2 Raja-raja 15:17-20

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.

[15:17]  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 The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.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.”