Tirhakah (also known as Taharqa) was king of Cush (Ethiopia/Nubia) and a pharaoh in Egypt's 25th dynasty. He is mentioned in the Bible in connection with his military campaign against the Assyrian king Sennacherib, when he came to help King Hezekiah of Judah against the Assyrian threat.
Hechos clave
Tirhakah's Campaign Against Sennacherib
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, received word that Tirhakah, king of Cush, had set out to fight against him. This occurred during Sennacherib's siege of Judah.
9Now the king received a report about Tirhakah, king of Cush: "He has set out to fight against you." So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah with this message:
9Now the king of Assyria received a report about Tirhakah, king of Cush: "He has marched out to fight against you." So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah with this word:
After hearing about Tirhakah's advance, Sennacherib sent messengers to King Hezekiah with a threatening letter to warn him not to trust in God's deliverance.
9Now the king received a report about Tirhakah, king of Cush: "He has set out to fight against you." So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah with this message:
10"Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you when he says, 'Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.'
9Now the king of Assyria received a report about Tirhakah, king of Cush: "He has marched out to fight against you." So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah with this word:
10"Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying, 'Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.'
When King Hezekiah received Sennacherib's threatening letter, he went up to the house of the Lord and prayed for God's help against the Assyrian threat, in a context where Tirhakah's military presence also played a role.
15And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD: "LORD, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
14Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them. Then he went up to the house of the LORD and spread them out before the LORD.
The prophet Isaiah conveyed God's answer to Hezekiah and prophesied that Sennacherib would not capture Jerusalem but be driven back—a situation where Tirhakah's threat from the south also contributed to pressure on Assyria.
20Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.
21This is the word the LORD has spoken against him: "The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head as you flee.
23By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, saying, 'With my many chariots I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the far reaches of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses. I have reached its farthest lodging place, its densest forest.
25Have you not heard? Long ago I determined it; from days of old I planned it, and now I have brought it about—that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of rubble.
26Their inhabitants are stripped of strength, dismayed and put to shame. They are like grass in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it can grow.
28Because you rage against me and your arrogance has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.
29"And this will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
32Therefore this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: "He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with a shield or build a siege ramp against it.
21Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: The Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head as you flee.
24By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said: 'With my many chariots I have climbed the mountain heights, the far recesses of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses. I have reached its remotest heights, its densest forest.
26Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of rubble.
27Their people, drained of power, were dismayed and put to shame. They were like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.
29Because you rage against me, and because your arrogance has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.
30And this will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
33Therefore this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with a shield or build a siege ramp against it.
The Lord's angel struck the Assyrian camp at night and killed 185,000 soldiers, causing Sennacherib to retreat. Tirhakah's military pressure from the south, together with God's intervention, defeated the Assyrian threat.
35That night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When men rose early in the morning, there they were—all of them dead bodies.
37While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.
36Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people rose early the next morning — there they all lay, dead bodies.
38One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.