Discovery Box2 Kings 15:18-20
Context15:18 He did evil in the sight of 1 the Lord; he did not repudiate 2 the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin. 3
During his reign, 15:19 Pul 4 king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem paid 5 him 6 a thousand talents 7 of silver to gain his support 8 and to solidify his control of the kingdom. 9 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. 10 Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.
[15:18] 1 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[15:18] 2 tn Heb “turn away from.”
[15:18] 3 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] 4 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 “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[15:19] 7 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] 8 tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”
[15:19] 9 tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”
[15:20] 7 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.”
