The Bible Year

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 8, 1916

Assignment for June 11 to 17

June 11: 2 Kings 10 to 12. June 12: 2 Kings 13 to 15. June 13: 2 Kings 16 to 18. June 14: 2 Kings 19 to 22. June 15: 2 Kings 23 to 25. June 16: 2 Chronicles 10 to 13. June 17: 2 Chronicles 14: 17.

Tiglath-Pileser

In 2 Kings 15: 19 mention is made of “Pul the king of Assyria.” Who was this king? No such name has been found in the ancient inscriptions of that land, though there is a record that Tiglath-Pileser III led an invasion against Palestine, and received tribute from “Rezon of Damascus, Menahem of Samaria, and Hiram of Tyre.” From this it is inferred that Pul was another name for that monarch. This idea is borne out by a tradition that Tiglath-Pileser III was not of the royal line, but a gardener named Pul, who became a soldier, and at last gained sufficient power to seize the throne. Naturally he would change his name, and he chose that of Tiglath-Pileser, “a name borne by the most illustrious of the Assyrians.”

In verse 29 of the same chapter, Tiglath-Pileser is given his royal name. He came against Palestine, and took “Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.”

“Among the inscriptions found by Layard in the palace of Tiglath-Pileser is one containing the record of the invasion of Palestine. It is somewhat mutilated, yet the lines which are preserved say that the Assyrian king captured Gilead, made it Assyrian territory, and placed it in charge of his officers; that Hanno, king of Gaza, fled to Egypt; that Samaria was captured; and then, to use Tiglath-Pileser’s own words: ‘I deported to Assyria all of the inhabitants, together with their property.’ . . . Thus do the royal records of Assyria supplement and confirm the historical portions of the Old Testament.”

Captivity of the Ten Tribes

Tiglath-Pileser III was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV, mentioned in 2 Kings 17: 3. “Of the few records from his reign,” says Mr. Banks in “The Bible and the Spade,” “one speaks of a three years’ expedition to foreign lands; it probably refers to his siege of Samaria. Until recent years it has been supposed that he was the Assyrian king who captured Samaria; but from the records of Sargon, his successor, we learn that he only began the siege; and Sargon completed it.

“Sargon, the Assyrian king from 722 to 705 B. C., was the founder of a new dynasty, and the builder of the city of Khorsabad, in which his immense palace was discovered by Botta. Numerous well-preserved inscriptions upon stone lined the palace walls; two of them tell of the siege of Samaria and of the deportation of the Israelites. In one the king says:—

“‘I besieged and captured the city of Samaria, and I carried away 27,280 of its inhabitants as captives. I took fifty of their chariots. I restored the city, and causing the inhabitants to become more in number than before, I stationed my lieutenants over them. I made the people of the lands which I had conquered to dwell there, and I collected from them the same amount of tribute as from the Assyrians.’”

Shishak of Egypt

The invasion of Shishak, king of Egypt, mentioned in 2 Chron. 12: 2, is also spoken of in the record in Kings. See 1 Kings 14: 25, 26. He came against Jerusalem, raided the temple and the king’s palace, and carried away much treasure. Shishak himself had a record made of that expedition, of which the attack on Jerusalem was a part. On one of the walls of the great temple at Karnak, he “inscribed a sculpture representing this campaign. He enumerates 156 places, towns, and fortresses that he captured. . . . In this sculpture the giant figure of Shishak is represented as holding in his left hand the ends of ropes, which bind long rows of captives neck to neck. Their hands are tied behind them, and the victor’s right hand holds over others a rod with which he threatens them. The names of the conquered cities are inscribed on ovals or shields that cover the lower part of the body of each prisoner. Some of the most familiar names in this list are: Gaza, Taanach, Abel, Adullam, Beth-anath, Beth-horon, Aijalon, Gibeon.”

These ancient inscriptions are another evidence of the historical accuracy of the Biblical record.