RASIN (Heb. Rēṣīn; Septuagint Pāṇḍaṣ; Assyrian Rasūṇṇ). - Last king of Damascus (ca. 740-732 B.C.). He was a usurper. In 738 he appears as a tributary of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727). While the latter was at war with the Urartians (737-735), R. promoted with Pekah, king of Samaria, an anti-Assyrian league for his own defense; Sidon, Tyre and Samsi, the Arab queen, joined it.
Jotham, king of Judah, refused to join it. R. and Pekah wanted to force him to do so by arms (II Kings 15:37), in order to keep communications free with Egypt, their supporter, and to draw Edom, Moab and the Philistines into the league. The attack took place against Ahaz, who, having succeeded his father (736), followed his policy. Ahaz, harshly defeated by R. and by Pekah (II Chron. 28:5-15), was besieged in the capital; the aim was to remove the Davidic dynasty and place on the throne a certain Tabeel, a supporter of the policy of Damascus (the Syro-Ephraimite war, 735-734; Isa. 7:1-9; 8:6; 9:11). The Edomites (II Kings 16:6 instead of 'Aram; Rēṣīn is considered a gloss) and the Philistines took advantage of this to attack Judah: the former retook Elath, the latter six cities of the Shephelah (II Chron. 28:17 ff.). According to the Masoretic text, Elath was taken by R., who handed it over to the Edomites (II Kings 16:6), in order to bring them into the league; thus Edom and the Philistines would have attacked Judah (II Chron. 28:17 ff.).
Tiglath-Pileser, having subjugated the Urartians, was already prepared against the confederates when he received the appeal of Ahaz (autumn of 735; II Kings 16:7). Advancing down the coast, he conquered Gaza, whose king fled to Egypt, and defeated the Philistines (734). Secure on the southern borders, he devastated Samaria (first deportation; Pekah was killed, and Tiglath-Pileser approved the election of Hoshea); then he besieged Damascus (733). "Rasunnu fled like a gazelle, he took refuge in the capital, where he was shut up like a bird in a cage. I destroyed like a flood 591 cities of the 16 districts in the land of Damascus" (Annals of Nimrud, lines 195-209). After two years (732) the city was taken and R. put to death. Damascus became an Assyrian province (II Kings 16:9; II Chron. 28:16, 1940).