Who is…
Tiglath-Pileser III
also known as: Tilgath-Pil-neser, Tiglath-Pileser 3, King Pul
Hebrew: תִּגְלַ֣ת
This is the Assyrian throne-name of King Pul.
He appears in the Assyrian records as gaining, in the 5th year of his reign (about 741 BC), a victory over Azariah (= Uzziah in 2 Chr.26:1), king of Judah, whose achievements are described in 2 Chronicles 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 (734 BC) a vast number of its inhabitants into captivity (2 Kings 15:29; 16:5-9; 1 Chronicles 5:6, 26), the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh whom he settled in Gozan.
In the Assyrian annals, it states that before he returned from Syria, he held court at Damascus, and received submission and tribute from the neighboring kings, among whom were Pekah of Samaria and “Yahu-khazi [i.e., Ahaz], king of Judah” (compare 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 center of which should be Nineveh.
He died in 728 BC, and was succeeded by a general of his army, Ulula, who assumed the name Shalmaneser IV.
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