Person Old Testament
Tirhakah
Tirhakah, the king of Cush (Ethiopia), opposed Sennacherib's invasion of Judah during the reign of King Hezekiah. Mentioned in 2 verses across 2 books, first at 2 Kings 19:9.
Why it matters. King of Cush (Ethiopia) who opposed Sennacherib
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Tirhakah
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.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
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Appears in Scripture
Named in 2 verses across 2 books. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.