The argument which Tomes is attempting to discredit comes directly from the Old Testament and has never been seriously questioned. It is said that the reason for the Syro-Ephraimite War was an alliance of the Israelite king Pekah and king Rezon of Syria formed to fight the king of Judah, Ahaz, in order to coerce Ahaz to enter a coalition against Assyria.

Tomes begins by discrediting the work done by Michael Thompson and Stuart Irvine. Both authors credit Joachim Bergrich's 1929 article as being the first to express the opinion that 'the Syro-Ephraimite War was connected with the international politics of the time' and it had 'only one aim - to force Judah to join the anti-Assyrian coalition, so that it should not remain a pro-Assyrian enclave in the area stretching from southern Syria to Egypt.'

While trying to establish a chronology of events between the Syro-Ephraimite War and Tiglath-pileser III's campaign in Philistia, Begrich concluded that the war must have taken place prior to Tiglath-pilesear III's campaign. The "only possible explanation is that there was a broad coalition against Assyria, in which Egypt was the senior partner." Only this would persuade Damascus and Israel to put aside their differences.

Schrader claims that this text shows that 734 was the year that Tiglath-pileser III invaded Israel and Syria. Tiele in 1886 also examined this text and argued that Damascus and Israel had already revolted against Assyria since it fails to mention Damascus, Samaria, and the Arabian queen of Samsi. Rost, reading the same text, found no evidence that Israel and Syria had been invaded in 734. He concluded that it was nearly impossible to establish a timetable for the events of 734-732.

states that the position of these scholars, as well as others who contend that the war was due to international policies, is more often stated, rather than argued. Furthermore, Tomes states that Joachim Begrich was not the first to assert the before mentioned position. In fact, Tomes says that this position was first asserted by August Knobel in his commentary on Israel published in 1843. Tomes cites Isaiah, Hosea, and 2 Kings to assert his theory that the Syro-Ephraimite War was fought in order to strengthen the coalition against Assyria. Tomes calls Knobel's argument an "exegetical one." In short, Knobel's argument examines all the evidence relating to relations with Assyria and attempts to put them all together in a way which makes sense.

Following the publication of Knobel's book, scholars began to recognize the importance of the Assyrian dis

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Approximate Word count = 1194
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)