Pul

The name Pul carries two unrelated referents in scripture: an Assyrian king who exacts tribute from Menahem and later figures in the deportation of the trans-Jordan tribes, and a distant nation listed in Isaiah's roll of far-off peoples to whom Yahweh's glory will be declared.

Pul, King of Assyria

The king named Pul appears first in the Menahem narrative, where his arrival forces tribute on Israel: "There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand" (2 Kgs 15:19). The transaction is plain — silver in exchange for Assyrian backing of Menahem's rule. The thousand talents are the price of confirmation.

The Chronicler joins Pul to Tilgath-pilneser as instruments of the deportation east of Jordan: "And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river of Gozan, to this day" (1 Chr 5:26). The two names are paired; the deportation strikes Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh; the destination places — Halah, Habor, Hara, the river of Gozan — are listed as still standing at the time of the writing.

Pul, a Distant Nation

The other Pul appears once, in the closing oracle of Isaiah, alongside Tarshish, Lud, Tubal, and Javan. Survivors of Yahweh's judgment are sent to these places to declare his glory: "And I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles far off, that haven't heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they will declare my glory among the nations" (Isa 66:19). The Pul of this verse is not the Assyrian king but a far-off people, grouped with maritime and bow-drawing nations on the edges of the known world.