While Isaiah was thus attempting to influence the two parties in Jerusalem, exactly what he had warned Ahaz of happened. The Assyrian forces made a speedy march into Syria, with Damascus as the point of attack. The combined Syro-Israelitish army, upon hearing of Tilgath-Pileser's new move, abandoned the siege of Jerusalem and hurried back to defend their own countries.
The great Assyrian conqueror easily subdued all the land about Damascus and finally besieged the city itself. Rezin offered him desperate resistance, but it was useless. Tiglath-Pileser destroyed all the forests, fruit groves and fertile fields in the vicinity of the city, until both food and water failed the defenders.
In a last sally from the doomed city, the Syrian troops were literally cut to pieces. Rezin escaped with his life, and, disguised and alone, re-entered Damascus. But he was caught, brought before Tiglath-Pileser and put to death.
In the meantime, all Israel and Samaria quaked at the fate that awaited them. Pekah, who had been lending Rezin what help he could, without entirely weakening himself, was ready and willing to give the Assyrian battle. Tiglath-Pileser, however, had his hands full with Damascus. He therefore, welcomed the suggestion of a certain Hoshea, son of Elah of Samaria, who offered to follow the example of the traitor Menahem.
Tiglath-Pileser assented gladly. He promised help and protection to Hoshea, as he did to Ahaz, for voluntary submission to Assyrian rule. So Hoshea conspired against Pekah in Samaria, slew him, proclaimed himself king under the protection of Assyria. and sent tribute to Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus. Cowardice and treachery thus once more sealed the fate of the kingdom of Israel.
After the fall of Damascus, the victorious Assyrian ordered a great Durbar to celebrate his victory in that city. All the tributary kings in Palestine were commanded to meet him and pay homage to him there.
The splendor and display of the gathering was rivaled only by the magnificence of the welcome the terrible monarch received on his return to Asshur, his own capital.
Among the princes who hob-nobbed with their master at Damascus were the cowardly Ahaz and the traitorous Hoshea. But both were happy in that their countries escaped the awful havoc they witnessed in Damascus and throughout Syria.
Tiglath-Pileser always carried with him a wonderfully wrought altar on which he offered sacrifices to Asshur, the Assyrian god. During the religious exercises at the Damascus festival, in which all the Assyrian vassals participated, Ahaz was particularly struck with the beauty of this altar. Thereupon he sent to Urijah, the high priest in Jerusalem, "the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof," with instructions to have it duplicated for the Temple in Jerusalem.
Isaiah, when he heard of this, was thunderstruck by the audacity of the king who had no respect for his people or for his God.