2 Kings 15:17

THE TEN-YEAR REIGN OF MENAHEM OVER ISRAEL

"In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel in Samaria. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah: he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land. Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead."

It is clear enough from this record that Menahem was only nominally the king of Israel during a large part of his so-called ten-year reign. He was tributary to Pul the king of Assyria upon whom he depended to keep him in power.

"Pul and Tiglath-pileser are one and the same ruler, Tiglath-pileser being the title that Pul took when he became king of Babylon."[11] This is the first appearance of Assyria as an aggressive opponent of God's people; but it was indeed a sinister note in the record. The four following chapters will unfold the full meaning of what is first mentioned here. There will be a series of aggressions against God's people, culminating in the removal of the Northern Israel from history, the destruction of its capital and the deportation of its population. Also there will appear before the gates of Jerusalem the threatening army of Sennacherib and the dramatic supernatural delivery of Judah.

The two things of importance in Menahem's reign are (1) his brutal atrocity against the pregnant women of Tiphsah, and (2) his becoming tributary to Tiglath-pileser. In this latter event, there appeared before the gates of Israel the great Assyrian power that would soon destroy the Northern Israel forever.

Regarding that brutal slaughter of the women, Montgomery wrote that, "Such savage cruelty was typical of those days of the Assyrian terror. It was expected of Hazael (2 Kings 8:12), perpetrated against Israel by Ammon (Amos 1:13), and was to be part of Israel's final tragedy (Hosea 14:1)."[12]

"Of each man fifty shekels of silver" (2 Kings 15:20). "A talent of silver contained three thousand shekels; and a levy of fifty shekels each exacted from the wealthy indicates that 60,000 persons were required to meet the payment to Pul."[13] LaSor estimated the actual value of such a tax as merely $25 each.[14] This gives us an important insight into the size of the wealthy class who controlled most of the resources of Israel and who were so severely denounced by the great O.T. prophets: Isaiah, Hosea and Amos.