tirhakah Summary and Overview

the last king of Egypt of the Ethiopian (the fifteenth) dynasty. He was the brother-in-law of So (q.v.). He probably ascended the throne about B.C. 692, having been previously king of Ethiopia (2 Kings 19:9; Isa. 37:9), which with Egypt now formed one nation. He was a great warrior, and but little is known of him. The Assyrian armies under Esarhaddon, and again under Assur-bani-pal, invaded Egypt and defeated Tirhakah, who afterwards retired into Ethiopia, where he died, after reigning twenty-six years.

TIR'HAKAH (exalted?), king of Ethiopia and Upper Egypt. 2 Kgs 19:9; Isa 37:9. In legends he was one of the greatest conquerors of antiquity. His triumphs westward are said to have reached the Pillars of Hercules. But in the East he seems to have been twice badly beaten by the Assyrians and shut up in his own domains. Still, he was formidable enough to cause Sennacherib great uneasiness; for when the latter heard of his coming he demanded the immediate surrender of Jerusalem. 2 Kgs 19:9. Tirhakah reigned, probably, twenty-eight years. The dates are uncertain, but perhaps his rule extended from b.c. 695 to 667.

Isaiah 37:9. (See HEZEKIAH; SO; ESARHADDON.) The Tehrak of the Egyptian monuments, who reigned over Egypt from 690 or 695 B.C. to 667 B.C.; probably king of Ethiopia before he took the title "king of Egypt." Third king of Manetho's 25th or Ethiopian dynasty. Naturally he helped Hezekiah of Judah against their common enemy Sennacherib, who threatened, Egypt. Herodotus (2:141) and Josephus (Ant. 10:1-3) represent Sennacherib to have advanced to Pelusium; here Tirhakah, the ally of Sethos, the king priest of Lower Egypt, and of Hezekiah, forced Sennacherib to retire, His acquisition of the throne of Egypt seems subsequent to his accession to the Ethiopian throne, and to the diversion which he made in favor of Hezekiah against Sennacherib. He extended his conquests to the pillars of Hercules (Strabo xv. 472), the temple at Medineet Haboo is inscribed with his deeds. But Memphite jealousy hid his share in Sennacherib's overthrow (at the time of his second invasion of Judah), and attributed Setho's deliverance to divinely sent mice, which gnawed the enemy's bowstrings. The Ethiopian influence and authority over Egypt appear in the large proportion of Ethiopians in Shishak's and Zerah's armies (2 Chronicles 12:3; 2 Chronicles 16:8); also in Pharaoh Necho's (Jeremiah 46:9). Isaiah (Isaiah 17:12-18;Isaiah 17:7) announces Sennacherib's overthrow, and desires the Ethiopian ambassadors, now in Jerusalem, having arrived from Meroe, the island between "the river of Ethiopia," the Nile, and the Astaboras, in "vessels of bulrushes"' or pitchcovered papyrus canoes, to bring word to their own nation (not "woe," but "ho!" calling the Ethiopians' attention to his prophetic announcement of the fall of Judah's and their common foe; Vulgate translated "the land of the clanging sound of wings," i.e. the land of armies with clashing arms; Vitringa supports KJV Ethiopia "shadowing," i.e. protecting the Hebrew "with wings"; Kenaphaim, related to the name of the idol Kneph, represented with wings: Psalm 91:4).