2nd Kings Chapter 15 verse 19 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 19. - And Pul, the King of Assyria came against the land. There is no connective in the Hebrew text, and it has been proposed to supply one; but there can be little doubt that the best emendation is that suggested by Thenius, who changes the כָּל־יָמָיו of ver. 18 into בְיָמָיו, and attaches that word to ver. 19. Ver. 19 will then read thus: "In his days Pul the King of Assyria came against the laud" - and no connective will be wanted. The greatest doubt has been entertained with regard to the identity of Pul, whose name does not appear in the Assyrian Eponym Canon, or in any other purely Assyrian document. But recently discovered Babylonian documents seem to prove that Pul (Pulu) was the Babylonian name for Tiglath-pileser, who reigned under that name in Babylon during his last two years, and appears in the Canon of Ptolemy as "Porus." Tiglath-pileser, the great founder of the later Assyrian empire, made himself king in B.C. 745, and proceeded to consolidate the Assyrian power on every side, after a period of great weakness and disorganization. He made several expeditions against Babylonia, and several into Syria and Palestine. The expedition in which he came into contact with Menahem is thought to have been that of his eighth year, B.C. 738 (see G. Smith, 'Eponym Canon,' pp. 117-120; and, for the identity of Tiglath-pileser with Pul, see the 'Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology' for 1884, p. 198). And Menahem gave Pal a thousand talents of silver. A vast sum certainly, equal to above a quarter of a million of our money, perhaps to some extent a punishment for the siege and sack of Tiphsah. But not a sum that it would have been impossible to pay. A King of Damascus, about fifty years previously, had bought off an Assyrian attack by the payment of two thousand three hundred talents of silver and twenty talents of gold (see 'Eponym Canon,' p. 115). That his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand; i.e. that Pal might take him under his protection, accept him as one of his subject-princes, and (by implication) support him against possible rivals.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(19) And.--As it stands, the verse begins abruptly. But the reading of the LXX. restores the connection: In his days Pul the king of Assyria," &c. (Comp, 2Kings 15:29.)Pul.--This name has been read in the cuneiform (Pu-u-lu, i.e., P-lu, an officer of Sargon's). For the identity of Pul, king of Assyria, with Tiglath Pileser II., see Note on 1Chronicles 5:26, and Schrader's Die Keil-inschr. und das Alt. Test, pp. 227-240 (2nd edit., 1883). Prof. Schrader gives the following as the result of his elaborate and most interesting discussion: (1) Menahem of Israel and Azariah of Judah were contemporaries, according to the Bible as well as the Inscriptions. (2) According to the Bible, both these rulers were contemporary with an Assyrian king Pul; according to the Inscriptions, with Tiglath Pileser. (3) Berosus calls Pul a Chaldean; Tiglath Pileser calls himself king of Chaldea. (4) Pul-Porus became in 731 B.C. king of Babylon; Tiglath Pileser in 731 B.C. received the homage of the Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan, as he also reduced other Babylonian princes in this year, amongst them Chinz?ros of Amukkan. (5) Poros appears in the canon of Ptolemy as king of Babylon; Tiglath Pileser names himself "king of Babylon." (6) Chinz?ros became king of Babylon in 731 B.C. according to the canon, and, in fact, along with (or, under) a king of the name of P?ros; the hypothesis that the vanquished king of Amukkan of the same name was entrusted by Tiglath Pileser with the vassal-kingship of Babylon is suggested at once by the coincidence of the chronological data. (7) In the year 727-726 B.C. a change of government took place in Assyria in consequence of the death of Tiglath Pileser, and in Babylonia in consequence of the death of Porus. (8) No king appears in the Assyrian lists by a name like Pul, which is anomalous as a royal designation; we can only identify Pul with some other name in the lists, and, on historical grounds, with Tiglath Pileser only. (9) Pul and P?ros are forms of the same name (comp. Babiru for Babilu in Persian inscriptions). (10) From all this, the conclusion is inevitable that Pul and Porus Pul and Tiglath Pileser, are one and the same person.Came against the land.--Rather, came upon the land (Isaiah 10:28; Judges 18:27). The meaning here is, occupied it.A thousand talents of silver.--About 375,000. . . .