The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 254

u.o. 745, and prooeeded to consolidate the " Menabem of Sam ..ria" in the inecription1 Assyrian power on every side, after a period o_f Bennac~ei:ib (' Eponym Canon,' p. 132, of great weakness and disorganizntion. He hne 17). This second l',lenabem is probably ma.de several expeditions against Babylonia, a descendant of the first, who was allowed and several into Syria and Palestine. The a sort of titular sovereignty over the con- expedition in which be came into contact quered town. with Menabem is tbonght to have been that Ver. 22.-And Menahem alept with his of bis eighth year, B.O. 738 (see G. Smith, fe.thers-i.e. died-and Pekahiah his son ' Eponym Oanon,' pp. 117-120; and, for reigned in his stead. So ,Josephus (' Ant. the identity of Tiglath-pileser with Pul, see Jud.,' ix. 11. § I), who calls him" Phakeia.s." the ' Transactions of the Society of Biblical Arcbmology' for 1884, p. 198). And Mena- Vers. 23-26.-SuonT REIGN Ol!' PEKA· hem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver. HIAH. Tbo short reign of Pekabiah was A vast sum certainly, equal to above a wholly unclistingnished. He held the quarter of a million of our money, perhaps to some extent a punishment for the siege tbJ"one for two years only, or perhaps for e.nd sack of Tiphsah. But not a sum that parts of two years, and performed no action it would have been impossible to pay. A that any historian has thought worthy of King of Damascus, about fifty years pre- reeord. Our author has nothing to relate viously, bad bought off an Assyrian attack of him but the circumstances of his death by the payment of two thousand three hundred talents of silver and twenty talenta (ver. 25), wherewith be combines the usual of gold (see 'Eponym Canon,' p. 115). formulm (vers. 23, 24, 26). That his hand might be with him to oon- 11.rm the kingdom in his hand; i.e. that Pul Ver. 23.-In the :flftieth year of A.zariah might take him under his p111tection, accept Xing of Judah; really i.n the thirty-seventh him as one of his subject-princes, and (by year (see the comment on vers. 1, 8, and implication) support him against possible 27). Azariah is mentioned by Tiglath- rivals. pileser as contending with him in the yee.r Ver. 20.-And Menahem exaoted the in which he took tribute from l\Ienahem money of Israel Either he was not pos- (' Eponym Canon,' pp. 117-120), which is sessed of any accumulated treasure, such as thought to he.ve been B.O. 738. Apparently, the kings of Judah could commonly draw he too wus forced to pay tribute (ibid., upon (1 Kings xv. 18; eh. xii. 18; xvi. 8; pp. 117, 118, lines 2, 3) to the Assyrian xvili. 15, 16), or be thought it more prudent monarch. Pekahiah the son of l'llenahem to keep his stores untouohed, and obtain began to reign over Israel in Sa.maria, and the money from his subjects. Even of all reigned two years. So Josephus (!. a. c.). the mighty men of wealth. The context Ver. 24.-And he did that which was evil shows this to be the meaniag; and the in the sight of the Lord: he departed not rendering is justified by Ruth ii. 1 ; 1 Sam. from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ix. 1. "Mighty men of 'Valour" cannot who made Israel to sin. Josephus adds possibly be intended. Of each man fifty that he reigned with the same cruelty os shekels of silver, to give to the King of his father (-rJi .,..;; 1l"tlTpOr ,caTaJ<o>..ovBTJ<Tas Assyria. Fifty shekels was a heavy tax, &iµ.0TT1n), but we cannot be sore that this not less than £5 or £6 of our money. is more than a conjecture, founded on the To produce a thousand talents, this tux shortness of bis reign. bad to be levied on some sixty thousand Ver. 25.-But Pekah the son of Bemaliah. persons. Tiglath- pileser mentions his Remaliah was probably a man of some receipt of tribute from " Minikhimmi of importance, since Pcko.h seems to have been 'fsnmmirin " (Menahem of Someron or almost better known by his patronymic, Samaria), but does not tell us the amount Den-Reruo.liah, " son of Remalio.h,'' than (see 'Eponym Canon,' p. 120, line 29). So by his own proper no.me (see Isu. vii. 4, the King of Assyria turned baok, and stayed 5, 9; viii. 6). A captain of his-" captain not there in the land. Kings of Assyria of a thousnnd,'' ,according to Josephu,; (!. usually returned home at the end of eo.rh a. o.)-conspired against him, and smote campaign, and wintered in their own him in Samaria, in the palaoe of the king's territory. house; literally, in the tower (or keep) Ver. 21.-And the rest of the acts of of the king's house, the loftiest part (]1D")~ Mena.hem, and all that be did, are they not is from □n, to be bigh)-certainly not the written in the book of the obronioles of the hl\rem (Ewuld), if Pekohiah was feasting kings of Israel 1 Nothing more is known there with bis friends (oo>..oq,0V1J8elr ,,, of Menahem the so11s of Gadi, sinco ha <Tvµ.1rot1l'I' µ.e-r~ <f,(>...,v ,..-.8civ•), as J osephua certainly cannot be ideo.tical with the prince says. With Argob and Arieh. These of tho same nu.me who is meutioneJ 1111 seem to be the "friends" of Jo,ephus, who  300 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ItINGS. [oH. XV, 1-38,