The year 745 B.C. was a fateful one for the Middle East nations. In Assyria, Tiglath Pileser III became king and began to extend Assyrian control westwards in a bid to set up a great Assyrian empire in the Middle East. He proved to be a shrewd and ruthless military commander who rapidly built up a powerful and mobile army. From his reigns-and from the times of the kings who followed him, there are many records of the Assyrian conquests and campaigns. Archaeological excavations at Nineveh, where the Assyrian kings had their capital, have produced a lot of evidence of the way in which these rulers lived and fought and successfully established a great empire.

In the same year as Tiglath Pileser III became ruler of Assyria, Jeroboam's son Zechariah was murdered after he succeeded his father to the throne of Israel. His murderer, Shallum, was quickly overthrown in another coup d'etat, by Menahem, in whose reign Assyrian control first reached out to Israel. According to 2 Kings 15: 19-20, Tiglath Pileser and his armies invaded Israel but did not destroy the country because Menahem paid the Assyrians a huge sum of silver money as tribute. This happened in 738 B.C. before the end of which year Menahem died and was succeeded by his son Pekahiah. Only seven years after the death of Jeroboam II the rich people of Samaria, about whose end Amos had prophesied, were facing an alarming change in their lives. 2 Kings 15: 19 indicates that the tribute paid by Menahem to Tiglath Pileser was taken from the rich men of Israel, each of whom was forced to pay fifty pieces of silver, a very large sum of money in those days.

Pekahiah was murdered in yet another coup d'etat led by an army officer named Pekah (2 Kings 15: 25), who seized the throne and then joined forces with Rezin, king of Syria, to try to resist the Assyrians.