Tirhakah

Tirhakah, the king of Cush (Ethiopia), opposed Sennacherib's invasion of Judah during the reign of King Hezekiah.

Tirhakah, also known as Taharqa, was the king of Cush (Ethiopia) who opposed the Assyrian king Sennacherib during his invasion of Judah (2Ki 19:9; Isa 37:9). He is mentioned as coming to the aid of King Hezekiah, who was under attack by Sennacherib. Tirhakah was the fourth pharaoh of the Twenty-Fifth (Ethiopian) Dynasty of Egypt, ruling from approximately 690 to 664 BC. There is a chronological difficulty in the biblical account, as the events described are believed to have taken place around 701 BC, before Tirhakah's ascension to the throne. Some scholars suggest that Tirhakah may have been acting as a military commander under his predecessor, Pharaoh Shabaka, or that the biblical authors may have combined accounts of two separate campaigns by Sennacherib. Assyrian records also mention Tirhakah's conflict with the Assyrians. Tirhakah's successful opposition to Assyria is recorded on the walls of a temple at Medinet Habu in Egypt.

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.