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2 Kings 15:17–22 — Menahem Reigns in Israel. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Reigned ten years. —And some months over. (Comp. 2Kings 15:23 .)

Ellicott is reading the regnal totals of the chapter against each other; the “some months over” is inference from the synchronisms, not a figure the text supplies.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

Menahem's reign lasted ten full years (see at 2 Kings 15:23 ), and resembled that of his predecessors in its attitude towards God

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Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

This history shows Israel in confusion. Though Judah was not without troubles, yet that kingdom was happy, compared with the state of Israel.

Henry's note is written over the whole block 15:8-31, not this verse alone, so it is a summary of the chapter's chaos rather than a comment on Menahem in particular.

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In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah’s reign over Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria ten years.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

šə·lō·šîm wā·ṯê·ša‘ biš·naṯ šā·nāh la·‘ă·zar·yāh me·leḵ yə·hū·ḏāh mə·na·ḥêm ben- gā·ḏî mā·laḵ ‘al- yiś·rā·’êl bə·šō·mə·rō·wn ‘e·śer šā·nîm

Word by word16 · parsed

שְׁלֹשִׁ֤יםšə·lō·šîmIn the thirty-ninthH7970

√ shᵉlôwshîym — thirtyNumbercommon plural

The numeral opens the verse, before any name: chronology first, persons second. That is the Kings historian's fixed habit.

וָתֵ֙שַׁע֙wā·ṯê·ša‘. . .H8672

√ têshaʻ — nine or (ordinal) ninthConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular

בִּשְׁנַ֨תbiš·naṯyearH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct

שָׁנָ֔הšā·nāhH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular

לַעֲזַרְיָ֖הla·‘ă·zar·yāhof Azariah’sH5838

√ ʻĂzaryâh — Azarjah, the name of nineteen IsraelitesPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular

ʻĂzaryâh: Azariah, the name of nineteen Israelites The Strong's gloss itself shows how common the name is (H5838 stands over nineteen different men). Here it is Uzziah of Judah, and the dating formula quietly asserts that the true clock of the narrative runs in Jerusalem: even Samaria's usurpers are timed by a Davidic reign.

מֶ֣לֶךְme·leḵreignH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

יְהוּדָ֑הyə·hū·ḏāhover JudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

מְנַחֵ֨םmə·na·ḥêmMenahemH4505

√ Mᵉnachêm — Menachem, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

Mᵉnachêm: Menachem, an Israelite A rare name in the canon (the Verifier counts the lexeme in only eight verses, all of them in this chapter's block). Gill notes that since “Shallum reigning but one month, both their reigns began the same year,” Menahem's accession is measured off a murder. K&D reckon the ten years as “ten full years.”

בֶּן־ben-sonH1121

√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct

גָּדִ֧יgā·ḏîof GadiH1424

√ Gâdîy — Gadi, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

מָ֠לַךְmā·laḵbecame kingH4427

√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

mâlak: to reign Qal perfect. The historian uses the same colorless verb for a legitimate succession and for a throne taken by assassination (2 Kings 15:14). The verb never editorializes; the verdict comes in the next verse, in a different vocabulary altogether.

עַל־‘al-ofH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

יִשְׂרָאֵ֛לyiś·rā·’êlIsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

בְּשֹׁמְרֽוֹן׃bə·šō·mə·rō·wn[and he reigned] in SamariaH8111

√ Shômᵉrôwn — Shomeron, a place in PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular

Shômᵉrôwn: Shomeron, a place in Palestine Samaria is named as the seat of the reign, as it is for every northern king in this chapter. Ellicott dates the reign at “ten years” plus “some months over” by comparison with 2 Kings 15:23, and Pulpit notes Josephus agrees with the figure.

עֶ֥שֶׂר‘e·śertenH6235

√ ʻeser — ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits)Numberfeminine singular construct

שָׁנִ֖יםšā·nîmyearsH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine plural

Literal — word-for-word from the original

In-year thirty and-nine year to-Azariah king-of Judah, Menahem son-of Gadi reigned over Israel in-Samaria, ten years.

Where the English smooths the original

בִּשְׁנַ֨ת … שָׁנָ֔ה בִּשְׁנַ֨ת (biš·naṯ, construct of shâneh, H8141) is followed in the same clause by the absolute שָׁנָ֔ה (šā·nāh). The Hebrew says the word “year” twice, once bound to the numeral and once standing free, which is the ordinary chronicler's idiom for a regnal date. English prints one “year” and the doubling vanishes.
לַעֲזַרְיָ֖ה לַעֲזַרְיָ֖ה (la·‘ă·zar·yāh) is preposition-l plus the name: literally “to Azariah,” not “of Azariah's reign.” The northern king's accession is dated by reference to a southern king. The reckoning frame itself is Judah, even while the narrative is about Israel.
מָ֠לַךְ מָ֠לַךְ (mā·laḵ, H4427, Qal perfect 3ms) is the plain verb “he reigned / he became king.” BSB splits it into two English statements (“became king … and he reigned”), but the Hebrew has one verb governing both the accession and the ten years.
בְּשֹׁמְרֽוֹן׃ בְּשֹׁמְרֽוֹן׃ (bə·šō·mə·rō·wn, H8111) carries the verse-final accent, and the numeral “ten years” follows it in the interlinear order. English must supply a second verb, “[and he reigned] in Samaria,” to make the phrase land. The bracket in the interlinear is the translator's seam, not the Hebrew's.

And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and throughout his reign he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·ya·‘aś hā·ra‘ bə·‘ê·nê Yah·weh kāl- yā·māw lō sār mê·‘al ḥaṭ·ṭō·wṯ yā·rā·ḇə·‘ām ben- nə·ḇāṭ ’ă·šer- yiś·rā·’êl he·ḥĕ·ṭî ’eṯ-

Word by word17 · parsed

וַיַּ֥עַשׂway·ya·‘aśAnd he didH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

הָרַ֖עhā·ra‘evilH7451

√ raʻ — bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)ArticleAdjectivemasculine singular

raʻ: bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) With the article, this is the book's technical verdict, repeated over nearly every northern king. Pulpit reads the formula exactly so: “The writer does not seem to regard Menahem as either better or worse than his predecessors,” and adds that the usual formula suffices to describe the moral and religious aspect of the reign. The flatness is the point; the historian is not grading personalities, he is recording covenant status.

בְּעֵינֵ֣יbə·‘ê·nêin the sightH5869

√ ʻayin — an eye (literally or figuratively)Preposition-bNouncdc

ʻayin: an eye (literally or figuratively) The dual construct “in the eyes of YHWH” makes the evaluation optical and personal. Not “it was wrong,” but “it looked so to Him.” The formula presumes a watching covenant Lord, which is why the political narrative that follows can be read as verdict rather than accident.

יְהוָ֑הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

כָּל־kāl-and throughoutH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct

יָמָֽיו׃yā·māwhis reignH3117

√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

yôwm: a day … or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term) The suffixed plural “his days.” This is the crux of the verse: K&D call the expression “a very strange one, inasmuch as no such definition of time occurs in connection with the usual formula,” and propose that a copyist's error turned an original bᵉyāmāyw (“in his days”), belonging to v. 19, into kol-yāmāyw here. Pulpit adopts Thenius's version of the same emendation. Nothing doctrinal hangs on it, but the reader should know the clause is contested.

לֹ֣אlōhe did notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

סָ֠רsārturn awayH5493

√ çûwr — to turn off (literal or figurative)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

çûwr: to turn off (literal or figurative) Qal perfect with the negative: he never turned aside. The verb is one of direction, not of feeling. Repentance in Kings is measured as a change of course away from a cult, and the negated verb says that course never altered once in ten years.

מֵעַ֨לmê·‘alfromH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition-m

חַטֹּ֜אותḥaṭ·ṭō·wṯthe sins thatH2403

√ chaṭṭâʼâh — an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness), and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, or expiationNounfeminine plural construct

chaṭṭâʼâh: an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness), and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, or expiation The noun Strong's defines as carrying, in one word, the offence and its penalty and its expiation. That range is the whole tragedy of the northern kingdom in a single lexeme: the calves at Bethel and Dan are named here as a standing offence whose penalty is already attached to it, and the only member of the word's own semantic field that Israel never reaches for is the last one. The plural construct binds these sins permanently to a man dead two centuries before Menahem.

יָרָבְעָ֧םyā·rā·ḇə·‘āmJeroboamH3379

√ Yârobʻâm — Jarobam, the name of two Israelite kingsNounpropermasculine singular

בֶּן־ben-sonH1121

נְבָ֛טnə·ḇāṭof NebatH5028

√ Nᵉbâṭ — Nebat, the father of Jeroboam INounpropermasculine singular

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לyiś·rā·’êlhad caused IsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

הֶחֱטִ֥יאhe·ḥĕ·ṭîto commitH2398

√ châṭâʼ — properly, to missVerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singular

châṭâʼ: properly, to miss (Hifil) The causative of missing the mark. The Verifier finds this exact triple (H3379 Jeroboam, H2398 to sin, H2403 sins) in 2 Kings 3:3, 13:2, 13:11, 14:24, 15:9, 15:24, 15:28, 17:21 and 1 Kings 16:26. It is a fixed liturgical indictment, and its final appearance in 2 Kings 17:21 is the verdict that ends the kingdom.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-did the-evil in-eyes-of YHWH; all-his-days he-turned-not from-upon the-sins-of Jeroboam son-of Nebat, which he-caused-to-sin Israel.

Where the English smooths the original

הָרַ֖ע הָרַ֖ע (hā·ra‘, H7451) is articular: the evil, not “evil” in general. Strong's gives “bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral).” The article makes it a known, named quantity in this book: the specific cult-evil of the northern throne, already defined for the reader by Jeroboam.
כָּל־יָמָֽיו׃ כָּל־יָמָֽיו׃ (kāl-yā·māw, “all his days”) stands at the end of the Hebrew verse, not in the middle where English puts it. Ellicott: “In the Hebrew these words occur at the end of the verse,” and “almost certainly belong to the next verse.” Cambridge records that they are “unrepresented in the LXX.” BSB smooths this into “throughout his reign.”
מֵעַ֨ל מֵעַ֨ל (mê·‘al, H5921 with preposition-m) is literally “from upon.” Ellicott: “Heb., from upon the sins, which is peculiar,” and he judges the LXX reading “from all the sins” to be right. English “from the sins” hides a genuine textual oddity.
הֶחֱטִ֥יא הֶחֱטִ֥יא (he·ḥĕ·ṭî, H2398, Hifil perfect) is causative: Jeroboam did not merely sin, he made Israel sin. The Qal root means “properly, to miss.” The Hiphil makes one man the cause of a nation's missing, and it is that causal stem, not the noun “sins,” that carries the theology of the formula.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

This is the first distinct mention which we find in Scripture of Assyria as an aggressive power.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

Instead of seeking help from God, he went about by money to purchase the favour of this king being an infidel and therefore God forsook him, and Pul soon afterward broke his promises, destroyed his country and led his people away captive.

Geneva is reading forward from this verse to the deportations of 2 Kings 17; the sentence is prophetic hindsight about the policy, not a claim that Pul himself carried Israel away.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

the assumption that Menahem invited Pul into the land is opposed by the words in the verse before us,

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

This Pul, or Phul, was the first monarch of that nation that invaded Israel, and began their transportation out of their country.

Benson's identifications of Pul (with Belesis, or as Sardanapalus's father, or as the king who repented at Jonah's preaching) are eighteenth century conjectures he himself reports as disputed; the point that survives is the historical first, not the genealogy.

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Then Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in order to gain his support and strengthen his own grip on the kingdom.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

p̄ūl me·leḵ- ’aš·šūr bā ‘al- hā·’ā·reṣ mə·na·ḥêm way·yit·tên lə·p̄ūl ’e·lep̄ kik·kar- kā·sep̄ lih·yō·wṯ yā·ḏāw ’it·tōw lə·ha·ḥă·zîq bə·yā·ḏōw ham·mam·lā·ḵāh

Word by word18 · parsed

פ֤וּלp̄ūlThen PulH6322

√ Pûwl — Pul, the name of an Assyrian king and of an Ethiopian tribeNounpropermasculine singular

Pûwl: Pul, the name of an Assyrian king and of an Ethiopian tribe A genuinely rare lexeme (the Verifier finds it in three verses in all). Who he was is the largest open question in this unit: Ellicott and Cambridge both follow Schrader in identifying Pul with Tiglath-pileser II, while Barnes argues that “Pul, a Chaldaean and not an Assyrian king, established a second monarchy upon the Euphrates,” and K&D follow Niebuhr in making him the last Nineveh king of the Derketades. The commentators disagree; the text itself simply says melek ʼAshshûr.

מֶֽלֶךְ־me·leḵ-kingH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

אַשּׁוּר֙’aš·šūrof AssyriaH804

√ ʼAshshûwr — Ashshur, the second son of ShemNounproperfeminine singular

בָּ֣אbāinvadedH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

bôwʼ: to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) The neutral verb of coming, not a verb of conquest. K&D build a whole argument on it: the wording “Pul came over the land” is, for them, decisive against the reading that Menahem summoned him. Barnes registers the larger weight of the moment: this is the first distinct appearance in Scripture of Assyria as an aggressive power.

עַל־‘al-. . .H5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

הָאָ֔רֶץhā·’ā·reṣthe landH776

√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)ArticleNounfeminine singular

מְנַחֵם֙mə·na·ḥêmand MenahemH4505

√ Mᵉnachêm — Menachem, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּתֵּ֤ןway·yit·têngaveH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

לְפ֔וּלlə·p̄ūlPulH6322

√ Pûwl — Pul, the name of an Assyrian king and of an Ethiopian tribePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular

אֶ֖לֶף’e·lep̄a thousandH505

√ ʼeleph — hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousandNumbermasculine singular construct

ʼeleph: … a thousand Strong's notes that the word derives from the ox's head, the first letter of the alphabet, used as a numeral. The round thousand is the rhetoric of a staggering sum: Cambridge points out that Omri bought the hill of Samaria for two talents (1 Kings 16:24) and Hezekiah's later indemnity was three hundred (2 Kings 18:14).

כִּכַּר־kik·kar-talentsH3603

√ kikkâr — a circle, iNounfeminine singular construct

kikkâr: a circle The talent is named for its shape, a round cake or disc of metal. Weight, not coin. The same lexeme weighs out the sanctuary metal of Exodus 38:24; here the discs travel the other direction, out of the land and into Assyria.

כָּ֑סֶףkā·sep̄of silverH3701

√ keçeph — silver (from its pale color)Nounmasculine singular

לִהְי֤וֹתlih·yō·wṯin order to gain his supportH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iPreposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

hâyâh: to exist The infinitive of simple being, here in a purpose clause: literally “for his hands to be with him.” Menahem's stated aim is not peace and not deliverance; it is the physical presence of an imperial hand on his side of the scale.

יָדָיו֙yā·ḏāw. . .H3027

√ yâd — a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etcNounfeminine dual constructthird person masculine singular

אִתּ֔וֹ’it·tōw. . .H854

√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearPrepositionthird person masculine singular

לְהַחֲזִ֥יקlə·ha·ḥă·zîqand strengthenH2388

√ châzaq — to fasten uponPreposition-lVerbHifilInfinitive construct

châzaq: to fasten upon (Hifil) The same causative root that elsewhere hardens Pharaoh's heart and strengthens a builder's arm. Here it is what silver is meant to accomplish for a usurper. Geneva reads the transaction morally: “Instead of seeking help from God, he went about by money to purchase the favour of this king.” Poole and Benson both note that the cruelty at Tiphsah (v. 16) had weakened rather than secured him, so that a foreign power had to be bought.

בְּיָדֽוֹ׃bə·yā·ḏōwhis own gripH3027

√ yâd — a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etcPreposition-bNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

הַמַּמְלָכָ֖הham·mam·lā·ḵāhon the kingdomH4467

√ mamlâkâh — dominion, iArticleNounfeminine singular

mamlâkâh: dominion Articular: the kingdom. What Menahem is buying is not the nation's safety but his own tenure over it, and the Hebrew keeps the object of the purchase grammatically distinct from the people who will pay for it in the next verse.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

Pul king-of Assyria came upon the-land, and-Menahem gave to-Pul a-thousand talents-of silver, for-to-be his-hands with-him, to-make-strong the-kingdom in-his-hand.

Where the English smooths the original

פ֤וּל פ֤וּל (p̄ūl, H6322) opens the verse with no conjunction at all. Cambridge: “The sentence has no conjunction, and so R.V. represents the original better.” Ellicott notes the LXX supplies “In his days.” BSB's “Then Pul” is an English connective imported to smooth an abrupt Hebrew opening.
בָּ֣א עַל־ בָּ֣א (bā, H935) plus עַל־ is “came upon,” not “invaded.” Ellicott: “Rather, came upon the land (Isaiah 10:28; Judges 18:27). The meaning here is, occupied it.” K&D lean on this very preposition against the theory that Menahem invited him.
לִהְי֤וֹת יָדָיו֙ אִתּ֔וֹ לִהְי֤וֹת יָדָיו֙ אִתּ֔וֹ (lih·yō·wṯ yā·ḏāw ’it·tōw) is literally “that his hands might be with him,” an idiom of armed backing (yâd, H3027, “a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etc)”). BSB's “to gain his support” is accurate in sense and invisible in image; the Hebrew is about whose hand is where.
לְהַחֲזִ֥יק לְהַחֲזִ֥יק (lə·ha·ḥă·zîq, H2388, Hifil infinitive construct) is causative of châzaq, “to fasten upon.” The object is הַמַּמְלָכָ֖ה, the kingdom, and the goal-phrase is בְּיָדֽוֹ, “in his hand.” So the verse ends with two hands in one clause: Pul's hand with him, the kingdom fastened in his own.

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Exacted. —Literally, caused to go out; a word already used in the sense of to lay out, expend money ( 2Kings 12:12 ).

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Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

This tribute, which Menahem raised by a tax on the grandees of Israel, bribed Pul to return to his own country

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Fifty shekels=one maneh, was the sixtieth part of a talent of silver. Hence the mighty men of wealth must have numbered 60,000, a number which tells of the richness of the time.

The sixty thousand is Cambridge's arithmetic from the talent and the maneh, not a figure the text reports; Ellicott and Barnes reach it independently by the same calculation.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

Others therefore render it to or for each man , i.e. for every Assyrian soldier; which interpretation is favoured by the placing of the words in the Hebrew text, which differs from that in our translation.

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Menahem exacted this money from each of the wealthy men of Israel—fifty shekels of silver from each man—to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria withdrew and did not remain in the land.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

mə·na·ḥêm ’eṯ- way·yō·ṣê hak·ke·sep̄ ‘al- ‘al kāl- ha·ḥa·yil gib·bō·w·rê yiś·rā·’êl ḥă·miš·šîm šə·qā·lîm ke·sep̄ ’e·ḥāḏ lə·’îš lā·ṯêṯ lə·me·leḵ ’aš·šūr me·leḵ ’aš·šūr way·yā·šāḇ wə·lō- ‘ā·maḏ šām bā·’ā·reṣ

Word by word25 · parsed

מְנַחֵ֨םmə·na·ḥêmMenahemH4505

√ Mᵉnachêm — Menachem, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

וַיֹּצֵא֩way·yō·ṣêexactedH3318

√ yâtsâʼ — to go (causatively, bring) out, in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively, direct and proximConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

yâtsâʼ: to go (causatively, bring) out The Hiphil makes Menahem the mover of the money out of other men's houses. Barnes puts the political calculation plainly: the northern kings had no temple treasury to raid as Judah's kings did (2 Kings 12:18; 16:8). “Hence, the forced contribution from the people, the odium of which was diminished by confining the levy to the comparatively rich.” Benson and Gill read the same motive: the poor were spared so the throne would be popular.

הַכֶּ֜סֶףhak·ke·sep̄this moneyH3701

√ keçeph — silver (from its pale color)ArticleNounmasculine singular

עַל־‘al-fromH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

עַ֚ל‘al. . .H5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

כָּל־kāl-eachH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct

הַחַ֔יִלha·ḥa·yilof the wealthyH2428

√ chayil — probably a force, whether of men, means or other resourcesArticleNounmasculine singular

chayil: probably a force, whether of men, means or other resources One Hebrew word covering army, valour and property. The unresolved ambiguity is the verse's quiet irony: Israel's “men of force” are named in the same breath in which their force turns out to be portable and payable.

גִּבּוֹרֵ֣יgib·bō·w·rêmenH1368

√ gibbôwr — powerfulAdjectivemasculine plural construct

יִשְׂרָאֵ֗לyiś·rā·’êlof IsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

חֲמִשִּׁ֧יםḥă·miš·šîmfiftyH2572

√ chămishshîym — fiftyNumbercommon plural

chămishshîym: fifty Fifty shekels is a maneh, a sixtieth of a talent, so Ellicott, Barnes and Cambridge independently compute a taxable class of sixty thousand men. That number, extracted from arithmetic rather than stated by the text, is the nearest thing this unit gives to a census of the northern aristocracy.

שְׁקָלִ֛יםšə·qā·lîmshekelsH8255

√ sheqel — probably a weightNounmasculine plural

כֶּ֖סֶףke·sep̄of silverH3701

√ keçeph — silver (from its pale color)Nounmasculine singular

אֶחָ֑ד’e·ḥāḏfrom eachH259

√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iNumbermasculine singular

ʼechâd: properly, united, i The numeral “one,” which here can mean “each individual” or “each single soldier.” K&D take it as “for the individual”; Gill and Poole preserve the other reading. It is the one place in the unit where the syntax itself is genuinely undecided.

לְאִ֣ישׁlə·’îšmanH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personPreposition-lNounmasculine singular

לָתֵת֙lā·ṯêṯto giveH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcPreposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

לְמֶ֣לֶךְlə·me·leḵto the kingH4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine singular construct

אַשּׁ֔וּר’aš·šūrof AssyriaH804

√ ʼAshshûwr — Ashshur, the second son of ShemNounproperfeminine singular

מֶ֣לֶךְme·leḵSo the kingH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

אַשּׁ֔וּר’aš·šūrof AssyriaH804

√ ʼAshshûwr — Ashshur, the second son of ShemNounproperfeminine singular

וַיָּ֙שָׁב֙way·yā·šāḇwithdrewH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shûwb: to turn back (hence, away) … not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point The verb of repentance in the prophets is here the verb of an army going home. Israel would not turn from Jeroboam's sins (v. 18, çûwr); Assyria turns for money. The narrative spends its turning-verbs on the wrong parties.

וְלֹא־wə·lō-and did notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

עָ֥מַד‘ā·maḏremainH5975

√ ʻâmad — to stand, in various relations (literal and figurative, intransitive and transitive)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

ʻâmad: to stand, in various relations The negated verb closes the episode. Pulpit notes the prosaic fact behind it, that Assyrian kings normally wintered at home; Cambridge adds that Pul “had evidently made his approach to the very border.” The reprieve is a schedule, not a salvation.

שָׁ֖םšām. . .H8033

√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb

בָּאָֽרֶץ׃bā·’ā·reṣin the landH776

√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)Preposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-Menahem brought-out the-silver upon Israel, upon all mighty-ones-of the-wealth, fifty shekels-of silver for-the-one man, to-give to-king-of Assyria. And-turned-back the-king-of Assyria, and-not did-he-stand there in-the-land.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיֹּצֵא֩ וַיֹּצֵא֩ (way·yō·ṣê, H3318, Hifil) is causative of yâtsâʼ, “to go out”: he caused the silver to go out. Ellicott: “Literally, caused to go out; a word already used in the sense of to lay out, expend money (2Kings 12:12),” and he suspects an original vayyissā, “imposed.” K&D gloss it “he caused to arise, i.e., made a collection.” BSB's “exacted” is a fair result and a lost image.
גִּבּוֹרֵ֣י הַחַ֔יִל גִּבּוֹרֵ֣י הַחַ֔יִל (gib·bō·w·rê ha·ḥa·yil, H1368 + H2428) is the standard phrase for “mighty men of valour.” Chayil is “probably a force, whether of men, means or other resources,” and the ambiguity is real: Ellicott marks the moneyed sense as a later use of a phrase which in older parlance means the heroes of the host (Judges 6:12; 1 Samuel 9:1), while K&D and Pulpit read it here as men of property, and Pulpit adds that mighty men of valour cannot possibly be intended. English “wealthy men” silently picks one side.
לְאִ֣ישׁ אֶחָ֑ד לְאִ֣ישׁ אֶחָ֑ד (lə·’îš ’e·ḥāḏ) is “for one man,” and its position in the Hebrew is not where the English puts it. Gill: the original “lie more naturally thus, ‘to give to the king of Assyria fifty shekels of silver for one man’,” that is, per Assyrian soldier; Poole reports the same alternative. BSB's “from each man” resolves an ambiguity the Hebrew leaves open.
עָ֥מַד עָ֥מַד (‘ā·maḏ, H5975) is “to stand,” not “to remain.” Paired with וַיָּ֙שָׁב֙ (šûwb, H7725, “to turn back”), the verse ends in two verbs of bodily posture and direction: he turned, and he did not stand there. The land is rid of him by a payment, not by a deliverance.

As for the rest of the acts of Menahem, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ye·ṯer diḇ·rê mə·na·ḥêm wə·ḵāl ’ă·šer ‘ā·śāh hă·lō·w- hêm kə·ṯū·ḇîm ‘al- sê·p̄er diḇ·rê hay·yā·mîm lə·mal·ḵê yiś·rā·’êl

Word by word15 · parsed

וְיֶ֛תֶרwə·ye·ṯerAs for the restH3499

√ yether — properly, an overhanging, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the actsH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct

dâbâr: a word The Hebrew has no separate vocabulary for “deeds of state.” A king's words are his acts, his acts are his record. This is why prophetic literature can treat royal policy as speech to be answered, and why the loss of the source archive is a loss of words rather than of documents merely.

מְנַחֵ֖םmə·na·ḥêmof MenahemH4505

√ Mᵉnachêm — Menachem, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

וְכָל־wə·ḵālalong with allH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerhis accomplishmentsH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

עָשָׂ֑ה‘ā·śāh. . .H6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

הֲלוֹא־hă·lō·w-. . .H3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

הֵ֣םhêm. . .H1992

√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural

כְּתוּבִ֗יםkə·ṯū·ḇîmare they not writtenH3789

√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)VerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural

kâthab: to grave, by implication, to write (Qal passive participle) The citation formula that punctuates the whole book. Gill notes it is “a form the historian uses of them all,” which is exactly its force: Menahem receives the same closing notice as every other king, good or bad, and the sameness is itself a judgment about how much a reign of ten purchased years finally weighs.

עַל־‘al-inH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

סֵ֛פֶרsê·p̄erthe BookH5612

√ çêpher — properly, writing (the art or a document)Nounmasculine singular construct

çêpher: properly, writing (the art or a document) The word covers the act of writing and the thing written. The named source, the royal chronicles of Israel, has not survived; what survived is the inspired book that cites it. The Verifier finds this same citation cluster (H3499 yether, H5612 çêpher, H3789 kâthab) recurring at 2 Kings 15:26 and through the book.

דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the ChroniclesH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct

הַיָּמִ֖יםhay·yā·mîm. . .H3117

yôwm: a day “The days” as an annalistic unit. Pulpit observes that outside this formula “nothing more is known of Menahem the son of Gadi,” and that the “Menahem of Samaria” of Sennacherib's inscriptions is likely a later descendant, not this king.

לְמַלְכֵ֥יlə·mal·ḵêof the KingsH4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine plural construct

יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃yiś·rā·’êlof IsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-the-rest of-the-words-of Menahem, and-all which he-did, are-they not written upon the-book-of the-words-of the-days for-kings-of Israel?

Where the English smooths the original

דִּבְרֵ֥י דִּבְרֵ֥י (diḇ·rê, H1697, dâbâr, “a word”) appears twice in this verse, and both times English changes it: first to “acts,” then to “Chronicles.” The Hebrew title is literally “the book of the words of the days.” One noun does the work of deed, speech and record together, which is why the formula can mean both what a king did and what was said of it.
אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֑ה (’ă·šer ‘ā·śāh) is bare: “which he did.” BSB renders it “his accomplishments,” which adds a positive coloring the Hebrew withholds. The same verb ʻâsâh (H6213) opened v. 18 with “he did the evil,” so the clause is deliberately neutral and the reader supplies the content from three verses back.
הֲלוֹא־ הֵ֣ם הֲלוֹא־ plus הֵ֣ם (H3808 + H1992) is an interrogative negative with an emphatic pronoun: “are not they …?” Strong's marks hêm as used “only when emphatic.” The rhetorical question presumes a reader who can go and check, and it is one of the few places the historian addresses that reader directly.
כְּתוּבִ֗ים כְּתוּבִ֗ים (kə·ṯū·ḇîm, H3789, Qal passive participle) is from a root meaning “to grave, by implication, to write.” A passive participle, not a finite verb: the state of standing written. The formula appeals to an archive outside this book, and that archive is now lost.

And Menahem rested with his fathers, and his son Pekahiah reigned in his place.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

mə·na·ḥêm way·yiš·kaḇ ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw ḇə·nōw pə·qaḥ·yāh way·yim·lōḵ taḥ·tāw

Word by word8 · parsed

מְנַחֵ֖םmə·na·ḥêmAnd MenahemH4505

√ Mᵉnachêm — Menachem, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּשְׁכַּ֥בway·yiš·kaḇrestedH7901

√ shâkab — to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shâkab: to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose) The formula of a peaceful death. In this chapter it is startling: Shallum, Zechariah, Pekahiah and Pekah are all cut down, and Menahem alone, the most violent of them (v. 16), dies in his bed. The historian records the fact without resolving it, and the reader is left holding the tension between v. 18's verdict and v. 22's quiet ending.

עִם־‘im-withH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition

אֲבֹתָ֑יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

ʼâb: father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote application Used of burial with ancestors. For the Davidic kings the phrase points to a tomb and a covenant line; for Menahem son of Gadi it points only to the grave. The same words carry very different freight depending on whose fathers they are.

בְנ֖וֹḇə·nōwand his sonH1121

פְּקַחְיָ֥הpə·qaḥ·yāhPekahiahH6494

√ Pᵉqachyâh — Pekachjah, an Israelite kingNounpropermasculine singular

Pᵉqachyâh: Pekachjah, an Israelite king Cambridge draws the political inference: “Ten years of stern rule had enabled Menahem to secure the throne for his son, though the latter had but a short tenure of power.” Two years later Pekahiah will be murdered by his own officer (2 Kings 15:25). The purchased stability outlives the purchaser by less than the price.

וַיִּמְלֹ֛ךְway·yim·lōḵreignedH4427

√ mâlak — to reignConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

תַּחְתָּֽיו׃פtaḥ·tāwin his placeH8478

√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Prepositionthird person masculine singular

tachath: the bottom (as depressed) The succession preposition of the book. Its literal sense, the place underneath, is quietly apt here: every throne in this chapter is occupied by standing on the spot a previous man vacated, usually by force.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-Menahem lay-down with his-fathers, and-reigned Pekahiah his-son under-him.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּשְׁכַּ֥ב וַיִּשְׁכַּ֥ב (way·yiš·kaḇ, H7901, shâkab) is “to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose).” The English “rested” is softer and more pious than the Hebrew, which uses an ordinary bodily verb. Gill draws the sting out of it precisely: he “died a natural death, and in peace, though an usurper and a tyrant.”
עִם־אֲבֹתָ֑יו עִם־אֲבֹתָ֑יו (‘im-’ă·ḇō·ṯāw, H5973 + H1) is “with his fathers.” ʼâb is glossed “father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote application.” The phrase is the standard Judahite burial formula applied here to a northern usurper whose “fathers” held no throne at all; what he joins is mortality, not a dynasty.
תַּחְתָּֽיו׃ תַּחְתָּֽיו׃ (taḥ·tāw, H8478, tachath, “the bottom (as depressed)”) is spatial before it is temporal: the son reigns under him, in the place beneath where he stood. English “in his place” keeps the succession and loses the picture of one man's position being physically vacated and filled.
פְּקַחְיָ֥ה פְּקַחְיָ֥ה (pə·qaḥ·yāh, H6494) closes the verse and the reign. The form carries the theophoric ending -yāh, the same divine element that stands in Azariah (v. 17): a house that will not turn from Jeroboam's calves still names its heir after YHWH. The syntax puts the name after the verb, so the Hebrew announces that someone reigned before saying who.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The formula, and a clause that will not sit still — 17-18

The unit opens in pure chronicle: a synchronism with Azariah of Judah, a father's name, a capital, a number of years. Ellicott adds from the chapter's other synchronisms that the ten years ran with “some months over”; K&D read them as ten full years. Then comes the verdict, and it is the standard one. Pulpit states the effect exactly: the writer does not seem to regard Menahem as either better or worse than his predecessors, and the usual formula suffices. ⚙ What is unusual is a single phrase. כָּל־יָמָֽיו (“all his days”) stands at the end of the Hebrew verse, in a slot where this formula never otherwise carries a time-marker. Ellicott says the words “almost certainly belong to the next verse”; Cambridge records that the LXX does not represent them at all; K&D propose that an original bᵉyāmāyw, “in his days,” opening v. 19, was corrupted into kol-yāmāyw and then attached backwards; Pulpit follows Thenius to the same emendation. Four independent witnesses, one small textual seam. Nothing of doctrine moves either way, and the honest report is that the seam is there.

ii. Assyria enters the Bible as a power — 19

Barnes marks the threshold: this is the first distinct mention in Scripture of Assyria as an aggressive power, and Benson independently calls Pul the first monarch of that nation to invade Israel and begin the transportation of its people. The Hebrew enters as abruptly as the army does, with no conjunction at all, which Cambridge notes the Revised Version preserves and the LXX papered over with “In his days.” Who Pul was, the commentators cannot agree: Ellicott and Cambridge both lay out Schrader's ten-point case for identifying him with Tiglath-pileser II; Barnes holds that Pul was a Chaldaean who founded a rival monarchy on the Euphrates; K&D follow Niebuhr and note that the name has not been found on the monuments; Pulpit reports the Babylonian evidence that Pulu was Tiglath-pileser's Babylonian throne-name. They also divide on who sought whom. JFB, quoting Keil, reconcile this verse with Hosea 5:13 by saying Menahem “did not properly invite the Assyrian into the land, but only changed the enemy … into a confederate,” and K&D argue from the wording that the assumption that Menahem invited Pul is opposed by the plain statement that Pul came over the land. ⚙ The Hebrew purpose clause is worth hearing literally: לִהְי֤וֹת יָדָיו֙ אִתּ֔וֹ, “that his hands might be with him,” and then לְהַחֲזִ֥יק, to fasten the kingdom בְּיָדֽוֹ, in his own hand. Two hands, one purchase. Geneva says what the grammar implies: instead of seeking help from God, he went about by money to purchase the favour of an infidel king.

iii. Sixty thousand men of substance — 20

The bill is itemized, and the itemizing is the indictment. Ellicott hears the causative verb literally, “caused to go out,” the same verb used of laying out money in 2 Kings 12:12; K&D gloss it as making a collection. Barnes supplies the fiscal reason there had to be a collection at all: the northern kings had no temple treasury to draw on as Judah's kings did, so the levy fell on the people, its odium reduced by confining it to the rich. Gill and Benson both read the exemption of the poor as a bid for popularity. From the arithmetic of talent and maneh, Ellicott, Barnes and Cambridge each independently arrive at sixty thousand contributors, which Cambridge calls a number telling of the richness of the time. ⚙ Two ironies sit in the Hebrew. The payers are called גִּבּוֹרֵ֣י הַחַ֔יִל, mighty men of force, in a sentence whose whole point is that their force is liquid; Ellicott flags that the moneyed sense of the phrase is a later usage, its older sense being the heroes of the host. And the verse ends with shûwb: Assyria turns back for silver in the same chapter in which Israel, according to v. 18, would not turn from the sins of Jeroboam for anything. Poole and Gill also preserve a live syntactic alternative, that the fifty shekels were reckoned per Assyrian soldier rather than per Israelite payer.

iv. The book, and the bed — 21-22

The closing formulae are the book's great leveller. Gill notes that the citation of the chronicles is a form the historian uses of them all, and Pulpit records that outside it nothing more is known of Menahem the son of Gadi. Barnes adds from the inscriptions that Menahem was afterward reduced to subjection by Tiglath-Pileser, so that the thousand talents bought a pause, not an exemption. Then the last verse gives him what this chapter gives almost no one else: he lay down with his fathers. Gill states the tension flatly, that he died a natural death, and in peace, though an usurper and a tyrant. Cambridge draws the political moral, that ten years of stern rule secured the throne for his son, who then had but a short tenure of power. ⚙ The Hebrew verb is shâkab, simply to lie down, and the succession word is tachath, the place underneath. Menahem's son stands where his father stood, on ground his father mortgaged, and two years later an officer named Pekah will stand there instead.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Read under Sola Scriptura, this unit is about what a throne costs when it is held rather than given. Menahem's reign is bracketed by two verbs of not-turning and turning. He would not turn (סָ֠ר, v. 18) from the sins of Jeroboam all his days; the king of Assyria turned back (וַיָּ֙שָׁב֙, v. 20) the moment the money arrived. Everything in Israel that should have moved was fixed, and everything that should have been fixed was for sale. The purpose clause of v. 19 names the theology without meaning to: Menahem wants another king's hands with him and the kingdom fastened in his own hand, and Scripture's word for a kingdom held in a man's own hand is usurpation, however natural the death that ends it. The text refuses us the satisfaction of seeing it punished. Menahem is the one king in this chapter of assassinations who dies in his bed and passes the crown to his son, and the historian, who has already filed the verdict in v. 18, does not revisit it. That restraint is instructive: the book measures reigns by covenant, not by outcome, and it is content to let a wicked man die comfortably on the page because the reckoning it cares about is not a private one. It comes instead on sixty thousand men of property, on their sons, and finally on the land itself. ⚙ Our fallible reading: the thousand talents are the first installment of the exile. What Menahem sent out of the land, the land was later sent after. The line offered below for testing is the tool's own sentence and not Scripture.

A throne propped up with other men's silver has already been sold; only the delivery date is still being negotiated.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Pul, and the two other verses that name him verbal / quotation: confirmed

The name פ֤וּל (Pûwl, H6322) is one of the rarest proper nouns in the canon. The Verifier finds it in three verses in the whole Hebrew Bible, and 1 Chronicles 5:26 is the closest of them: it names Pul king of Assyria alongside Tiglath-pileser and records the deportation of the Transjordan tribes. That is the same lexeme and the same royal title (אַשּׁוּר֙, H804) in a verse that carries the policy of 2 Kings 15:19 to its end. ⚙ The two verses together are also the textual heart of the Pul question: Ellicott and Cambridge cite 1 Chronicles 5:26 in arguing that Pul and Tiglath-pileser are one man, while Barnes and K&D hold them distinct. The link is verbal and computed; the identification it is used to support is not settled here.

1 Chronicles 5:26

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6322 Pûwl (in 3 vv, rare) and H804 ʼAshshûwr (in 138 vv). Rare shared proper noun plus shared royal title; a genuine verbal link between two records of the same Assyrian policy, not a quotation of one by the other.

The third Pul, and why we flag it flagged: verify source

The Verifier's third occurrence of H6322 is Isaiah 66:19, in a list of far nations to which survivors are sent. ⚙ The lexeme match is real and computed, but a name in a prophet's roll of distant peoples is not obviously the Assyrian king of this verse, and nothing in our sourced material adjudicates it. We record the match and decline to build on it.

Isaiah 66:19

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H6322 Pûwl (in 3 vv). Flagged because the referent in Isaiah 66:19 appears in a list of nations rather than as a king of Assyria, and our sources do not settle whether the two uses denote the same entity; Strong's own gloss allows both a king and a tribe.

The sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat: one sentence, nine kings, one ending structural / thematic: confirmed

The indictment of v. 18 is not composed for Menahem. The Verifier finds the identical lexical triple (H3379 Yârobʻâm, H2398 châṭâʼ, H2403 chaṭṭâʼâh) at 1 Kings 16:26 and at 2 Kings 3:3, 13:2, 13:11, 14:24, 15:9, 15:24 and 15:28: a fixed liturgical verdict pronounced over reign after reign. ⚙ Its last occurrence is the one that matters. At 2 Kings 17:21 the same three words appear inside the historian's own explanation of why the northern kingdom ceased to exist. The formula that sounds like bureaucratic repetition through fifteen chapters is revealed there as the charge sheet on which the exile is entered. Gill notes that Menahem receives “the same character … as of those before him”; Pulpit says the usual formula suffices. The sameness is the argument.

1 Kings 16:26 · 2 Kings 13:2 · 2 Kings 15:9 · 2 Kings 17:21

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H3379 Yârobʻâm (in 95 vv), H2398 châṭâʼ (in 220 vv), H2403 chaṭṭâʼâh (in 271 vv). The individual lexemes are common, so no quotation is claimed; what is confirmed is a fixed recurring formula, the same three lexemes in the same order across nine verses.

Talents weighed in, talents weighed out structural / thematic: confirmed

כִּכַּר־ (kikkâr, H3603) names a talent by its shape, a circle or disc of metal. The Verifier links this verse to Exodus 38:24, the ledger of the tabernacle, where the same lexeme counts the metal freely brought by a people for a sanctuary, in a verse that also shares the numerals H7970 (thirty) and H8672 (nine). ⚙ The contrast is structural, not verbal in any quoting sense: in Exodus the discs move inward, given, and become a dwelling for the Name; in 2 Kings 15 a thousand of them are forced out of sixty thousand unwilling men and move outward, to Nineveh, to buy an infidel king's hand. Israel's metal always goes somewhere. The direction of travel is the measure of the reign.

Exodus 38:24

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H3603 kikkâr (in 55 vv), H7970 shᵉlôwshîym (in 163 vv), H8672 têshaʻ (in 57 vv). A real shared vocabulary of weighed talents; the contrast drawn between the two ledgers is our synthesis, not a claim of citation.

Hosea's verdict on this transaction structural / thematic: confirmed

Four of our commentators send the reader to the same prophet. JFB, quoting Keil, say that Hosea, “less concerned about the historical fact than the disposition betrayed therein,” censures this policy as Ephraim going to the Assyrians (Hosea 5:13; 7:11; 8:9) and making a covenant with Asshur; K&D discuss those verses at length and argue they are too general to refer to Menahem specifically; Ellicott cites the same three Hosea passages on the phrase “that his hand might be with him”; Geneva reaches the same moral without citation. ⚙ We record this as an attested thematic link and not a computed one: the Verifier supplied no shared-lexeme basis for it, and K&D actively resist pressing Hosea onto this episode. The prophet and the chronicler describe the same decade; how tightly they may be tied is disputed among the very authorities who tie them.

Hosea 5:13 · Hosea 7:11 · Hosea 8:9

basis: No Verifier lexeme basis; the link is provenanced to named commentators (JFB quoting Keil, Ellicott, K&D, Geneva) as a shared motif of Ephraim seeking Assyrian help. Tiered structural rather than verbal because nothing here is a quotation and no shared Strong's lexeme was computed.

Silver that cannot buy a kingdom structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ A cross-Testament pairing, offered as pattern and not as citation. Menahem raises silver from sixty thousand men so that an imperial hand will be with him and the kingdom fastened in his own hand; Peter tells the exiles of the dispersion that they were not ransomed with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the blood of a lamb without blemish (1 Peter 1:18-19). The two texts stand on either side of the same question: what can actually secure a people. Menahem's answer weighs out and is spent, and Barnes records that the subjection it postponed arrived anyway under Tiglath-Pileser. No shared lexeme is possible here, since one text is Hebrew and the other Greek, and no quotation is claimed in either direction.

1 Peter 1:18-19

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed and no verbal tier is possible. The basis is a shared motif of silver offered as the price of security, confirmed on the text of both passages; the pairing is our synthesis.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The shepherd paid off in silver ancient/widely-held

Ellicott reports that Ewald read Zechariah 11:4-8, the oracle of the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter, as reflecting Menahem's better beginning. ⚙ We do not endorse that identification, and Ellicott himself only reports it. But the passage it points to is the one in which a shepherd's worth is weighed out in silver and thrown to the potter, and that chapter is quoted at the betrayal of Christ in Matthew 27:9-10. The resonance with this unit is not accidental in kind: in 2 Kings 15 a nation's silver is weighed out to keep a bad shepherd on a throne, and in Zechariah 11 a good shepherd is priced and discarded. Israel's leadership crisis, in both places, is settled at a scale. The reading of Zechariah 11 as fulfilled in the betrayal is not ours: it is the apostolic reading, recorded in the Gospel itself.

Zechariah 11:4-8 · Matthew 27:9-10

A hand with him, or a hand laid on him novel

⚙ The grammatical center of v. 19 is a purpose clause about hands: לִהְי֤וֹת יָדָיו֙ אִתּ֔וֹ, that Pul's hands might be with Menahem, לְהַחֲזִ֥יק, to fasten the kingdom in his own hand. Every clause in the verse works to get a kingdom into one man's grip, and the whole apparatus is rented. Set against it is the kingdom that is not seized but conferred: dominion given to one like a son of man, which shall not pass away (Daniel 7:13-14), received rather than purchased, and received precisely by the one who refused the offer of the kingdoms of the world at a price (Matthew 4:8-10). Menahem's throne is the exact inversion, a kingdom bought with silver from a pagan power and held ten years. We mark this as our own reading. The Daniel passage is read messianically by the ancient church, but the contrast with Menahem specifically is ours.

Daniel 7:13-14 · Matthew 4:8-10

The levy on the many, and the ransom by the one ancient/widely-held

⚙ Barnes explains why v. 20 had to happen: the northern kings had no temple treasury, so a king in danger taxed his subjects. The structure of that sentence is the structure of every kingdom of this age. Safety is bought and the people pay; the rich are billed at fifty shekels each, sixty thousand of them by Cambridge's arithmetic, and the man whose throne is saved pays nothing. Scripture's counter-image is a king who reverses the flow: the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), a levy of one for the sixty thousand rather than sixty thousand for the one. The ransom reading of Mark 10:45 is the ancient and universal reading of the church; the contrast with Menahem's tax is our own framing of it.

Mark 10:45

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. Two seams are visible in this short unit and our sources disagree about both. (1) כָּל־יָמָֽיו at the end of v. 18: Cambridge notes it is unrepresented in the LXX; Ellicott judges it to belong to v. 19; K&D reconstruct an original bᵉyāmāyw (“in his days”) corrupted to kol-yāmāyw; Pulpit follows Thenius to the same emendation. We have kept the Masoretic reading in the literal line and flagged the dispute in the note on word 5. (2) v. 19 begins with no conjunction; Cambridge observes that the Revised Version preserves this and the LXX supplies “In his days.” BSB's “Then Pul” is an English smoothing. Ellicott further reports the LXX reading “from all the sins” against the Hebrew's peculiar “from upon the sins,” and Cambridge notes that the closing words of v. 19 (“to confirm the kingdom in his hand”) are likewise absent from the LXX.

Who Pul was. Genuinely unresolved in our sources. Ellicott and Cambridge both set out Schrader's case that Pul is Tiglath-pileser II; Pulpit adds the Babylonian evidence for Pulu as his Babylonian throne-name; Barnes holds Pul to be a Chaldaean founder of a rival Euphratean monarchy and notes his absence from the Assyrian Canon; K&D follow Niebuhr in making him a Nineveh king of the Derketades and record that the name has not been found on the monuments. K&D also report the Minikhimmi of Samirina inscription and the dispute over which Assyrian king it names (Rawlinson and Oppert reading Tiglath-pileser, Niebuhr reading Pul). We have not adjudicated.

Money. The commentators do not agree on modern equivalents, and we have quoted none of them as fact: Ellicott gives about £375,000 for the thousand talents, JFB £262,200, Benson (as printed in our source, with an OCR-damaged currency sign) 450,000 sterling, and Gill computes 375,000 on Brerewood's talent while citing Cumberland for a lower figure. Fifty shekels as one maneh and one sixtieth of a talent, and the resulting class of sixty thousand payers, are arithmetic by Ellicott, Barnes and Cambridge, not a figure the text states.

Syntax left open. In v. 20 the placement of לְאִ֣ישׁ אֶחָ֑ד allows “fifty shekels from each Israelite” or “fifty shekels for each Assyrian soldier.” Poole and Gill both preserve the second reading and note it is favoured by the Hebrew word order; K&D take “for the individual.” In the same verse גִּבּוֹרֵ֣י הַחַ֔יִל is read as men of property by K&D and Pulpit, while Ellicott notes that the older sense of the phrase is military.

Sources. Henry's note in our text is written over the whole of 15:8-31 and is not verse-specific; Poole has no entry on vv. 17, 18, 21 or 22; JFB's entry is repeated across vv. 19, 20 and 21 in our source, so our JFB excerpt for v. 20 is drawn from the portion of that entry that addresses the tribute. The Barnes line quoted at v. 21 contains the corruption “redfaced” for “reduced” in our public domain text, and we have quoted it as it stands rather than emend an author we cannot consult. Interlinear word order in this brief occasionally departs from the Hebrew reading order (v. 17 word 13, v. 18 words 14-16, v. 20 words 1-2); our literal lines follow the Hebrew clause order rather than the index order, and note keys follow the indices as given.

What is ⚙ and fallible here. Every reading marked ⚙ is ours: the reading of çûwr against shûwb across vv. 18 and 20, the tabernacle-ledger contrast with Exodus 38:24, the cross-Testament pairings with 1 Peter, Daniel and Mark, and the sola reading that treats the thousand talents as the first installment of the exile. None of these are claimed as sourced, and all are offered to be tested.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)