2 Kings 15:19

_AND PUL THE KING OF ASSYRIA CAME AGAINST THE LAND: AND MENAHEM GAVE PUL A THOUSAND TALENTS OF SILVER, THAT HIS HAND MIGHT BE WITH HIM TO CONFIRM THE KINGDOM IN HIS HAND._ Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, х_ PUWL_ (H6322); Septuagint, Foua, probably from the error of a copyist in mistaking the final lambda (L) for a capital alpha (A) elsewhere (1 Chronicles 5:26); Vatican, Falooch; Alexandrine, Faloos]. In the passage just cited, it is said, conformably to the statement here, that "the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria." But Hoses (Hosea 5:13) referring to this crisis says, "Ephraim (Israel) went to the Assyrian." These different statements may be reconciled thus-`Pul, of his own motion, resolved t

8-31 This history shows Israel in confusion. Though Judah was not without troubles, yet that kingdom was happy, compared with the state of Israel. The imperfections of true believers are very different from the allowed wickedness of ungodly men. Such is human nature, such are our hearts, if left to themselves, deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. We have reason to be thankful for restraints, for being kept out of temptation, and should beg of God to renew a right spirit within us....

Verse 2 Kings 15:19. _PUL, THE KING OF ASSYRIA_] This is the first time we hear of _Assyria_ since the days of Nimrod, its founder, Genesis 10:11. Dean _Prideaux_ supposes that this _Pul_ was father of the famous _Sardanapalus_, the son himself being called _Sardan_; to which, as was frequent in those times, the father's name, _Pul_, was added, making _Sardanpul_ of which the Greeks and Latins made _Sardanapalus_; and this _Pul_ is supposed to be the same that reigned in _Nineveh_ when _Jonah_ preached the terrors of the Lord to that city. _THAT HIS HAND_] That is, his _power_ and _influence, might be with_ _him_: in this sense is the word _hand_ frequently used in Scripture....

This is the first distinct mention which we find in Scripture of Assyria as an aggressive power. From the native monuments we learn that she had been for above a century pushing her conquests beyond the Euphrates, and seeking to reduce under her dominion the entire tract between that river and Egypt. Jehu had paid tribute. Some - arguing from the use of the phrase “confirmed the kingdom” (here, and in 2 Kings 14:5) - think that Jehoahaz had acknowledged Assyrian suzerainty, and consented that her monarchs should receive their investiture from the hands of the Ninevite king. But hitherto there had been no hostile invasion of Jewish or Israelite soil by an Assyrian army. Now, however, the Assyrians are at last formally introduced into the history. A series of aggressions is related in this and the four following chapters, culminating, on the one hand, in the destruction o

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 15:1 REIGNS OF AZARIAH AND JOTHAM OVER JUDAH; AND OF ZACHARIAH, SHALLUM, MENAHEM, PEKAHIAH, AND PEKAH OVER ISRAEL. 2 KINGS 15:1 THE REIGN OF AZARIAH OVER JUDAS. The writer now more and more compresses his narrative. Into a single chapter he crowds the events of seven reigns, covering the space of nearly seventy years. He is consequent

AND PUL THE KING OF ASSYRIA CAME AGAINST THE LAND,.... The land of Israel, he invaded it; a Jewish chronologer u calls him Pulbelicho; and he is generally thought to be the same with Belochus or Belesis, governor of Babylon, who, with Arbaces the Mede, slew Sardanapalus, said to be the last of the Assyrian kings, and translated the empire to the Chaldeans; he ruling over Babylon and Nineveh, and Arbaces over the Medes and Persians; but Pul was not a Babylonian, but an Assyrian w, and the first king of the Assyrians, at least, the Scriptures speak of: we read no more of him; but one Metasthenes, a Persian historian, feigned and published by Annius, and so named by him instead of Megasthenes, calls him Phulbelochus, and says x he reigned forty eight years: AND MENAHEM GAVE PUL A THOUSAND TALENTS OF SILVER; and a talent of silver, according to Brerewood y was three hundred and seventy five...

CHAPTER 15 _ 1. Reign and death of Azariah (Uzziah) (2 Kings 15:1; 2 Chronicles 26)._ 2. Reign and death of Zachariah (2 Kings 15:8) 3. Reign and death of Shallum (2 Kings 15:13) 4. Menahem, King of Israel (2 Kings 15:16) 5. Pul of Assyria and Menahem (2 Kings 15:19; 1 Chronicles 5:26) 6. Death of Menahem ...

LAST KINGS OF ISRAEL. Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam, reigned but six months (2 Kings 15:8), and was killed by Shallum, probably, as LXX (L) reads, in Ibleam, instead of the Heb., which is doubtfully rendered before the people (2 Kings 15:10). After a month 2 Kings 15:8 reign Shallum was killed by Menahem (2 Kings 15:14). 2 KINGS 15:19. PUL, THE KING OF ASSYRIA, has been identified with Tiglath-pileser III (58f., 70f.), who ravaged Northern Israel (2

PUL. Thought to be the same as Tiglath-pileser (a throne name). But see 1 Chronicles 5:26. CAME AGAINST. Probably at invitation of Menahern. Compare Hosea 5:13; Hosea 7:11; Hosea 8:9. TALENTS. See App-51....

And _Pul the king of Assyria came against the land_ R.V. THERE CAME AGAINST THE LAND PUL &c. The sentence has no conjunction, and so R.V. represents the original better. In the LXX. we find -In his days" put as an introduction to the sentence, and the name of Pul represented by Φουὰ, or Φουλὰ or Φοὺλ. In his work on -the Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament", Prof. Schrader (p. 133. Engl. Trans. Vol. 1. p. 230) identifies Pul with Tiglath-pileser, and his grounds for so doing may be thus stated. Azariah king of Judah was a contemporary of Menahem king of Israel (2 Kings 15:17). The Bible makes them both also contemporaries with Pul king of Assyria, while the inscriptions speak of them as contemporary with Tiglath-pileser the second. In Berosus" Chaldæan history Pul is mentioned as a Chaldæan, Tiglath-pileser in the inscriptions calls himself king of Chaldæa. The nam