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17-520: Menahem's ten-year reign is told in 2 Kings 15:14–22 . When Shallum conspired against and assassinated Zechariah in Samaria , and set himself upon the throne of the northern kingdom, Menahem—who, like Shallum, had served as a captain in Zechariah's army—refused to recognize the murderous usurper. Menahem marched from Tirzah to Samaria, about six miles westwards, and laid siege to Samaria. He took

34-438: Is Tiglath-Pileser III 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 ( ANET 283 ). To pay the tribute, Menahem exacted fifty shekels of silver—about 1 1 ⁄ 4 pounds or 0.6 kg—from all the mighty men of wealth of the kingdom. ( 2 Kings 15:20 ) To collect this amount, there would have had to be at

51-519: Is apparently synopsizing the " annals of the Kings of Israel ", ( 2 Kings 15:21 ) and gives scant details of Menahem's reign. Menahem became king of Israel in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Azariah , king of Judah , and reigned for ten years. ( 2 Kings 15:17 ) According to the chronology of Kautsch, he ruled from 743 BC; according to Schrader, from 745 to 736 BC. William F. Albright has dated his reign from 745 to 738 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers

68-563: The Books of Kings (2 Kings, Chapter 15, verses 10, 13-14) Shallum's father is identified as Jabesh . However, the passage may instead mention a toponym, identifying that Shallum was "the son" of a city called Jabesh. In this view, Shallum may have originated from Jabesh-Gilead . The city is mentioned several times in the Biblical texts. In the Book of Judges (Chapter 21), the male inhabitants of

85-522: The House of Jehu (represented by Zechariah) would only reign for four generations. Josephus omits any reference to this supposed prophecy. Josephus similarly omits Biblical information that Shallum's seat of power was the city of Samaria , and that Shallum rose to the throne during the 39th regnal year of Uzziah , monarch of the Kingdom of Judah . Josephus has a tendency to abridge the narratives concerning

102-413: The assassination is left unclear in the Biblical texts, with various Greek versions identifying it as the city of Ibleam or Keblaam ( Greek : 'Ιεβλαάμ or Greek : Κεβλαάμ . Josephus simply mentions no location for the event. In Josephus' narrative, Shallum murders Zechariah, seizes power over Israel, and reigns for thirty days. In this position, the Biblical sources speak of a fulfilled prophecy, that

119-478: The city are murdered and their virgin girls are given as brides to the men of the Tribe of Benjamin . In the Books of Samuel , Jabesh-Gilead is under siege by Nahash of Ammon and his army. The siege is lifted when Saul leads an Israelite army to rescue the city. The victory allows Saul to be recognized as the legitimate King of Israel, as his claim to the throne was previously rejected. When Saul died, his corpse

136-409: The city of Tirzah . In the narrative, Menahem hears news that Zechariah has been assassinated, and then brings his entire army to Samaria to face Shallum. Josephus thus gives both a more detailed and a more plausible account of the event than the Biblical texts, where Menahem is seemingly acting alone. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 745 BC, while Hooker says 747. E.R. Thiele offers

153-503: The city, murdered Shallum a month into his reign ( 2 Kings 15:13 ), and set himself upon the throne. ( 2 Kings 15:14 ) According to Josephus , he was a general of the army of Israel. He did brutally suppress a revolt at Tiphsah . He destroyed the city and put all its inhabitants to death, even ripping open the pregnant women. ( 2 Kings 15:16 ) The author of the Books of Kings describes his rule as one of cruelty and oppression. The author

170-502: The date 752 BC. Jabesh Jabesh ( Hebrew : יָבֵשׁ , romanized :  ja'-besh ) was the father of Shallum of the Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible . Jabesh is mentioned In the Books of Kings ( 2 Kings 15:10 , 2 Kings 15:13–14 ). However, the passage may instead mention a toponym , identifying that Shallum was "the son" of a city called Jabesh. In this view, Shallum may have originated from

187-458: The dates 752–742 BC. Menahem seems to have died a natural death, and was succeeded by his son Pekahiah . Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria began his reign in 745 BC, seven years after Menahem had become king of Israel. During Menahem's reign, the Assyrians first entered the kingdom of Israel, and had also invaded Aram Damascus to the north-east: "And Pul, king of the Assyrians, came into

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204-544: The final few monarchs of Israel, with full-length narratives reserved only for Menahem and Hoshea . Josephus' narrative next introduces Menahem under the Hellenized name Manaëmos ( Greek : Μαναῆμος . He is identified with the Greek title of strategos , translating to general officer . In Josephus' narrative, Menahem is depicted as a general whose seat of power was the city of "Tharsë" ( Greek : Θαρσῆ , identified with

221-577: The inflected form of the name: "Sellëmos" ( Greek : Σελλήμου ). The name of Jabesh , Shallum's father, is Hellenized to "Jabësos". Contradicting the Bible, Josephus depicts Shallum as a friend of his predecessor Zechariah of Israel . Josephus intentionally heightens the pathos (suffering) of Zechariah's assassination, by depicting him betrayed and killed by a friend. Josephus similarly depicts Jehoash of Judah and Amaziah of Judah as victims of assassination by their respective friends. The location of

238-547: The land". ( 2 Kings 15:19 ) The Assyrians may have been invited into Israel by the Assyrian party. Hosea speaks of the two anti-Israelite parties, the Egyptian and Assyrian. ( Hosea 7:11 ) To maintain independence, Menahem was forced to pay a tribute of a thousand talents of silver ( 2 Kings 15:19 )—which is about 37 tons (about 34 metric tons) of silver. It is now generally accepted that Pul referred to in 2 Kings 15:19

255-514: The time some 60,000 "that were mighty and rich" in the kingdom. After receiving the tribute, Tiglath-Pileser returned to Assyria. However, from that time the kingdom of Israel was a tributary of Assyria; and when Pekah 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. Shallum of Israel Shallum of Israel ( Hebrew : שַׁלּוּם Šallūm , "retribution", fl. mid-8th century BC),

272-650: Was taken by the Philistines and hung from the city walls of Beth-shan . The men of Jabesh-Gilead eventually managed to retrieve the corpses of Saul and his sons. The city cremated the corpses and buried their bones. Shallum is also depicted in the Greek-language history Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus , under the Hellenized names of Greek : Σελλούμ and Greek : Σελλήμ . Josephus primarily uses

289-594: Was the fifteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel , and the son of Jabesh , who reigned for only one month in 752 BCE. Originally a captain in the army of King Zechariah , Shallum "conspired against Zechariah, and smote him before the people; and slew him, and reigned in his stead" ( 2 Kings 15:10 ). He reigned only "a month of days in Samaria " ( 2 Kings 15:13 ) before Menahem —another captain from Zechariah's army—rose up and put Shallum to death ( 2 Kings 15:14–17 ). Menahem then became king in Shallum's stead. In

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