Discovery Box2 Kings 15:8--17:6
Context15:8 In the thirty-eighth year of King Azariah’s reign over Judah, Jeroboam’s son Zechariah became king over Israel. He reigned in Samaria 1 for six months. 15:9 He did evil in the sight of 2 the Lord, as his ancestors had done. He did not repudiate 3 the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin. 15:10 Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against him; he assassinated him in Ibleam 4 and took his place as king. 15:11 The rest of the events of Zechariah’s reign are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 5 15:12 His assassination brought to fulfillment the Lord’s word to Jehu, 6 “Four generations of your descendants will rule over Israel.” 7 That is exactly what happened. 8
15:13 Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the thirty-ninth year of King Uzziah’s 9 reign over Judah. He reigned for one month 10 in Samaria. 15:14 Menahem son of Gadi went up from Tirzah to 11 Samaria and attacked Shallum son of Jabesh. 12 He killed him and took his place as king. 15:15 The rest of the events of Shallum’s reign, including the conspiracy he organized, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 13 15:16 At that time Menahem came from Tirzah and attacked Tiphsah. He struck down all who lived in the city and the surrounding territory, because they would not surrender. 14 He even ripped open the pregnant women.
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. 15 15:18 He did evil in the sight of 16 the Lord; he did not repudiate 17 the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin. 18
During his reign, 15:19 Pul 19 king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem paid 20 him 21 a thousand talents 22 of silver to gain his support 23 and to solidify his control of the kingdom. 24 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. 25 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. 26 15:22 Menahem passed away 27 and his son Pekahiah replaced him as king.
15:23 In the fiftieth year of King Azariah’s reign over Judah, Menahem’s son Pekahiah became king over Israel. He reigned in Samaria 28 for two years. 15:24 He did evil in the sight of 29 the Lord; he did not repudiate 30 the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin. 15:25 His officer Pekah son of Remaliah conspired against him. He and fifty Gileadites assassinated Pekahiah, as well as Argob and Arieh, in Samaria in the fortress of the royal palace. 31 Pekah then took his place as king.
15:26 The rest of the events of Pekahiah’s reign, including all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 32
15:27 In the fifty-second year of King Azariah’s reign over Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king over Israel. He reigned in Samaria 33 for twenty years. 15:28 He did evil in the sight of 34 the Lord; he did not repudiate 35 the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin. 15:29 During Pekah’s reign over Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, 36 Gilead, and Galilee, including all the territory of Naphtali. He deported the people 37 to Assyria. 15:30 Hoshea son of Elah conspired against Pekah son of Remaliah. He assassinated him 38 and took his place as king, in the twentieth year of the reign of Jotham son of Uzziah.
15:31 The rest of the events of Pekah’s reign, including all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 39
15:32 In the second year of the reign of Israel’s King Pekah son of Remaliah, Uzziah’s son Jotham became king over Judah. 15:33 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. 40 His mother was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. 15:34 He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Uzziah had done. 41 15:35 But the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places. He built the Upper Gate to the Lord’s temple.
15:36 The rest of the events of Jotham’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 42 15:37 In those days the Lord prompted King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah to attack Judah. 43 15:38 Jotham passed away 44 and was buried with his ancestors in the city of his ancestor David. His son Ahaz replaced him as king.
16:1 In the seventeenth year of the reign of Pekah son of Remaliah, Jotham’s son Ahaz became king over Judah. 16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. 45 He did not do what pleased the Lord his God, in contrast to his ancestor David. 46 16:3 He followed in the footsteps of 47 the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, 48 a horrible sin practiced by the nations 49 whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites. 16:4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
16:5 At that time King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel attacked Jerusalem. 50 They besieged Ahaz, 51 but were unable to conquer him. 52 16:6 (At that time King Rezin of Syria 53 recovered Elat for Syria; he drove the Judahites from there. 54 Syrians 55 arrived in Elat and live there to this very day.) 16:7 Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your dependent. 56 March up and rescue me from the power 57 of the king of Syria and the king of Israel, who have attacked 58 me.” 16:8 Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that were 59 in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as tribute 60 to the king of Assyria. 16:9 The king of Assyria responded favorably to his request; 61 he 62 attacked Damascus and captured it. He deported the people 63 to Kir and executed Rezin.
16:10 When King Ahaz went to meet with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria in Damascus, he saw the altar there. 64 King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a drawing of the altar and a blueprint for its design. 65 16:11 Uriah the priest built an altar in conformity to the plans King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. 66 Uriah the priest finished it before King Ahaz arrived back from Damascus. 67 16:12 When the king arrived back from Damascus and 68 saw the altar, he approached it 69 and offered a sacrifice on it. 70 16:13 He offered his burnt sacrifice and his grain offering. He poured out his libation and sprinkled the blood from his peace offerings on the altar. 16:14 He moved the bronze altar that stood in the Lord’s presence from the front of the temple (between the altar and the Lord’s temple) and put it on the north side of the new 71 altar. 16:15 King Ahaz ordered Uriah the priest, “On the large altar 72 offer the morning burnt sacrifice, the evening grain offering, the royal burnt sacrifices and grain offering, the burnt sacrifice for all the people of Israel, their grain offering, and their libations. Sprinkle all the blood of the burnt sacrifice and other sacrifices on it. The bronze altar will be for my personal use.” 73 16:16 So Uriah the priest did exactly as 74 King Ahaz ordered.
16:17 King Ahaz took off the frames of the movable stands, and removed the basins from them. He took “The Sea” 75 down from the bronze bulls that supported it 76 and put it on the pavement. 16:18 He also removed the Sabbath awning 77 that had been built 78 in the temple and the king’s outer entranceway, on account of the king of Assyria. 79
16:19 The rest of the events of Ahaz’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 80 16:20 Ahaz passed away 81 and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His son Hezekiah replaced him as king.
17:1 In the twelfth year of King Ahaz’s reign over Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel. He reigned in Samaria 82 for nine years. 17:2 He did evil in the sight of 83 the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him. 17:3 King Shalmaneser of Assyria threatened 84 him; Hoshea became his subject and paid him tribute. 17:4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was planning a revolt. 85 Hoshea had sent messengers to King So 86 of Egypt and had not sent his annual tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and imprisoned him. 87 17:5 The king of Assyria marched through 88 the whole land. He attacked Samaria and besieged it for three years. 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel 89 to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.
[15:8] 1 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[15:9] 2 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[15:9] 3 tn Heb “turn away from.”
[15:10] 4 tc The MT reads, “and he struck him down before the people and killed him” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). However, the reading קָבָל עָם (qaval ’am), “before the people,” is problematic to some because קָבָל is a relatively late Aramaic term. Nevertheless, the Aramaic term qobel certainly antedates the writing of Kings. The bigger problem seems to be the unnecessary intrusion of an Aramaic word at all here. Most interpreters prefer to follow Lucian’s Greek version and read “in Ibleam” (בְיִבְלְעָם, bÿivle’am). Cf. NAB, TEV.
[15:11] 5 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam, look, they are written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.”
[15:12] 6 tn Heb “It was the word of the
[15:12] 7 tn “sons of four generations will sit for you on the throne of Israel.”
[15:12] 8 tn Heb “and it was so.”
[15:13] 9 sn Azariah was also known by the name Uzziah.
[15:13] 10 tn Heb “a month of days.”
[15:14] 11 tn Heb “and came to.”
[15:14] 12 tn Heb “went up from Tirzah and arrived in Samaria and attacked Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria.”
[15:15] 13 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he conspired, look, they are written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.”
[15:16] 14 tn Heb “then Menahem attacked Tiphsah and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah, for it would not open, and he attacked.”
[15:17] 15 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[15:18] 16 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[15:18] 17 tn Heb “turn away from.”
[15:18] 18 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] 19 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] 21 tn Heb “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[15:19] 22 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] 23 tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”
[15:19] 24 tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”
[15:20] 25 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] 26 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] 27 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[15:23] 28 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[15:24] 29 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[15:24] 30 tn Heb “turn away from.”
[15:25] 31 tn Heb “and he struck him down in Samaria in the fortress of the house of the king, Argob and Arieh, and with him fifty men from the sons of the Gileadites, and they killed him.”
[15:26] 32 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Pekahiah, and all which he did, look, they are written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.”
[15:27] 33 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[15:28] 34 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[15:28] 35 tn Heb “turn away from.”
[15:29] 36 map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 D3; Map3 A2; Map4 C1.
[15:30] 38 tn Heb “and struck him down and killed him.”
[15:31] 39 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Pekah, and all which he did, look, they are written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.”
[15:33] 40 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[15:34] 41 tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the
[15:36] 42 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jotham, and that which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[15:37] 43 tn Heb “the
[15:38] 44 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[16:2] 45 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[16:2] 46 tn Heb “and he did not do what was proper in the eyes of the
[16:3] 47 tn Heb “he walked in the way of.”
[16:3] 48 sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.
[16:3] 49 tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”
[16:5] 50 tn Heb “went up to Jerusalem for battle.”
[16:5] 51 tn That is, Jerusalem, Ahaz’s capital city.
[16:5] 52 tn Heb “they were unable to fight.” The object must be supplied from the preceding sentence. Elsewhere when the Niphal infinitive of לָחָם (lakham) follows the verb יָכֹל (yakhol), the infinitive appears to have the force of “prevail against.” See Num 22:11; 1 Sam 17:9; and the parallel passage in Isa 7:1.
[16:6] 53 tc Some prefer to read “the king of Edom” and “for Edom” here. The names Syria (Heb “Aram,” אֲרָם, ’aram) and Edom (אֱדֹם, ’edom) are easily confused in the Hebrew consonantal script.
[16:6] 55 tc The consonantal text (Kethib), supported by many medieval Hebrew
[16:7] 56 tn Heb “son.” Both terms (“servant” and “son”) reflect Ahaz’s subordinate position as Tiglath-pileser’s subject.
[16:7] 57 tn Heb “hand, palm.”
[16:7] 58 tn Heb “who have arisen against.”
[16:8] 59 tn Heb “that was found.”
[16:8] 60 tn Or “bribe money.”
[16:9] 61 tn Heb “listened to him.”
[16:9] 62 tn Heb “the king of Assyria.”
[16:10] 64 tn Heb “in Damascus.”
[16:10] 65 tn Heb “the likeness of the altar and its pattern for all its work.”
[16:11] 66 tn Heb “according to all that King Ahaz sent from Damascus.”
[16:11] 67 tn Heb “so Uriah the priest did, until the arrival of King Ahaz from Damascus.”
[16:12] 68 tn Heb “and the king.”
[16:12] 69 tn Heb “the altar.”
[16:12] 70 tn Or “ascended it.”
[16:14] 71 tn The word “new” is added in the translation for clarification.
[16:15] 72 tn That is, the newly constructed altar.
[16:15] 73 tn Heb “for me to seek.” The precise meaning of בָּקַר (baqar), “seek,” is uncertain in this context. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 189.
[16:16] 74 tn Heb “according to all which.”
[16:17] 75 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 7:23.
[16:17] 76 tn Heb “that [were] under it.”
[16:18] 77 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term מוּסַךְ (musakh; Qere) / מִיסַךְ (misakh; Kethib) is uncertain. For discussion see HALOT 557 s.v. מוּסַךְ and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 189-90.
[16:18] 78 tn Heb “that they built.”
[16:18] 79 sn It is doubtful that Tiglath-pileser ordered these architectural changes. Ahaz probably made these changes so he could send some of the items and materials to the Assyrian king as tribute. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 190, 193.
[16:19] 80 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Ahaz, and that which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[16:20] 81 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[17:1] 82 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[17:2] 83 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[17:3] 84 tn Heb “went up against.”
[17:4] 85 tn Heb “and the king of Assyria found in Hoshea conspiracy.”
[17:4] 86 sn For discussion of this name, see HALOT 744 s.v. סוֹא and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 196.
[17:4] 87 tn Heb “and bound him in the house of confinement.”
[17:5] 88 tn Heb “went up against.”
[17:6] 89 tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.
