2 Raja-raja 15:17-22

Menahem’s Reign over Israel

15:17 In the thirty-ninth year of King Azariah’s reign over Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king over Israel. He reigned for twelve years in Samaria. ¹  15:18 He did evil in the sight of ²  the Lord; he did not repudiate ³  the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin. ⁴ 

During his reign, 15:19 Pul ⁵  king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem paid ⁶  him ⁷  a thousand talents ⁸  of silver to gain his support ⁹  and to solidify his control of the kingdom. ¹⁰  15:20 Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. ¹¹  Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.

15:21 The rest of the events of Menahem’s reign, including all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ¹²  15:22 Menahem passed away ¹³  and his son Pekahiah replaced him as king.

[15:17]  ¹ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[15:18]  ² tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[15:18]  ³ tn Heb “turn away from.”

[15:18]  ⁴ tc The MT of v. 18 ends with the words, “all his days.” If this phrase is taken with what precedes, then one should translate, “[who encouraged Israel to sin] throughout his reign.” However, it may be preferable to emend the text to בְיֹמָיו (bÿyomav), “in his days,” and join the phrase to what follows. The translation assumes this change.

[15:19]  ⁵ sn Pul was a nickname of Tiglath-pileser III (cf. 15:29). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 171-72.

[15:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “gave.”

[15:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:19]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75,000 pounds of silver (cf. NCV “about seventy-four thousand pounds”); NLT “thirty-seven tons”; CEV “over thirty tons”; TEV “34,000 kilogrammes.”

[15:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”

[15:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”

[15:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Menahem brought out the silver over Israel, over the prominent men of means, to give to the king of Assyria, fifty shekels of silver for each man.”

[15:21]  ¹² tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Menahem, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?”

[15:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”