Tiglath-pileser III’s Campaigns in 734-732 B.C.: Historical Background of Isa 7; 2 Kgs 15–16 and 2 Chr 27–28 The history of Neo-Assyrian expansion can be divided into two periods. During the first period — the ninth and first half of the eighth centuries B.C. — Neo-Assyrian royal campaigns appear to have been, as many scholars have argued, mainly raiding incursions undertaken with the goal of collecting booty and acquiring cheap manual labor. Scholars also generally agree that with Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 B.C.) a new period of Neo-Assyrian expansionistic policy started (1). This new phase of Neo-Assyrian expansion could have taken place thanks to a new organization of the army, improved logistics and weaponry. Even though we can distinguish an improvement in Tiglath-pileser III’s weaponry, in particular in siege engines, the weapons alone are never able to win a war unless used in a carefully planned campaign. In this paper I will investigate Tiglath-pileser III’s campaigns against the Levant in 734-732 B.C. On these campaigns I will illustrate the sophisticated logistics employed by the Assyrians in the second period of Neo-Assyrian expansion. This investigation will be divided into three parts. In the first part I will reconstruct the course of Tiglath-pileser III’s campaigns against the Levant in 734-732 B.C., in the second part I will investigate the logistics of these campaigns, and in the third part I will consider the results of these campaigns. Thus, the main goal of this paper is to evaluate Tiglath-pileser III’s genius which can be discerned behind the campaigns which deeply influenced political and religious events in Israel and Judah in the second part of the eighth century B.C. 1. Sources and historical background The extant written documents mentioning Tiglath-pileser III’s campaigns against the Levant in 734-732 B.C. are of two kinds: (1) H. Tadmor calls Tiglath-Pileser III’s reign a “watershed” in the history of the ancient Near East; see H. TADMOR, The Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III, King of Assyria. Critical Edition, with Introductions, Translations and Commentary (Jerusalem 1994) 9. However, some scholars have contested this claim; see P. GARELLI, “Le Dynamisme Assyrien”, Assyria 1995. Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project Helsinki, September 7-11, 1995 (ed. R.M. WHITING) (Helsinki 1997) 65-68.