tiglathpileser iii

Tiglath-Pileser III.
or Tilgath-Pil-neser, the Assyrian throne-name of Pul (q.v.). He
appears in the Assyrian records as gaining, in the fifth year of
his reign (about B.C. 741), a victory over Azariah (= Uzziah in
2 Chr.26:1), king of Judah, whose achievements are described in
2 Chr. 26:6-15. He is first mentioned in Scripture, however, as
gaining a victory over Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin of
Damascus, who were confederates. He put Rezin to death, and
punished Pekah by taking a considerable portion of his kingdom,
and carrying off (B.C. 734) a vast number of its inhabitants
into captivity (2 Kings 15:29; 16:5-9; 1 Chr. 5:6, 26), the
Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh whom he
settled in Gozan. In the Assyrian annals it is further related
that, before he returned from Syria, he held a court at
Damascus, and received submission and tribute from the
neighbouring kings, among whom were Pekah of Samaria and
"Yahu-khazi [i.e., Ahaz], king of Judah" (comp. 2 Kings
16:10-16).

  He was the founder of what is called "the second Assyrian
empire," an empire meant to embrace the whole world, the centre
of which should be Nineveh. He died B.C. 728, and was succeeded
by a general of his army, Ulula, who assumed the name
Shalmaneser IV.