I. THE PERSON APPROACHED. Tiglath-Pilneser (ver. 20), Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings 16:7); in Assyrian, Takul-u-(Tukeal)-habal-i-sar-ra, meaning "He who puts his trust in Adar," or, "Adar is my confidence;" in the LXX. Θαλγαθ(φελασσάρ; the same person as Pal King of Assyria (Schrader, 'Die Keilinschriften,' pp. 223-240), to whom Menahem of Israel gave a thousand talents of silver as a bribe for aid to keep the throne he had usurped (2 Kings 15:17). Originally a gardener (according to Greek tradition), Pal rose to eminence as a soldier, and eventually seized the crown of Assyria in B.C. 745, as Tiglath-Pileser II.

II. THE INVITATION GIVEN. To assist Ahaz against Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel. Already the power of Tiglath-Pileser II. had been felt in numerous expeditions towards the West. Syria, Palestine, and Phoenicia had each resounded at the tread of his conquering legions. In particular, Rezin ('Records,' etc., 5:48), and Menahem, one of Pekah's predecessors on the throne of Israel, had acknowledged his supremacy by paying him tribute (2 Kings 15:29; 'Records,' etc., 5:48). Accordingly, Ahaz had no doubt that the mighty Assyrian could by a word call off the two royal bandits that, like terriers, had sprung at his throat. Despatching ambassadors to Tiglath-Pileser, he requested aid against his foes from the north and east. To render his application successful, he sent with his plenipotentiaries a heavy largess, in the shape of presents of gold and silver taken from the temple, the palace, and the princes' mansions (2 Kings 16:7, 8). An inscription, composed in the last or year before last year of Tiglath-Pileser's reign, speaks of the Assyrian monarch as having received tribute from Mitinti of Askalon, Joachaz of Juda, and Kosmalak of Edom (Schrader, 'Die Keilinschriften,' p. 263). Though this tribute was probably that which Ahaz paid on visiting Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus (2 Kings 16:10), it will serve to illustrate and confirm the fact here mentioned, that Ahaz sent a present with his plenipotentiaries when they went to solicit Tiglath-Pileser's assistance.

III. THE ANSWER RETURNED. Tiglath-Pileser came unto him.

1. He marched against Rezin. (2 Kings 16:9.) The King of Syria was defeated in a pitched battle, and retreated to his capital. "He, to save his life, fled away alone and like a deer, and into the great gate of his city he entered. His generals alive in hand I captured, and on crosses I raised them. His country I subdued" (Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser, No. 10). "Damascus was closely invested; the trees in its neighbourhood were cut down; the districts dependent on it were ravaged, and forces were despatched to punish the Israelites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines, who had been the allies of Resort.... At last, in B.C. 732, after a siege of two years, Damascus was forced by famine to surrender. Reson was slain, Damascus given over to plunder and ruin, and its inhabitants transported to Kip" (Sayce, 'Assyria, its Princes,' etc., pp. 36, 37; cf. Smith, ' Assyrian Discoveries,' p. 282; Schrader, ' Die Keilinschriften,' pp. 258, 259).

2. He turned upon Israel. (2 Kings 15:29.) As above stated, this occurred while the siege of Damascus was being pressed forward. The towns of Ijon, Abel-beth-maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazer, with the districts of Gilead, Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali, were captured, and their populations carried away to Syria, while Pekah, their sovereign, perished at the hands of a conspirator, Hoshea, who forthwith seized upon the throne. These details likewise receive confirmation from the monuments. Frame, sent No. 2 of Tiglath-Pileser's inscription, narrating his war in Palestine, mentions "the city Gaul... [probably Gilead] and Abil [Abel-beth-maachah]... with the land of Humri throughout its whole extent as having been joined to the borders of Assyria; the entire population of the district as having been sent to Assyria, and their king, Pakaha, as having been slain" (Smith, 'Assyrian Discoveries,' pp. 284, 285; 'Records,' etc., 5:51, 52; Schrader, 'Die Keilinschriften,' pp, 255, 256).

3. He subjected Judah. This the obvious meaning of the Chronicler's statement, that Tiglath-Pileser "distressed Ahaz, but strengthened him not." Instead of helping him to become an independent sovereign, Tiglath-Pileser made him a tributary to the Assyrian crown; and exactly in harmony with this, Joachaz of Juda appears, along with Mitinti of Askalon, Kosmalak of Edom, and Hanno of Gasa, among the tributary princes who, in the seventeenth or eighteenth year of his reign, did homage to the great king (see above). - W.

The growth of humanity is not after a horticultural manner. We cannot say that a good tree will have good off-shoots, if we are speaking of humanity. The holiest father may have a murderer for his son. The sweetest mother may die of a broken heart. Only a foolish criticism is reckless in fixing definite responsibilities in this matter of the nurture and culture of children. The Lord rebukes us when we say that because the father was good the son must be good; or because the father was evil the son must be evil. The Lord permits men to come in between who are bad, or who are good, that all our little speculation about heredity, and all our arrangements for moral progress, may be thrown back and lost in confusion. Herein is the working of that mysterious law which is often misunderstood when denominated the law of election. We cannot tell what God is doing. Your son ought to have been good, for where is there a braver soul than yourself? The boy ought to have been chivalrous, for he never knew you do a mean deed or give lodgment to an ungenerous thought. In a way, too, he was proud of his father; yet there was no devil's work he would not stoop to do. He did not get the bad blood from his mother, for gentler, sweeter soul never sang God's psalms in God's house. Yet there is the mystery, and it is not for a reckless criticism to define the origin and the issue of this mysterious phenomenon in human development.

(J. Parker, D.D.)