- 61-
- Ant. u.s.
** According to Josephus, with his army, and gave battle to Shallum.
*** For a description of Tirzah see Vol. V. of this History.
The assumption of the crown by Menahem seems to have met some resistance. At any
rate, we read of an expedition of Menahem against a place called Tiphsah ("a ford"*),
which had refused to open its gates to him. The town and its surrounding district were
taken, and Menahem took horrible vengeance on the population.** The reign of
Menahem, which, as regards religion, resembled that of his predecessors, lasted ten years.
But it may truly be characterized as the beginning of the end. For with it commenced the
acknowledged dependence of the northern kingdom upon Assyria, of which the ultimate
outcome was the fall of Samaria and the deportation of Israel into the land of the
conqueror.
- It seems doubtful whether this was the Tiphsah of Solomon (1 Kings 4:24), which lay
on the banks of the Euphrates. The name, which means "a ford," is so general that it may
have attached to other places. At the same time it should be remembered that about that
period Assyria had fallen into a state of great weakness.
** Such horrors were not unheard of on the part of Israel though only too common in
heathen warfare (2 Kings 8:12; Hosea 13:16; Amos 1:13).
Leaving aside, for reasons already indicated, questions of chronology, the Assyrian
monuments enable us more clearly to understand the Biblical account of the relations
between Menahem and his eastern suzerain (2 Kings 15:19, 20). Thus we learn that after
a period of decadence which may account for the independent progress of Jeroboam II.,
perhaps even for the occupation of Tiphsah by Menahem, a military adventurer of the
name of Pul, apparently sprung from the lower orders, seized the crown of Assyria, and
assumed the title of Tiglath-pileser II.*
- The identity of the Biblical Pul with Tiglath-pileser II. has, we believe, been lately
proved beyond the possibility of doubt. On the subject generally, comp. Sayce, Fresh
Light from the Ancient Monuments, pp. 125-131; Schrader, u.s., and the article by the
same writer in Riehm's Hand-W. p. 1664, etc.
The first monarch of that name, five centuries earlier, had founded the power of Assyria,
which was now to be re-established. In the very year of his accession he vanquished and
impaled the king of Babylon, and henceforth himself assumed that title. Two years later
he turned his armies to the west, and after a siege of three years took the Syrian city
(^)