Tig´lath-Pile´ser, the Assyrian king who subjected the kingdom of Israel in B.C. 747 [ASSYRIA; ISRAEL].
King of Assyria, was invited by Ahaz king of Judah to aid him against the kings of Syria and Israel, 2Ki 16:7-10 . This he did, but exacted also a heavy tribute from Ahaz, so as to distress him without helping him, 2Ch 28:20-21 . From the kingdom of Israel, also, he carried off the inhabitants of many cities captive, and placed them in various parts of his kingdom, B. C. 740, 1Ch 5:26 2Ki 15:29, thus fulfilling unconsciously the predictions of Isaiah, Isa 7:17 8:4. He is supposed to be meant by Jareb, the pleader, in Hos 5:13 10:6. He reigned nineteen years at Nineveh, and was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser.\par
Tig’lath-pile’ser. (In 1Ch 5:26, and again in 2Ch 28:20, the name of this king is given as Tiglath-pileser). Tiglath-pileser is the second Assyrian king mentioned in Scripture as having come into contact with the Israelites. He attacked Samaria in the reign of Pekah, B.C. 756-736. probably because Pekah withheld his tribute, and having entered his territories, he "took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazer, and Gilead, and Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria." 2Ki 15:29. The date of this invasion cannot be fixed.
After his first expedition, a close league was formed between Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, having for its special object the humiliation of Judah. At first, great successes were gained by Pekah, and his confederate, 2Ki 15:37; 2Ch 28:6-8, but on their proceeding to attack Jerusalem itself, Ahaz applied to Assyria for assistance, and Tiglath-pileser, consenting to aid him, again appeared at the head of an army in these regions. He first marched, naturally, against Damascus. Which he took, 2Ki 16:9, razing it to the ground, and killing Rezin, the Damascene monarch.
After this, probably, he proceeded to chastise Pekah, whose country, he entered on the northeast, where it bordered upon "Syria of Damascus." Here, he overran the whole district to the east of Jordan, carrying into captivity "the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh," 1Ch 5:26. Before returning into his own land, Tiglath-pileser had an interview with Ahaz at Damascus. 2Ki 16:10.
This is all that Scripture tells us of Tiglath-pileser. He reigned, certainly, from B.C. 747 to B.C. 730, and, possibly, a few years longer, being succeeded by Shalmaneser, at least as early as B.C. 785, Tiglath-pileser’s wars do not, generally, appear to have been of much importance. No palace, or great building, can be ascribed to this king. His slabs, which are tolerably numerous, show that he must have built, or adorned, a residence at Calah, (Nimrud), where they were found.
Related to
Probably an usurper, for he makes no mention of his father or ancestors; and Berosus (Eusebius Chronicles Can. 1:4) and Herodotus (1:95) state that in the latter half of the eighth century B.C. there was a change of dynasty from that which ruled for 520 years to the dynasty which came in not long before Shalmaneser, probably at the time of the era of Nabonassar, 747 B.C. Sylla’s friend, Alex. Polyhistor, who had access to Berosus’ writings makes Beletaras (another form of Pal-tzira or Pileser) a gardener of the royal palace originally. Afterward, he gained the sovereignty in an extraordinary way and fixed it in his own family. Conquered Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel at Ahaz’ solid citation.
He relates that about the fifth year of his reign (741 B.C.) he warred in southern Syria and defeated a large army under Azariah (Uzziah) king of Judah, whose army Scripture states to be 307,500 (2Ch 26:6-15). Again, that from his 12th to his 14th year (734 to 732 B.C.) he warred with Pekah and Rezin confederated, and that he besieged Rezin’s capital for two years, at the end of which he took and slew him and punished Pekah by depriving him of a large portion of his dominions, and carrying off vast numbers into captivity. Accurately agreeing with 2Ki 15:29; 2Ki 16:9-16; 1Ch 5:6,26: "in the days of Pekah ... came Tiglath Pileser ... and took Ijon, Abel-beth-maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, all the land of Naphtali (compare Isaiah 7; Isaiah 8; Isa 9:1, this stroke fell at first ’lightly,’ ’afterward more grievously’), and carried them captive to Assyria. The king of Assyria hearkend unto Ahaz; went up against Damascus and took it, carried the people captive to Kir, and slew Rezin."
"Tiglath Pileser carried away the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah and Habor and Hara, and to the river Gozan." Probably it was an Assyrian altar which Ahaz copied, as a formal recognition of the gods of the sovereign nation (which required subject kings to set up in their capital "the laws of Asshur"), and a token of submission: the visit of Ahaz to Damascus (where "he saw the altar") "to meet king Tiglath Pileser" accords with Tiglath Pileser’s inscription that before quitting Syria he held his court at Damascus, and there received submission and tribute from the neighbouring sovereigns, among whom he mentions Pekah and Jahu-Khaz (Ahaz) of Judah. Tiglath Pileser took Sippara (Sepharvaim) in Babylonia. He warred successfully in Media, Armenia, and upper Mesopotamia; but it was only on the western frontier that he made permanent additions to the empire, namely, Damascus, Syria, and Gilead. His mimerous slabs indicate that he probably built a palace at the S.E. corner of Calah (Nimrud). They bear traces of intentional defacement, and Esarhaddon used them as building materials in his palace at Calah. Sargon supplanted Tiglath Pileser’s dynasty, which accounts for the hostility evinced in the injury done to the palace of Tiglath Pileser.
Tiglath-pileser (tĭg’lath-pĭ-lç’zer). The second Assyrian king mentioned in the Scriptures as having come into contact with the Israelites, and the second of the name. He invaded Samaria, 2Ki 15:29, and after some years destroyed Damascus, taking many captives. 1Ch 5:26. The occasion of the first attack was probably the refusal of Pekah to pay tribute; of the second, the call of Ahaz upon him for assistance against Pekah and Rezin, the king of Syria, Tiglath-pileser at Damascus met Ahaz, who became his vassal. 2Ki 16:10. He reigned b.c. 747-730.
(Hebrew, 
, and a corrupt form, 
, in I Chron. v. 6, 26; II Chron. xxviii. 20; Assyrian, "Tukulti-apile-šar-ra" = "my help is the son of Ešarra"):
By: Joseph Jacobs, Ira Maurice Price
King of Assyria from 747 to 727 B.C.; designated by modern Oriental historians as Tiglath-pileser III. He first appears under the name "Pul" (II Kings xv. 19; comp. I Chron. v. 26), the proper form of which is "Pulu," as is seen in the list of Babylonian kings. When he assumed the crown over Assyria he seems to have called himself Tukulti-pal-Ešar-ra after the great ruler of the same name in the twelfth century.
Tiglath-pileser left several important inscriptions of his reign; but these were badly broken when discovered. Upon his accession he inaugurated a new policy for the government and administration of Assyria. Former kings had maintained by military force the union of the so-called empire; the new policy established a method of organization which more closely united the central and provincial sections of the government: systems of transportation and transplantation of strong but rebellious subjects minimized dangers that had wrecked other governments. This was the method pursued by Sargon at Samaria, by Sennacherib, and by other rulers down into Persian times.
Tiglath-pileser's first campaign into the west country took place in 743-742, when he entered northern Syria. While here he received tribute from Rezin of Damascus and Hiram of Tyre. A two-year siege was necessary to reduce to complete submission the plucky little city of Arpad, in 740 (comp. Isa. x. 9; II Kings xix. 13). The very next year he seems to have clashed with the interests of Azariah (Uzziah), King of Judah, far in the north (comp. II Kings xiv. 28) and to have established Assyrian sovereignty there. Either in this or in the following year Menahem (II Kings xv. 19, 20), king of northern Israel, purchased his throne of the Assyrian ruler.
Not until 734 was Tiglath-pileser's presence again required in the west. Pekah, who had secured by strategy and tragedy the throne of northern Israel, formed a league with Rezin of Damascus to withstand any further assumption of sovereignty over Israel and Syria by the power centered on the Tigris. Together they besieged Ahaz at Jerusalem, either to force him to join the anti-Assyrian coalition or to put a man of their own choice on the throne. Ahaz in desperation appealed to Tiglath-pileser for help. The Assyrian king made a dash for Damascus and laid siege to it. In the meantime he ravaged northern Israel (comp. II Kings xv. 29) and other territory all the way to Philistia. In 732 Damascus fell (comp. Isa. viii. 4; II Kings xvi. 9). At this time apparently Ahaz, among a number of petty kings, appeared within Damascus before the throne of the great conqueror and paid the price of submission. Soon after this event, probably, Tiglath-pileser incited or encouraged Hoshea to slay Pekah, the unyielding king of northern Israel. Hoshea was rewarded by being put in authority over this Assyrian province; and Tiglath-pileser retired to the east. In 728 he became master of Babylon, and died the following year.
TIGLATH-PILESER [in 1Ch 5:6; 1Ch 5:26 and 2Ch 28:20 corrupted to the form Tilgath-Pilneser].—This Assyrian ruler, the Tukulti-apil-çsharra of the monuments, was the third of the name. He began to reign about b.c. 745 (13th of Iyyar), and is supposed to have been a usurper. In the Babylonian chronological list he is called Pulu, the Pul of 2Ki 15:19, and the Poros of the Canon of Ptolemy. His reign was a very active and important one. Five months after his accession he marched into Babylonia to overthrow the power of the Aramæan tribes. In b.c. 744 he went to Namri to punish the tribes who harassed the Assyrian border. In b.c. 743 he defeated the forces of Sarduris ii. of Ararat at Arpad. Among those who gave tribute on this occasion were Rezin of Damascus, Hiram of Tyre, and Pisiris of Carchemish. Arpad, however, revolted again, and was for three years the objective of Tiglath-pileser’s expeditions (b.c. 742–740). In 739 he went to Ulluba in Mesopotamia, and the presence of his armies there enabled him, in b.c. 738, to make head against Syrian and Phœnician resistance. On this occasion he subjected Kullani, supposed to be the Calno of Isa 10:9. Rost suggests that Azrian or Izrian (Azariah) of Judah played some part in this expedition, and among those who gave tribute was Menahem of Samaria (2Ki 15:19). In b.c. 737 his objective was the Medes, in many of whose cities he set up bas-reliefs with the royal image. After this (b.c. 736) his forces were again directed against Mesopotamia, and reached the mountain of Nal. This led the way to the conquest of Ararat in b.c. 735. In b.c. 734 the Assyrian army invaded Pilishta (Philistia)—according to Rost, the Mediterranean coastland S. of Joppa. Gaza was captured, and Hanun, the king, having fled, Tiglath-pileser mounted the throne and set up his image in the palace there. In b.c. 733 came the turn of Damascus and also of Israel, the immediate cause being affairs in Judah. Azariah had died, and after the short reign of his son Jotham, Jehoahaz or Ahaz came to the throne. Taking advantage of the change, Pekah of Israel made an alliance with Rezln of Damascus to attack Judah, and captured Elath (2Ki 16:5 ff.). Feeling that Judah would be compelled to submit to the allied powers in the end, Ahaz turned to Assyria, sending the best of his own treasures and those of the Temple at Jerusalem to make a worthy present to the Assyrian king (2Ki 16:8), who therefore came to his aid. Pekah and Rezln withdrew their forces from Judah, but, instead of uniting against the common foe, awaited the Assyrian king’s attack each in his own territory. Marching by the coast-route, Tiglath-pileser assured himself of the submission of his vassals in N. Phœnicia, and attacked N. Israel, capturing Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali (2Ki 15:29). These names are not preserved in the annals, though ‘the broad (land of) … -li’ may be, as Hommei suggests, the last named. Pekah saved his land from further harm by paying tribute, but things went harder with Rezin, his ally, who shut himself up in Damascus. The siege which followed ended, in 732, in the capture of the city; 591 towns, including Hadara, Rezin’s own city, were razed to the ground. An attack upon Samsi, queen of the Arabians, followed, the result being that a number of tribes—Sabæans, Mas’æans, etc.,—hastened to propitiate the Assyrian king with gifts. Idi-bi’il, a N. Arabian prince, was made governor on the Musrian border. Meanwhile a number of Israelitish nobles, with Hoshea as leader, revolted, and Pekah fled, but seems to have been murdered. Hoshea thereupon mounted the throne, and bought the recognition of the Assyrian king, who had continued to ravage Syria. Mitinti of Ashkelon, seeing the fate of Rezin of Damascus, seems to have gone mad. He was succeeded by his son Rûkipti, who tried to atone for his father’s disaffection by sending tribute and gifts. Metenna of Tyre likewise became tributary. After the fall of the capital, Damascus became an Assyrian province. According to 2Ki 16:9, the people were taken captive to Kir, and Rezln was slain. It was in Damascus that Ahaz made homage to the conqueror, and seeing there an altar which took his fancy, had one made like it. Tiglath-pileser, confident, seemingly, of his hold upon Palestine, did not again invade the country. Its States remained for many years more or less tributary to Assyria, according as that power seemed strong or weak. In b.c. 731 Tiglath-pileser was attracted by events in Babylonia. Ukin-zçr, a Chald¿an prince, having seized the Babylonian throne, the Assyrian king besieged him in his capital Sapia, which he captured in b.c. 729, taking Ukin-zçr prisoner. In b.c. 728 Tiglath-pileser became king of Babylon, but beyond ‘grasping the hand of Bel’ (Merodach) as its ruler, took part in no further Important event. He probably died when making an expedition against a city whose name is lost; and Shalmaneser iv. mounted the throne (25th of Tebeth, b.c. 727). When at home, Tiglath-pileser resided in Nineveh or in Caiah, where he restored the central palace in Hittite style, decorating it with bas-reliefs and the annals of his reign. This building was partly destroyed by Esarhaddon.
T. G. Pinches.
From the inscriptions we learn particulars which afford striking corroboration of the Biblical narrative and clear up some of the difficulties involved. It is now practically certain that Pul, who is mentioned as taking tribute from Menahem, is identical with Tiglath-pileser (Schrader, COT, I, 230, 231). In all probability Pul, or Pulu, was a usurper, who as king of Assyria assumed the name of one of his predecessors, Tiglath-pileser I, and reigned as Tiglath-pileser III. This king of Assyria, who reigned, as we learn from his annals, from 745 BC to 727 BC, was one of the greatest of Assyrian monarchs. See ASSYRIA. From the fact that no fewer than five Hebrew kings are mentioned in his annals, the greatest interest attaches to his history as it has come down to us. These kings are Uzziah or Azariah, and Jehoahaz, that is Ahaz, of Judah; and Menahem, Pekah and Hushes of Israel. Along with them are mentioned their contemporaries Rezin of Damascus, Hiram of Tyre, and two queens of Arabia otherwise unknown, Zabibi and Samsi. When he died in 727 BC, he was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV, who had occasion to suspect the loyalty of his vassal Hoshea, king of Israel, and besieged him in Samaria.
Literature.
Schrader, COT, I, 229-57; McCurdy, HPM, sections 279-341.