The first known king of Israel was not the biblical Saul, or David, but Omrm (Jewish Omri) whom the Bible claims was the sixth king of Israel. Who Omri was, or even his exact reign is unknown as archaeological evidence and the Mesha Stele refute the biblical account of who he was and when he reigned.
The Mesha Stele or "Moabite Stone" was erected by Mesha King of Moab between 840 BCE - 810 BCE to honor the God Kmos for His victory in a series of battles that ended about 850 BCE, and more importantly, to honor the God Kmos for having Israel perish everlasting, as Israel is never again mentioned as a nation in any record after this time. (The Bible is not a record)
There are many translations of the Mesa Stele (biblical Mesha). This is one of the better.
"I am Mesa son of Kmos ? King of Moab the Daibonite. My father reigned over Moab 30 years and I reigned after my father. And I made this high place for Kmos in Kerekho [High place of salvation] for He had saved me from all the assailants (?) and because he had caused me to look upon all my foes. Omri was king of Yisra-el and he afflicted Moab days many, for Knos was angry with his land. And his son succeeded him, and he too said, I will afflict Moab. In my days he said s [Missing: probably "this" or "so"] and I looked upon him and his house. And Israel perished everlasting. And Omri possessed the land of Mehdeba. And dwelt therein his days and half the days of his son, 40 years. And Kmos restored it in my days.... Now the men of Gad had dwelt in the land of Tarot from of old and the King of Yi (missing) built for himself Tarot. And I fought against the city and took it." (Lines 4-11)
The battles ended about 850 BCE, after Omri and his son had afflicted Moab for 40 years. Using only Mesa's record, that would place the beginning of reign of Omri as King of Yisra-el sometime before 890 BCE.
Omri is significant because he is the first historical person for whom the Jews who wrote the Bible intentionally changed what they knew in order to create both the Israel Fraud and the Judah Fraud. And, because there is no archaeological evidence of Israel or Judah existing before Omri, it is quite likely that Omri was the first king of the biblical Israel. That fact would, of course, destroy the complete Bible narrative of Jewish King.
That would also mean that the Jews who wrote the Bible not only invented Saul, David and Solomon, but they also invented all the kings of Judah and Israel until Omri, and Omri was such a threat to the creation of Judah as a nation, that the writers of the Bible had to diminish his importance and obliterate his linage.
The Bible gives no linage for Omri, most likely because he was not related to the Jews in any way. The biblical account of how he came to power by killing Zimri, the king of Israel, is a complete fiction, as there is no record of there having been a king of either Israel of Judah at the time. Yet the Jews created a elaborate work of fiction which began with Omri reigning 12 years, 6 years in Tirzah, and 6 years in Samaria, after which his son Ahab, succeeds him, and rules for 22 years. The Jews have Ahab married to Jezebel, who is the personification of wickedness. Ahab is succeeded by Ahaziah, who is succeeded by Jehoram, who is killed by Jehu, who is not related to Omri, thus ending a 48 year dynasty of the House of Omri. Jehu then becomes king of Israel in 841 BCE.
But it is a lie, which is contradicted by the Mehsa Stele and the 841 BCE Black Obelisk of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III.
Unlike the Jews who wrote the Bible, Mesa (Mesha) was alive when Omri ruled Yisra-el, and he lived not only to see the end of Yisra-el, but to erect the Mesa Stele years later. The Mesa Stele is supported by the Black Obelisk which depicts an 841 BCE scene in which Ja u a, (the biblical Jehu) Mar Khu um ri i [son of Humria (Omri)] bows in submission before the Assyria King as he pays tribute and surrenders the scepter of the kingdom of Israel.
The Black Obelisk depicts the time in history (841 BCE) when the Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist. From that time on, the Kingdom of Israel is never mentioned again in any record outside the Bible. 841 BCE, is, of course, 9 years after Mesa’s battles with Yisa-el in 850 BCE, and that makes the 18 year reign of the unnamed son of Omri begin in 859 BCE. That also means Omri personally afflicted Moab for 31 years before he died; and Mesa recorded the events in his Stele.
A simple calculation of the battles ending in 850, after 40 years of Moab being afflicted by Omri and his son, places the beginning of the affliction at 900 BCE; and, it can reasonably be postulated that Omri became King of Yisra-el perhaps 10 years earlier, in 910 BCE. Omri undoubtedly had several son, some of whom he would have appointed as kings over other cities within his kingdom; and, if he had a son named Ahab, then Ahab may have been king of Jerusalem, which was still a small city during this period. Further, there is no archaeological evidence that Jerusalem was a religious center at the time, although it must be noted that every city had a god or gods who protected it. However, because there was no King Solomon, there was, of course, no Temple of Solomon.
That of course is unthinkable for Bible defenders who accept the most absurd Bible claims as fact, while dismissing any record that refutes their Bible.
Even though the Black Obelisk depicts Jaua, the son of Humria (Omri), bowing before the feet of Shalmaneser III, and surrendering his scepter, they claim that this was not the biblical Jehu, but rather his ambassador, and that he was misidentified by the Assyrians as the son of Omri. Their only evidence for this is, it is the only reasonable explanation for it contradicting the Bible. As for the Mesha Stele, they see it as nothing more than the boasting of a Pagan enemy of Israel.
But the Mesa Stele is not mere boasting. It relates facts that are substantiated by history. But to understand the Mesa Stele, one needs to understand that Mesa was devoted to the God Kmos.
All the victories were victories of the God Kmos.
Omri was succeeded by his son who, in Mesa's view, was so despised by Kmos that Mesa does not name him; and, Mesa detested that unnamed son so much that he obfuscated his reign to make his name difficult and undiscoverable to this day. Yet, that son was neither killed, nor completely defeated in his battles with Mesa. Rather, while Mesa took back the lands of Moab and expanded his territory northward into the Yisra-el territory of Gad, Nebo, and other lands, Omri's unnamed son, continued to rule Yisra-el from Samaria for 9 years, until 841 BCE.
Edited for clarity we read:
"Omrem was king of Yisra-el and he afflicted Moab days many.... And his son succeeded him, And Omrem possessed the land of Mehdeba. And dwelt therein his days and half the days of his son, 40 years."
In plain English this means: Yisra-el possessed Moab a total of 40 years first by Omri then his son. But Omri’s son only possessed Moab for one half of his reign. That is, one half of his reign was before the final battles of 850 BCE and the other half of his reign from 850 on. And because we know from the Black Obelisk that Jaua succeeded him in 841 BCE, or 9 years later, we know Omri’s unnamed son reigned 18 years. (Even if these calculations for the battle ending in 850 BCE are off by a year, his reign would be at least 16 years.)
(This is further confirmed by Mesha who looked upon that unnamed son and his house with exaltation as a fallen foe when they were murdered by the son of Omri who is depicted bowing at the feet of King Shalmaneser III, or as the records of Assyrian King Adad-nariri IV (reigned 812-738) stated of Mari, King of Damascus, "he took my feet and surrendered." Jaua, the son of Huumrii took the feet of Shalmanesar and surrended the scepter of the King of Ishra-el, at which time "Israel utterly perished everlasting." This is born out by the fact that "Israel" (in all its forms) is only recorded as a distinguishing language and not as a kingdom. Israel was gone, and from that time on it was called Bit Humria, house of Omri or Land of Omri.)
Bible defenders have attempted to use lines 12-13 of Mesa Stele as proof of the existence of King David, which is translated as:
"And I carried from thence the altar-hearth ? of Dwdh and I dragged it before Kmos in Kriyyot Qerioit...."
They claim Dwdh is DVDH making it a Davidic (King David) alter. However, the alter-hearth Dwdh is more correctly interpreted as the Dawdoh alter-hearth with its tutelary spirit. In other words a spirit within the Dawdoh hearth was dragged before the God Kmos, to show Kmos' dominance over that spirit.
Whatever the correct interpretation, the alter-hearth Dwdh was most certainly an religious item, as we find in lines 17 - 18
"And I took from thence [the ves-]-sels of Yhwh, and I dragged them before Kmos."
Yhwh was of course one of the Ishra-el gods whom the Jews now render as Yehwah. And it is absurd to believe that King Mesa, writing in his Moab language, which was different from the Iisra-el Canaanite dialect, would have dragged an alter-hearth, before his God Kmos, of some imaginary Ishra-el king who, if he even existed, would have been dead for over 200 years.
It is interesting that the Assyrian records do not mention Moab, and it is reasonable to assume that Mesa had already allied himself with Assyria by 841 BCE, as his "Moabite Stele" is from a later date, anywhere from 830 BCE - 810 BCE, and Mesa appears to still be in complete control of Moab.
The "Moabite Stele" is also important because it is the first time the Ishra-el god Yhwh is mentioned. However because there are only consonants in the Moab (and Phoenician from which it was derived) Yh is in other places rendered as, "Yaha," and it could just as easily be Yahawah, Yahaweh, Yahawih, Yahawoh, or, Ya, could be Ye, Yi, Yo, Yu, and any other combination of sounds. After all, the Jews themselves admit that they do not know how their god's name is pronounced.
The "Moabite Stele" is also important because it is the first time the Ishra-el god Yhwh is mentioned. However because there are only consonants in the Moab (and Phoenician from which it was derived) Yh is in other places is rendered as, "Yaha," and it could just as easily be Yahawah, Yahaweh, Yahawih, Yahawoh, or, Ya, could be Ye, Yi, Yo, Yu, and any other combination of sounds. After all, the Jews themselves admit that they do not know how their god's name is pronounced.
The Jaua who surrendered the scepter of Israel to the King of Assyria is obviously the biblical Jehu in name only, although his name was most probably somewhat different in the Ishra-el dialect, and nothing the Bible says of him can be trusted. For instance, it is quite possible that it was the Assyrians, and not Jaua who killed the unknown son of Omri and his family, after which his brother/half-brother Jaua, succeeded him and quickly surrendered to the Assyrians. Whatever brought Jaua to power is irrelevant, as he surrendered that power, and instead of remaining King of Ishra-el, he became the head of the House of Omri, with whatever title the Assyrians granted him, as a vassal ruler of the Land of Omri.
How long Jaua reigned, and over what he reigned is unknown. Nor is there a record of who succeeded him. However, the Tell al-Rimah Stele (803-797 BCE) of Assyrian King Adad-Nirari III mentions receiving tribute from Joash-I the Kur Samarian, while the Calah Slab of the same period mentions Bit Humria, which indicates that Omri Land and Kur Samaria (a city kingdom with its surrounding land) had already been divided.
There is archaeological evidence that the entire area was subject periodic warfare, and the Assyrians records indicate that they may have taken territory more than once from a rebellious House of Omri.
The Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III, (740-738 BCE) made the first (known) record of "KUR sa-me-ri-i-na-a-a," which designates the Kur (Samaria and land ) by its language, and not the land. There is no record of a Kingdom of Land of Judah at this point in history, while Tiglath-Pileser III did record an "ia-u-ha-zi ia-u-ud-a-a-a" (Yuhaz [who speaks the language] Yuudaa).
The Assyrians began claiming much of the land of Samaria, which forced many of the people to flee south to the small city of Jerusalem, where archeological evidence shows the city began a rapid growth.
From 738 BCE to 731 BCE the Assyrian records uses URU Sa-me-ri-na, the "City of Samaria," indicating that the Land of Samaria no longer existed. Over the next 11 years, both the Land of Omri and the City of Samaria were destroyed. By 710 BCE virtually all the Ishra-al speaking people were either deported to other parts of the Assyrian Empire, or fled south to Jerusalem.
This was the end of the biblical Israel, which then became to "Lost Tribes of Israel". Being lost however presumes that an Israel even existed at the time of Tiglath-Pileser III. What all the evidence outside the Bible (which is not evidence) shows is there is only mentions of Omri Land, or as it would be, the people of Omri Land. Once they were deported to other lands, in particular what would become Persia, the following generations had no infinity to what the Bible called Israel, because the Bible had not yet been written, and the people were adopted into their new land and became its people.