughly shortly after the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by Sargon II and roughly simultaneously with revolts in Babylon as well as in Arpad, Damascus and elsewhere in the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

. His name, with the component Yahu (coupled with the fact that '

Ilu Ilu or ILU may refer to: * Ilu (drum), a Brazilian instrument * Ilu, Iran, a village in Kurdistan Province, Iran * Inter-Language Unification, WWW project * International Longshoremen's Association, labor union * Incomplete LU factorization *''il ...

' was considered an appropriate substitutive element), suggests that he may have been an

Israelite The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

— though Sargon called him a Hittite — or a worshipper of

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he poss ...

. Following his defeat, many residents of Hamath were deported to

Samaria Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first ...

by the Assyrians, where they became one of the component groups of the Samaritan people. Hamath itself was destroyed after the siege, but had been rebuilt by the 400's BC.

References

8th-century BC deaths Ancient Assyrians Ancient Syria People executed by flaying People executed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire People executed for treason Samaritan culture and history Syro-Hittite kings Year of birth unknown 1st-millennium BC executions 8th-century BC people {{Syria-hist-stub