Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 15:19

"There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand." — 2 Kings 15:19 (ASV)

And. — As it stands, the verse begins abruptly. But the reading of the Septuagint restores the connection: In his days Pul the king of Assyria, etc. (Compare 2 Kings 15:29).

Pul. — This name has been read in the cuneiform (Pu-u-lu, i.e., Pûlu, an officer of Sargon’s). For the identity of Pul, king of Assyria, with Tiglath Pileser II, see Note on 1 Chronicles 5:26, and Schrader’s Die Keil-inschr. und das Alt. Test., pp. 227-240 (2nd edition, 1883).

Professor Schrader gives the following as the result of his elaborate and most interesting discussion:

1. Menahem of Israel and Azariah of Judah were contemporaries, according to the Bible as well as the Inscriptions.
2. According to the Bible, both these rulers were contemporary with an Assyrian king Pul; according to the Inscriptions, with Tiglath Pileser.
3. Berosus calls Pul a Chaldean; Tiglath Pileser calls himself king of Chaldea.
4. Pul-Porus became king of Babylon in 731 B.C.; Tiglath Pileser in 731 B.C. received the homage of the Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan, as he also reduced other Babylonian princes in this year, among them Chinzçros of Amukkan.
5. Poros appears in the canon of Ptolemy as king of Babylon; Tiglath Pileser names himself “king of Babylon.”
6. Chinzçros became king of Babylon in 731 B.C. according to the canon, and, in fact, along with (or, under) a king of the name of Pôros; the hypothesis that the vanquished king of Amukkan of the same name was entrusted by Tiglath Pileser with the vassal-kingship of Babylon is suggested at once by the coincidence of the chronological data.
7. In the year 727-726 B.C. a change of government took place in Assyria in consequence of the death of Tiglath Pileser, and in Babylonia in consequence of the death of Porus.
8. No king appears in the Assyrian lists by a name like Pul, which is anomalous as a royal designation; we can only identify Pul with some other name in the lists, and, on historical grounds, with Tiglath Pileser only.
9. Pul and Pôros are forms of the same name (compare Bâbiru for Bâbilu in Persian inscriptions).
10. From all this, the conclusion is inevitable that Pul, Porus, and Tiglath Pileser are one and the same person.

Came against the land. — Rather, came upon the land (Isaiah 10:28; Judges 18:27). The meaning here is, occupied it.

A thousand talents of silver. — About £375,000.

That his hand might be with him. — Pul (Tiglath Pileser) came at the invitation of Menahem to establish the latter in the sovereignty against other pretenders as a vassal of Assyria. (Hosea 7:11; Hosea 8:9.) Tiglath Pileser had first reduced Rezin king of Syria-Damascus, which was probably much weakened by the victories of Jeroboam II. (See Note on 2 Kings 15:14).