Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SARGON

(Heb. sargôn; Akk. Šarru-kēn)

Sargon II, king of Assyria (721-705). Although the name Sargon means “the king is legitimate” in Akkadian, Sargon II’s legitimacy to the throne is uncertain. He refers to Tiglath-pileser III (744-727) as his father only once in his inscriptions, and gained the throne upon the murder of Shalmaneser V, his possible brother, during the siege of Samaria. After his first regnal year of fighting in Assyria he silenced the rebellion at home by freeing the citizens of Assur from “the call to arms of the land and the summons of the tax-collector” apparently imposed on them by his predecessor. His next battle with Babylon, now ruled by the Aramaean Marduk-apal-iddina II (biblical Merodach-baladan) with support of Elam, ended in a temporary stalemate.

During the period between rulers in Assyria rebellions broke out in Syro-Palestine. Sargon claims responsibility for the capture and exile of the citizens of Samaria (2 Kgs. 17). He defeated allied forces including Hamath, Arpad, and Carchemish (Isa. 10) and continued south to Judah where he defeated an Egyptian army at Gaza, Egypt’s border. Sargon launched a campaign against the rebels, punishing and deporting large numbers. He was then concerned with defeating his enemies to the north, Mushki and Urartu. His famous “Letters to the Gods” employs vivid terminology to describe his campaign and defeat of Urartu.

Later in his career Sargon again turned to the problem of Babylon. Marduk-apal-iddina II escaped to Elam and Sargon made himself king of Babylon. Another rebellion in the west, led by the king of Ashdod, was crushed (Isa. 20:1); a small fragment of a stela of Sargon was found in the excavations at Ashdod. Sargon was killed in a rather minor campaign in Anatolia.

Sargon built his new capital city named Dur-Sharruken (“Fortress of Sargon,” Khorsabad) near Nineveh. While it was one of the more ambitious projects in Assyria, it was abandoned almost as soon as it was inhabited.

Tammi J. Schneider

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SARGON

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)