2 Kings 15:16-22

Common English Bible

Menahem rules Israel

¹⁶ Menahem then moved from Tirzah and attacked Tiphsah, all its citizens, and its neighboring areas. Because they wouldn’t surrender, he attacked and ripped open all its pregnant women. ¹⁷ Menahem, Gadi’s son, became king of Israel in the thirty-ninth year of Judah’s King Azariah. He ruled for ten years in Samaria. ¹⁸ He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. Throughout his life, he didn’t deviate from the sins that Jeroboam, Nebat’s son, had caused Israel to commit. ¹⁹ When Assyria’s King Tiglath-pileser^[a] marched against the land, Menahem gave Tiglath-pileser one thousand silver kikkars in order to become his ally and to strengthen his hold on the kingdom. ²⁰ Menahem taxed Israel for this money. All the wealthy people had to give fifty silver shekels each to Assyria’s king. So Assyria’s king went home and didn’t stay there in the land. ²¹ The rest of Menahem’s deeds and all that he accomplished, aren’t they written in the official records of Israel’s kings? ²² Menahem lay down with his ancestors. His son Pekahiah succeeded him as king.