Late in the year of Jehu's purge, it seems likely that the Assyrians first set foot on Israelite territory. From the political point of view Jehu's purge had alienated Israel's former allies, Judah and Phoenicia, many of whose nationals had perished in the slaughter, and, with a weakened internal leadership structure, Jehu was now doubly vulnerable. After Shalmaneser's campaign of 841, when Aram was invaded and Damascus besieged, the Assyrians had been otherwise preoccupied, and Hazael had enjoyed a period of respite. In the southern kingdom, Amaziah continued to reign during the first fifteen years of Jeroboam's period of sole rule. The reign of Uzziah is given relatively brief treatment in Kings, but Chronicles presents him as an active and far-sighted ruler. Level IX at Arad is probably to be dated to Uzziah's time. Under Jeroboam II and Uzziah, the territory of Israel and Judah extended once more almost as far as the boundaries of David's kingdom two centuries earlier.

The book of Kings normally opens its account of the reign of each king of Israel or Judah with a number of stereotyped formulae, including a synchronism with the regnal year of the ruler of the other kingdom, the age of the king and the length of his reign. In the tenth century, particularly in the time of Solomon, the Israelite kingdom had maintained very close ties with the neighbouring city of Tyre, which at that time controlled the major part of Phoenicia, including the city of Sidon, once more important, whence the Phoenicians in general continued to be referred to in the Old Testament as Sidonians. Phoenicophile dynasty of Omri ended after forty years of power. Jehu's purge is possibly reflected in changes in pottery styles at certain northern sites; certainly from this time there was a decline in the Phoenician elements in Israelite and Judaean culture, and the first evidence of Assyrian influence.