During his reign, 15:19 Pul 10 king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem paid 11 him 12 a thousand talents 13 of silver to gain his support 14 and to solidify his control of the kingdom. 15 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. 16 Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.
18:9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah’s reign (it was the seventh year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea, son of Elah), King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched 19 up against Samaria 20 and besieged it.
1:5 When the messengers returned to the king, 24 he asked them, “Why have you returned?” 1:6 They replied, 25 “A man came up to meet us. He told us, “Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are sending for an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. 26 Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.”’”
9:28 “Then, when they were at rest again, they went back to doing evil before you. Then you abandoned them to 28 their enemies, and they gained dominion over them. When they again cried out to you, in your compassion you heard from heaven and rescued them time and again.
1 tn Heb “and the anger of the
2 tn Heb “he gave them into the hand of.”
3 tn Heb “all the days.”
4 tn Heb “Indeed he did not leave to Jehoahaz people.” The identity of the subject is uncertain, but the king of Syria, mentioned later in the verse, is a likely candidate.
5 tn Heb “them,” i.e., the remainder of this troops.
6 tn Heb “and made them like dust for trampling.”
7 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
8 tn Heb “turn away from.”
9 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.
10 sn Pul was a nickname of Tiglath-pileser III (cf. 15:29). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 171-72.
11 tn Heb “gave.”
12 tn Heb “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
13 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.”
14 tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”
15 tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”
16 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.”
17 map For location see Map1-D2; Map2-D3; Map3-A2; Map4-C1.
18 tn Heb “them.”
19 tn Heb “went” (also in v. 13).
20 map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.
21 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
22 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
23 tn The parallel passage in 2 Chr 29:1 has “Abijah.”
24 tn Heb “to him.”
25 tn Heb “said to him.”
26 tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are sending to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question. In v. 3 the messengers are addressed (in the phrase “you are on your way” the second person plural pronoun is used in Hebrew), but here the king is addressed (in the phrase “you are sending” the second person singular pronoun is used).
27 tn Heb “from the hand of” (so NASB, NIV); NAB “from the power of.”
28 tn Heb “in the hand of” (so KJV, ASV); NAB “to the power of.”