Menahem

<h2 id="in-the-bible">In the Bible</h2>
<p>Menahem's ten-year reign is told in <a href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b15.htm#14">2 Kings 15:14–22</a>. When <a href="/facts/Shallum_of_Israel/YBuFs63e">Shallum</a> conspired against and assassinated <a href="/facts/Zechariah_of_Israel/5AuXPeQQ">Zechariah</a> in <a href="/facts/Samaria/CBhBG4uA">Samaria</a>, and set himself upon the throne of the northern kingdom, Menahem—who, like Shallum, had served as a <a href="/facts/Captain_(armed_forces)/cqlntj0j">captain</a> in Zechariah's army—refused to recognize the murderous usurper. Menahem marched from <a href="/facts/Tirzah_(ancient_city)/uSw8XwQK">Tirzah</a> to Samaria, about six miles westwards, and laid siege to Samaria. He took the city, murdered Shallum a month into his reign (<a href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b15.htm#13">2 Kings 15:13</a>), and set himself upon the throne. (<a href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b15.htm#14">2 Kings 15:14</a>) According to <a href="/facts/Josephus/RgFoKIYH">Josephus</a>, he was a general of the army of Israel.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a>
</p><p>He did brutally suppress a revolt at <a href="/facts/Tiphsah/rFBmJ73A">Tiphsah</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> He destroyed the city and put all its inhabitants to death, even ripping open the pregnant women. (<a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:2%20Kings%2015:16">2 Kings 15:16</a>)
</p><p>The author of the <i><a href="/facts/Books_of_Kings/FU2l2xVY">Books of Kings</a></i> describes his rule as one of cruelty and oppression. The author is apparently synopsizing the "<a href="/facts/Chronicles_of_the_Kings_of_Israel/1ClezlEC">annals of the Kings of Israel</a>", (<a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:2%20Kings%2015:21">2 Kings 15:21</a>) and gives scant details of Menahem's reign.
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<h2 id="chronology">Chronology</h2>
<p>Menahem became king of Israel in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of <a href="/facts/Uzziah/YCGIgtmn">Azariah</a>, <a href="/facts/King_of_Judah/V2EQ3lDc">king of Judah</a>, and reigned for ten years. (<a href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b15.htm#17">2 Kings 15:17</a>) According to the chronology of Kautsch,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> he ruled from 743 BC; according to Schrader, from 745 to 736 BC. <a href="/facts/William_F._Albright/PX5lthdr">William F. Albright</a> has dated his reign from 745 to 738 BC, while <a href="/facts/Edwin_R._Thiele/GtSAInLk">E. R. Thiele</a> offers the dates 752–742 BC.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a>
</p><p>Menahem seems to have died a natural death, and was succeeded by his son <a href="/facts/Pekahiah/MWgIHzK1">Pekahiah</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a>
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<h2 id="tributary-of-assyria">Tributary of Assyria</h2>
<p><a href="/facts/Tiglath-Pileser_III/qH7Gh0g1">Tiglath-Pileser III</a> of <a href="/facts/Ancient_Assyrians/n9pMP48S">Assyria</a> began his reign in 745 BC, seven years after Menahem had become king of Israel.
</p><p>During Menahem's reign, the Assyrians first entered the kingdom of Israel, and had also invaded <a href="/facts/Aram_Damascus/V64WcF0p">Aram Damascus</a> to the north-east: "And Pul, king of the Assyrians, came into the land". (<a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:2%20Kings%2015:19">2 Kings 15:19</a>) The Assyrians may have been invited into Israel by the Assyrian party. <a href="/facts/Book_of_Hosea/8T9qJHYs">Hosea</a> speaks of the two anti-Israelite parties, the Egyptian and Assyrian. (<a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:Hosea%207:11">Hosea 7:11</a>)
</p><p>To maintain independence, Menahem was forced to pay a <a href="/facts/Tribute/DPyaeMKW">tribute</a> of a thousand <a href="/facts/Talent_(measurement)/1g75qejE">talents</a> of silver  (<a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:2%20Kings%2015:19">2 Kings 15:19</a>)—which is about 37 tons (about 34 metric tons) of silver. It is now generally accepted that Pul referred to in <a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:2%20Kings%2015:19">2 Kings 15:19</a> is <a href="/facts/Tiglath-Pileser_III/qH7Gh0g1">Tiglath-Pileser III</a> of the cuneiform inscriptions. Pul was probably his personal name and the one that first reached Israel. Tiglath-Pileser records this tribute in one of his inscriptions (<i>ANET3 283</i>).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a>
</p><p>To pay the tribute, Menahem exacted fifty <a href="/facts/Shekel/LemC0sVv">shekels</a> of silver—about 11⁄4 pounds or 0.6 kg—from all the mighty men of wealth of the kingdom. (<a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:2%20Kings%2015:20">2 Kings 15:20</a>) To collect this amount, there would have had to be at the time some 60,000 "that were mighty and rich" in the kingdom. After receiving the tribute, Tiglath-Pileser returned to Assyria.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> However, from that time the kingdom of Israel was a tributary of Assyria; and when <a href="/facts/Pekah/n1bSPVD2">Pekah</a> some ten years later refused to pay any more tribute, it started a sequence of events which led to the destruction of the kingdom and the deportation of its population.
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<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/List_of_biblical_figures_identified_in_extra-biblical_sources/bDmXJJ4k">List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Iran_Stele/KWLspcGo">Iran Stele</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="sources">Sources</h2>
<ul><li> This article incorporates text from a publication now in the <a href="/facts/Public_domain/YWKMDKw4">public domain</a>: Walter Drum (1913). "Manahem". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). <i><a href="/facts/Catholic_Encyclopedia/GKufVzBf">Catholic Encyclopedia</a></i>. New York: Robert Appleton Company.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Antiquities of the Jews. 9:11:1 at WikiSource <a href="/wiki/Antiquities_of_the_Jews" target="_blank">/wiki/Antiquities_of_the_Jews</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>'Tiphsah' is the name in the Masoretic text. Modern commentators and translators prefer the reading Tappuah, following the Lucian recension of the Septuagint. <a href="/wiki/Masoretic" target="_blank">/wiki/Masoretic</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Hist. of O.T. Literature, 185 <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Edwin Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, (1st ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1951;  2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965; 3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983). ISBN 0-8254-3825-X, 9780825438257 <a href="/wiki/The_Mysterious_Numbers_of_the_Hebrew_Kings" target="_blank">/wiki/The_Mysterious_Numbers_of_the_Hebrew_Kings</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>2 Kings 15:22 <a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:2%20Kings%2015:22" target="_blank">https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:2%20Kings%2015:22</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>The Annals of Tiglath-pileser. Livius.org. Translation into English by Leo Oppenheim. Quote: "I [Tiglath Pileser III] received tribute from... Menahem of Samaria...gold, silver, ...". <a href="https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/283-the-annals-of-tiglath-pileser/" target="_blank">https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/283-the-annals-of-tiglath-pileser/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:7"><p>"Menahem", Jewish Encyclopedia <a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10619-menahem" target="_blank">http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10619-menahem</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

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Menahem