to the Babylonian gods in all the principal cities.

The first Syrian war of Tiglath-Pileser was undertaken in his third year
(B.C. 743), and lasted from that year to his eighth. In the course of it
he reduced to subjection Damascus, which had regained its independence,
and was under the government of Rezin; Samaria, where Menahem, the
adversary of Pul, was still reigning; Tyre, which was under a monarch
bearing the familiar name of Hiram; Hamath, Gebal, and the Arabs
bordering upon Egypt, who were ruled by a queen called Khabiba. He
likewise met and defeated a vast army under Azariah (or Uzziah), king of
Judah, but did not succeed in inducing him to make his submission. It
would appear by this that Tiglath-Pileser at this time penetrated deep
into Palestine, probably to a point which no Assyrian king but Vul-lush
III., had reached previously. But it would seem, at the same time, that
his conquests were very incomplete; they did not include Judaea or
Philistia, Idumaea, or the tribes of the Hauran; and they left untouched
the greater number of the Phoenician cities. It causes us, therefore, no
surprise to find that in a short time, B.C. 734, he renewed his efforts
in this quarter, commencing by an attack on Samaria, where Pekah was now
king, and taking Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Jamoah, and Kedesh,
and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali, and
carrying them captive to Assyria, thus "lightly afflicting, the land of
Zebulun and the land of Naphtali," or the more northern portion of the
Holy Land, about Lake Merom, and from that to the Sea of Gennesareth.

This attack was-followed, shortly (B.C. 733) by the most important of
Tiglath-Pileser's Syrian wars. It appears that the common danger, which
had formerly united the Hittites, Hamathites, and Damascenes in a close
alliance, now caused a league to be formed between Damascus and Samaria,
the sovereigns of which--Pekah and Rezin--made an attempt to add Judaea
to their confederation, by declaring war against Ahaz, attacking his
territory, and threatening to substitute in his place as king of
Jerusalem a creature of their own, "the son of Tabeal." Hard pressed by
his enemies, Ahaz applied to Assyria, offering to become
Tiglath-Pileser's "servant"--i.e, his vassal and tributary--if he would
send troops to his assistance, and save him from the impending danger.
Tiglath-Pileser was not slow to obey this call. Entering Syria at the
head of an army,