2 Kings 15:19-20
19Pul ▼ king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem paid ▼▼tn Heb “gave.”
him ▼▼tn Heb “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
1,000 talents ▼▼tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75,000 pounds of silver (cf. NCV “about seventy-four thousand pounds”); NLT “thirty-seven tons”; CEV “over thirty tons”; TEV “34,000 kilogrammes.”
of silver to gain his support ▼▼tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”
and to solidify his control of the kingdom. ▼▼tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”
20Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took 50 shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. ▼▼tn Heb “and Menahem brought out the silver over Israel, over the prominent men of means, to give to the king of Assyria, 50 shekels of silver for each man.”
Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.
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