2 Kings 15 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
15:5 leprosy. See note on 5:1. in a separate house. Lit. “in the house of freedom,” the meaning of which is unclear. The second NIV text note on this verse is probably on the right track in taking the phrase as a metaphor for Azariah’s being relieved of (set free from) responsibility in government. More than that, however, the suggestion is perhaps that the king, being seriously incapacitated, was regarded as effectively dead. The Hebrew word hopshi (“free”) appears in connection with the world of the dead in Job 3:19; Ps 88:5 (“set apart”), and there is one reference in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle to the netherworld as the bt hptt, “the place of seclusion.”
15:8–16 With Jeroboam II’s death around 748 BC (14:29) and the assassination very shortly thereafter of his son Zechariah (vv. 8–12), the northern kingdom, after its brief period of recovery, was on its way to destruction (722 BC). The assassin Shallum held on to power for a mere month before losing both crown and life to Menahem (vv. 13–15), whose power base was apparently in the old Israelite capital of Tirzah (vv. 14, 16; cf. 1Ki 16:23–24; see next note).
15:16 Tirzah. Probably Tell el-Far‘ah, six miles (almost 10 kilometers) northeast of Nablus. Tiphsah. An important city on the Euphrates River located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Carchemish on the main trade route connecting Mesopotamia with Syria. Menahem made one last attempt to retain for Israel Solomon-like influence in the north by engaging in a campaign that took him as far north as Tiphsah (cf. 1Ki 4:24). Such a campaign would likely have taken place early in his reign, either before the Assyrian campaigns of 743–740 BC began, or during these years as part of the anti-Assyrian struggle in the region. It is in this same struggle that Azariah and Jotham of Judah each may have been involved in a leading role (see the article “Azariah King of Judah.” ripped open all the pregnant women. See note on 8:12.
15:19 Pul. The Hebrew version of the Akkadian “Pulu”—a short name for Tiglath-Pileser, not found in any of the inscriptions contemporary with him but known from the Babylonian king lists. During the reigns of Menahem in Israel and Azariah and his son Jotham in Judah, the relative lull in Assyrian military activity in Syria and Palestine came to a decisive end with the appearance of the armies of Tiglath-Pileser III. Tiglath-Pileser’s first campaigns represent the beginning of a process through which, within a short period, northern Israel and most of the Syro-Hittite states to its north were incorporated into the Assyrian Empire. His goal was apparently to establish an Assyrian trading center on the border with Egypt, and he required control of the intervening regions to accomplish this and to ensure safe passage for trade between Philistia and Assyria. Menahem gave him a thousand talents of silver. The payment of tribute bought Assyrian support for Menahem’s rule, which had been seized by force and would not have been regarded as legitimate by many. Menahem is mentioned in two texts dating from the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III as a king paying tribute to Assyria. The first text comes from Tiglath-Pileser’s royal annals from Calah, compiled during the final years of his reign but now in a fragmentary and difficult state, and relates to 738 BC: “I received tribute from . . . Rezin of Damascus, Menahem of Samaria, Hiram of Tyre.” The second text is found on the only known stele of Tiglath-Pileser III, set up in western Iran on the border of one of the states defeated during the 737 BC campaign. It may look back on the year 738 BC, or possibly an earlier year: “Rezin, the Damascene, Menahem, the Samarian, Tuba‘il, the Tyrian . . . I imposed on them tribute of silver, gold, tin, iron.”
15:27 Pekah . . . reigned twenty years. It seems clear that if Menahem was king of Israel in 738 BC and Pekah was succeeded by Hoshea around 732 BC, Pekah could not have reigned for 20 years over Israel. Indeed, if we were simply to add together the regnal years for Hoshea (17:1), Pekahiah (v. 23) and Pekah, and work backward from the fall of Samaria at the juncture of the reigns of the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser V and Sargon II in 722 BC, we would arrive at a starting date for Pekah’s reign of around 753 BC—well before the accession of Tiglath-Pileser III in 745 BC. The best solution is to assume that before succeeding Pekahiah in Samaria, Pekah had already ruled as governor over at least part of the Israelite territory mentioned in v. 29. Verse 25 appears to locate his power base in Gilead. Pekah then counted his regnal years from the earlier period (during which he was not really a king) as a way of claiming legitimacy, perhaps as the “true” successor to Jeroboam II.
15:29 In the time of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser . . . came. In 733–732 BC, Tiglath-Pileser met with concerted opposition in Syria and Palestine, led by Rezin (Rakhianu in cuneiform sources) of Damascus and supported by Pekah of Israel and others. The kingdom of Judah, an ally of Assyria at this point (v. 37; 16:5–9), itself came under attack from this coalition. The Assyrian response was to launch campaigns against Damascus and its allies in both 733 and 732 BC. Damascus was eventually captured in 732 BC, and in the course of the campaigns Israel also suffered major losses, relinquishing territory on both sides of the Jordan River as far south as Megiddo and Ramoth Gilead, respectively. deported the people to Assyria. The first recorded example of the deportation of people groups by the Assyrians comes from the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1243–1207 BC), whose defeat of the Hittites was followed by the transportation of a large group of that conquered people from Syria to labor camps in Assyria. By this means Assyrian kings could not only increase their labor force for building projects or the development of uncultivated land in order to increase the food supply, but also reduce the possibility of further opposition among the subjugated peoples. Tiglath-Pileser III made deportation of this kind a major feature of his imperial policy, and it was imitated often by subsequent rulers. It is estimated that 250,000–500,000 people were deported during the reigns of Assyrian kings. With only occasional exceptions, they were deported to environments similar to those from which they originated—some to cities, others to underpopulated rural areas, and still others to regions of the empire depopulated by an earlier deportation after a rebellion. One major consequence was that Assyrian cities in particular became cosmopolitan and multilingual.
15:30 Hoshea . . . succeeded him. Although much of northern Israel had been absorbed into the Assyrian Empire by 732 BC, a smaller state confined to the hill country of Ephraim survived for another ten years as Assyria’s vassal. The new king, Hoshea, was on the throne of that kingdom when Samaria eventually fell in 722 BC. It seems that the Assyrians were content to allow some territories a relative degree of autonomy in relation to the empire, refusing the trouble of absorbing a state (or in this case, all of a state) where they did not think it necessary for their ends. It was no doubt useful to them to have a “buffer zone” of semi-independent peoples between the borders of their empire and the borders of Egypt. A summary inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III, inscribed on a pavement slab, also records this transition of power and describes the deportations and payment of tribute associated with it.
15:35 high places. See notes on 1Ki 3:2; 11:7. Upper Gate of the temple. The “gate behind the guard” (11:6) that was located in a wall separating the temple and palace complexes. It is intriguing that Jotham should give attention to the boundary marker between temple and palace when it is precisely the transgression of that boundary for which 2Ch 26:16–21 blames his father.
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