Tiglath-pileser III King of Assyria attacks Israel

Tiglath-pileser III King of Assyria attacks Israel

29In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria.

2 Kings 15:29

 5Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. 6At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, and cleared the Judeans out of Elath entirely; and the Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.

7So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” 8Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of YHVH and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria. 9So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it, and carried the people of it away into exile to Kir, and put Rezin to death.

10Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction. 11So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before King Ahaz returned. 12When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings a on it. 13He offered up his burnt offering and grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and splashed the blood of his fellowship offerings against the altar. 14As for the bronze altar that stood before YHVH, he brought it from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of YHVH—and put it on the north side of the new altar.

15King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: “On the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. Splash against this altar the blood of all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.” 16And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered.

17King Ahaz cut off the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base. 18He took away the Sabbath canopy b that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of YHVH, in deference to the king of Assyria.

2 Kings  16:5-18

16At that time King Ahaz sent to the kings a of Assyria for help. 17The Edomites had again come and attacked Judah and carried away prisoners, 18while the Philistines had raided towns in the foothills and in the Negev of Judah. They captured and occupied Beth Shemesh, Aijalon and Gederoth, as well as Soko, Timnah and Gimzo, with their surrounding villages. 19YHVH had humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, b for he had promoted wickedness in Judah and had been most unfaithful to YHVH. 20Tiglath-Pileser c king of Assyria came to him, but he gave him trouble instead of help. 21Ahaz took some of the things from the temple of YHVH and from the royal palace and from the officials and presented them to the king of Assyria, but that did not help him.

22In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to YHVH.

2 Chronicles  28:16-22
Discovered in 1873 by Austen Henry Layard in the ancient Assyrian palace of Nimrud, the Tiglath-Pileser III Summary Inscription Seven

“I installed Idi-bi’li as a Warden of Marches on the border of Musur. In all the countries which … [I (Tiglath-pileser III) received] the tribute of Kushtashpi of Commagene (Kummuḫu), Urik of Qu’e, Sibitti-be’l of Byblos, … Enil of Hamath, Panammu of Sam’al, Tarhulara of Gumgum, Sulumal of Militene, … Uassurme of Tabal, Ushhitti of Tuna, Urballa of Tuhana, Tuhamme of Ishtunda, … [Ma]tan-be’l of Arvad, Sanipu of Bit-Ammon, Salamanu of Moab, … Mitinti of Ashkelon, Jehoahaz (Ia-ú-ḫa-zi) of Judah (Ia-ú-da-a-a), Kaush-malaku of Edom (Ú-du-mu-a-a), Muzr[i … ], Hanno (Ḫa-a-nu-ú-nu) of Gaza (Ḫa-za-at-a-a) (consisting of) gold, silver, tin, iron, antimony [a rare metal], linen garments with multicolored trimmings, garments of their native (industries) (being made of) dark purple wool … all kinds of costly objects be they products of the sea or of the continent, the (choice) products of their regions, the treasures of (their) kings, horses, mules (trained for) the yoke.… (66) I sent an officer of mine, the rabšaq, to Tyre [and received] from Metenna of Tyre 150 talents of gold.…”

This inscription was found on a wall written on a clay surface dated to 734 – 723 BC.

Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, H.C. Rawlinson, Bd. II, plate 67, lines 56-63, 1861 AD

Sibittibael is the Phoenician name Shipitbaal (son of Elibaal) and contemporary Jehoahaz (Ark. Ia-i-ha-zi) of Judah (Ark. Ia-u-da-a-a-) the same King Ahaz hypocoristicon used in the biblical text. An earlier inscription of a tribute sent to Tiglath-pileser III – also known as Pul, by ‘Azriau from Iuda’ being Azariah of Judah.

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