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Pul (2)

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

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Pul (1)

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(See ASSYRIA.) The first Assyrian king mentioned in Scripture. When Menahem neglected to apply for "confirmation in his kingdom," on ascending the throne of Israel, to the Assyrian king, his lord paramount (for the black obelisk shows that Jehu paid tribute to Shalmaneser as early as 884 B.C.), Pul came against the land (2 Kings 15:19-20; 1 Chronicles 5:26). Menahem's smiting Tiphsah (1 Chronicles 5:16) or Thapsacus was a direct attack on the Assyrian dominion W. of the Euphrates. With 1,000 talents of silver he induced Pul "to confirm the kingdom in his hand." Pul's wife was the famous Semiramis of Babylon (Herodot. 1:184). Assyrian records make no mention of Pul; but Berosus mentions Pul a Chaldoean king exactly at this time, while Assbur-lush was reigning at Nineveh. The Jews called him "king of Assyria," that being the dominant empire at the time; so Nabopolassar of Babylon is called "king of Assyria," (2 Kings 23:29), and Darius Hystaspes Ezra 6:22.

Moreover, just about 763 B.C. some western Assyrian provinces had been broken off and joined to the Babylonian king's empire. He being thus master of the Assyrian portion next Palestine appeared to the Jews to be "king of Assyria," about 763-760 B.C. Some identify Pul with Phulukh, mentioned in a Nimrud inscription (compare Septuagint for PHI). Schrader and G. Smith regard Pul as the Babylonian name of Taglath Pileser, and as the "Porus" in the astronomical canon who began to reign at Babylon 781 B.C., the very year in which the cuneiform records date Taglath Pileser's overthrow of Chinzir king of Babylon, whom the canon makes the immediate predecessor of Porus (a name identical with Pal). The last year of Porus in the cuneiform canon of kings is also the last year of Taglath Pileser.