TEXT [Commentary]

6. Menahem rules in Israel (15:16-22)

16 At that time Menahem destroyed the town of Tappuah[*] and all the surrounding countryside as far as Tirzah, because its citizens refused to surrender the town. He killed the entire population and ripped open the pregnant women.

17 Menahem son of Gadi began to rule over Israel in the thirty-ninth year of King Uzziah’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria ten years. 18 But Menahem did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. During his entire reign, he refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit.

19 Then King Tiglath-pileser[*] of Assyria invaded the land. But Menahem paid him thirty-seven tons[*] of silver to gain his support in tightening his grip on royal power. 20 Menahem extorted the money from the rich of Israel, demanding that each of them pay fifty pieces[*] of silver to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned from attacking Israel and did not stay in the land.

21 The rest of the events in Menahem’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel. 22 When Menahem died, his son Pekahiah became the next king.

NOTES

15:16 Tappuah. This follows the Lucianic mss of the LXX; the MT reads “Tiphsah” (tipsakh [TH8607, ZH9527]), but a reference to this city on the Euphrates River seems most unlikely here. Cogan and Tadmor (1988:171) suggest that a confusion between the letters Samekh and Waw in the early Aramaic period led to the confusion. Tappuah, located on the border between Ephraim and Manasseh (ABD 6.319-320), would only have been 12 mi. (20 km) or so south of Tirzah (see the note on 15:14 for the location of that city). But then that means Menahem committed cruel atrocities against, in essence, his own people.

ripped open the pregnant women. Cf. the horrendous actions of the Aramean king Hazael as described back in 8:12, which caused the prophet Elisha to weep bitterly over the prospect. For an Assyrian parallel attesting this kind of atrocity, see Cogan (1983:755-757).

15:17 Menahem son of Gadi. See the second note on 15:14.

ten years. Possibly a round number; it is hard to fit this length of reign in literally (cf. Barnes 1991:157 note o, where I opted for eight years). In any case, Menahem is cited in the annals of Tiglath-pileser III as paying tribute to him in 738 BC (15:19; cf. Cogan and Tadmor 1988:172; also Wiseman 1993:254).

15:18 Jeroboam son of Nebat. See the note on 14:24.

15:19 King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria. More formally Tiglath-pileser III (but cited here simply as “Pul”), the vigorous new king who ascended the Assyrian throne in 745 BC. For the use of the nickname “Pul” for Tiglath-Pileser (“Pulu,” meaning “limestone [block],” and probably representing a folk-etymological reference to “Pileser”), see ­Roberts 2009:594; Cogan and Tadmor 1988:172. We will be hearing more about this king throughout the reigns of the next several kings of Israel and Judah (for the equation of the death of Tiglath-pileser in 727 BC with the possibly concurrent death of Ahaz of Judah in that same year, see Tadmor’s conclusions detailed in Barnes 1991:115-116).

thirty-seven tons of silver. Lit., “1,000 talents” (for the probable weight of the talent in modern terms, see the second note on 1 Kgs 9:14).

15:20 fifty pieces of silver. Lit., “50 shekels” (again, see the second note on 1 Kgs 9:14 for the modern-day equivalents). Wiseman (1993:255), noting that this was the current price of a slave in Assyria, suggests that this levy was not unduly oppressive for the “leading class,” who otherwise would have been compelled to furnish men of war.

15:21 are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel. See “Literary Style” in the Introduction.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Usurper of a usurper, and an assassin of an assassin, Menahem truly embodies both the cruelty and the cowardice which would typify the role of such an individual—brutally terrorizing the weak (15:16) and cravenly groveling before the strong (15:19-20). In contrast to the kings from the family of Jehu, there is no positive comment whatsoever appended to the brief discussion here of the rather substantial reign of Menahem (that is, substantial in length of time in contrast to the reigns of his immediate predecessor and successor). Menahem became a vassal king of Assyria. Even the Israelite “rich” had little reason to appreciate Menahem (see 15:20), for he brought no clear “comfort” their way. There is, however, one dubious distinction to be attached to his reign: He was able successfully to establish Pekahiah his son as his successor—but apparently the latter lasted only two years. As the prophet Hosea put it, “They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me [Yahweh] for help” (Hos 7:7b). This was surely a miserable time to be living in the land of Israel.