And Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.

And Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.

And he brought, against him Thelgathphalnasar king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted him, and plundered him without any resistance.

And Tilgath-Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and troubled him, and did not support him.

And Tilgath-Pilneser king of Asshur cometh in unto him, and doth distress him, and hath not strengthened him,

Then Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came to him, but was a cause of trouble and not of strength to him.

And Tillegath-pilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.

And he led against him Tilgath-pilneser, the king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted him and laid waste to him, without resistance.

Tilgath-pilneser - This form of the name is doubly corrupt. See the properly Hebraized form in 2-Kings 15:29.
Distressed him, but strengthened him not - This statement, and that at the end of 2-Chronicles 28:21, is supplemental to, and not contradictory of, 2-Kings 16:9. Here it is the writer's object to note that the material assistance rendered by Tiglath-pileser to Ahab, was no real "help" or "strength," but rather a cause of "distress."

And Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came unto him,.... Not to Jerusalem, but to Damascus, where he made a diversion in his favour, and took that city, and where Ahaz met him, 2-Kings 16:9.
and distressed him, but strengthened him not; exhausted his treasures, and laid a tribute upon him, but did not help him against the Edomites and Philistines, or recover for him the cities they had taken from him; and, in taking Damascus, he served himself more than Ahaz, and paved the way for seizing upon the ten tribes.

Tilgath-pilneser . . . distressed him, but strengthened him not--that is, notwithstanding the temporary relief which Tilgath-pilneser afforded him by the conquest of Damascus and the slaughter of Rezin (2-Kings 16:9), little advantage resulted from it, for Tilgath-pilneser spent the winter in voluptuous revelry at Damascus; and the connection formed with the Assyrian king was eventually a source of new and greater calamities and humiliation to the kingdom of Judah (2-Chronicles 28:2-3).

Distressed - Or, straitened him, by robbing him of his treasures. Strengthened not - A most emphatical expression: for tho' he weakened his present enemy the Syrian, yet all things considered, he did not strengthen Ahaz and his kingdom, but weaken them; for by removing the Syrian, who, tho' a troublesome neighbour, was a kind of bulwark to him, he smoothed the way for himself, a far more dangerous enemy, as appears in the very next king's reign.