Sargon appeared in the west with a strong army before the allies had matured their plans.  He met the smith king of Hamath in battle at Qarqar, and, having defeated him, had him skinned alive.  Then he marched southward.  At Rapiki (Raphia) he routed an army of allies.  Shabi (?So), the Tartan (commander-in-chief) of Pi’ru[526] (Pharaoh), King of Mutsri (an Arabian state confused, perhaps, with Misraim = Egypt), escaped “like to a shepherd whose sheep have been taken”.  Piru and other two southern kings, Samsi and Itamara, afterwards paid tribute to Sargon.  Hanno of Gaza was transported to Asshur.

In 715 B.C.  Sargon, according to his records, appeared with his army in Arabia, and received gifts in token of homage from Piru of Mutsri, Samsi of Aribi, and Itamara of Saba.

Four years later a revolt broke out in Ashdod which was, it would appear, directly due to the influence of Shabaka, the Ethiopian Pharaoh, who had deposed Bocchoris of Sais.  Another league was about to be formed against Assyria.  King Azuri of Ashdod had been deposed because of his Egyptian sympathies by the Assyrian governor, and his brother Akhimiti was placed on the throne.  The citizens, however, overthrew Akhimiti, and an adventurer from Cyprus was proclaimed king (711 B.C).

It would appear that advances were made by the anti-Assyrians to Ahaz of Judah.  That monarch was placed in a difficult position.  He knew that if the allies succeeded in stamping out Assyrian authority in Syria and Palestine they would certainly depose him, but if on the other hand he joined them and Assyria triumphed, its emperor would show him small mercy.  As Babylon defied Sargon and received the active support of Elam, and there were rumours of risings in the north, it must have seemed to the western kings as if the Assyrian empire was likely once again to go to pieces.

Fortunately for Ahaz he had a wise counsellor at this time in the great statesman and prophet, the scholarly Isaiah.  The Lord spake by Isaiah saying, “Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot.  And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.  And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners....  And they (the allies) shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory."[527]

Isaiah warned Ahaz against joining the league, “in the year that Tartan[528] came unto Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him)”.  The Tartan “fought against Ashdod and took it".[529] According to Sargon’s record the Pretender of Ashdod fled to Arabia, where he was seized by an Arabian chief and delivered up to Assyria.  The pro-Egyptian party in Palestine went under a cloud for a period thereafter.

Before Sargon could deal with Merodach Baladan of Babylon, he found it necessary to pursue the arduous task of breaking up a powerful league which had been formed against him in the north.  The Syro-Cappadocian Hittite states, including Tabal in Asia Minor and Carchemish in north Syria, were combining for the last time against Assyria, supported by Mita (Midas), king of the Muski-Phrygians, and Rusas, son of Sharduris III, king of Urartu.