Tiglath-pileser III, Summary Inscription
745–727 BCE
The land of Bit-Humria (the House of Omri) . . .
[ . . . his] auxiliary [troops . . . ] all of its people . . . to Assyria I carried off. Pekah, their king, [I/they ki]lled . . . and I appointed Hoshea [as king] over them. I received ten talents of gold, x talents of silver, [with] their [property] from them and I carried them off [to Assyria].
This fragmentary inscription mentions the Northern Kingdom of Israel (“the land of the House of Omri”) and the death of its king, Pekah. It says that Tiglath-pileser (king of Assyria, 745–727 BCE) appointed Hoshea as Pekah’s successor and carried off gold, silver, and other property to Assyria. Hoshea was the last king of northern Israel before Assyria conquered it in 722–720 BCE and absorbed it into the Assyrian empire.
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Israelite Inscriptions from the Biblical Period
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