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cities, and the birthplace of Barak (Judges 4:6, 9). Although belonging to Upper Galilee,
it was at the time of Christ held by the Tyrians (Jos. Wars, 2. 18, 1), whose territory here
bounded with Galilee. It still retains its old name, and lies north-west of the marshes that
surrounded Lake Merom. The other three names in 2 Kings 15:29 among the conquests
of Tiglath-pileser seem those of districts rather than towns: Gilead, the later Gaulonitis,*
the northern portion of the trans-Jordanic district whixch Jeroboam II had only lately won
back for Israel (2Kings 15:25); Galilee, in the more restricted sense of the term, that is:
the northern part of it, or "Galilee of the Gentiles" (Isaiah 9:1; compare 1 Kings 9:11) - in
short, "all the land of Nephtali."
- The LXX. Renders it Galaan. A city of Gilead (no doubt in that district) is mentioned in
Hosea 6:8; 12:11 (?). The context would certainly lead us to apply to a city rather that to
the district the term in 2 Kings 15:29. But the localization hiterto proposed for this Gilead
does not meet the exigencies of the narrative, being too far south. A very important
question here arises in connection with 1 Chronicles 5:26. As Pul and Tiglath-pileser are
one in the same person, and the transportation alluded to was the second - that under
Shalmaneser, or rather than Sargon (compare 2 Kings 17:6) - we can only suggest that by
some confusion caused by the two names Pul and Tiglath-pileser, the later has by a
clerical error, crept into the text, instead of Shalmaneser or else Sargon.
The advance of Tiglath-pileser, marked by the occupation of those towns in a straight line
from north to south, concerted Galilee and the adjoining trans-Jordanic district into an
Assyrian province, which served as a basis for further operations. These terminated -
perhaps after passing near or through Jerusalem - with the occupation of Samaria, where
a revolution ensued, in which Pekah fell. He was succeeded by the leader of the rising,
Hoshea, who became tributary to Assyria. The easier part of his undertaking
accomplished, Tiglath-pileser turned his arms against Damascus. Here he met with a
stubborn resistance. Holy Scripture only records (2 Kings 16:9) that Damascus was taken,
Rezin killed, and the people carried captive to Kir - a district not yet certainly identified,
but apparently belonging to Media (compare Isaiah 21:2; 22:6). It was thence that the
Syrians had originally come (Amos 9:7), and thither they were again transported when
their work in history was done (Amos 1:5).
Unfortunately, the Assyrian tablets which record this campaign are mutilated, that in
which the death of Rezin was recorded being lost. But we learn that the siege of
Damascus occupied two years; that Rezin was shut up in his capital, into which he had
been driven; that not only was every tree in the gardens round Damascus cut down, but,
in the language of the tablet, the whole land desolated as by a flood. With the capture of
Damascus, the Damasco-Syrian empire, which had hitherto been a scourge for the
punishment of Israel, came to an end. Henceforth it was only a province of Assyria. It is
in the light of all these events that we have to read such prophecies as those in Isaiah 7
and the firs part of chapter 8.
(^)