The Hebrew word
ben () can mean both a literal "son", or a male descendant. The biblical text describes Jehu as either the "son of Nimshi" (
ben Nimshi); or as the "son of
Jehoshaphat" (
ben Yehoshafat), who is himself called the "son of Nimshi". Some scholars have therefore taken the phrase to mean that Jehu was not the actual son of Nimshi, and that Nimshi was the ancestor of Jehu, or even that Jehu belonged to a
clan named Nimshi. Baruchi-Unna suggests that Nimshi was a child of King
Omri and a sibling of King
Ahab. Jehu's father, Jehoshaphat, would consequently be a first cousin to Ahab's children:
Ahaziah of Israel,
Jehoram of Israel, and
Athaliah,
Queen regnant of the
Kingdom of Judah. Among the members of this extended House of Omri, the names Ahaz
iah,
Jehoram, Athal
iah, and
Jehoshaphat are all
Yahwistic theophoric names, whereas Omri, Ahab, and Nimshi are not theophoric names. According to Baruchi-Unna, this reflects different religious tendencies among the first and second generations of the royal family, and the (evidently) Yahweh-worshipping third generation. ==References==