Menahem

Menahem was king of Israel . Albright drew his reign to the year 745 BC. BC to 738 BC BC, according to other exegetes to the time of 752 BC. BC to 742 BC Dated.

etymology

The Hebrew personal name מְנַחֵם mənaḥem "Menahem" is the short form of a nominal sentence name whose subject (and at the same time theophoric element) has failed. Predicate is an active participle from the verb rootנחם nḥm in the Pi''el with the meaning "comfort" in this tribe. The name can therefore be translated as "(God) is comforter". The name could also be analyzed as a one-word name (meaning "comforter"), but this is less likely here, since the verbנחם nḥm is connected to a divine subject in other names (cf.נְחֶמְיָה nəḥæmjāh , German ' JHWH has comforted' ). The Septuagint gives the name as Μαναημ Manaēm , the Vulgate as Manahem .

Biblical narration

Menahem, the son of Gadi, came to power when he came from Tirza to overthrow the Schallum , who had only been ruling for a month in Samaria , and , according to the story in 2 Kings 15 LUT , he killed himself with his own hands. According to this source, his further rule was also marked by extreme brutality. For example, he slit open the stomach of the pregnant women in Tifsach as punishment for the fact that the city initially refused to open the gates for him.

Menahem was with the expansion efforts of the Tiglat-Pileser III. of Assyria , which is called “Pul” in the Bible ( 2 Kings 15,19 LUT ). He countered an invasion by paying the Assyrians a tribute of 1,000 quintals of silver, which he financed through a tax that charged the richest in the country with 50 pieces of silver each. This tribute is evidenced by an Assyrian inscription on the Iran stele of Tiglath Pileser III: "Menahem of Samaria ... I put tribute and donation ..."

Menahem's successor was his son Pekachja .

literature

Tobias Häfner: Menahem. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
Otto Kaiser (ed.): Texts from the environment of the Old Testament (TUAT). Part 1; Gütersloh 1982–1985; P. 371.378.
Manfred Weippert: Menahem of Israel and his contemporaries in a stele inscription by the Assyrian King Tiglathpileser III. from Iran ; in: ZDPV 89 (1973), pp. 26-53.
Rainer Kessler : Menahem. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1242-1243. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Individual evidence

^ Hans Rechenmacher : Old Hebrew names, Münster 2012, p. 91.124.182.

predecessor	Office	successor
Schallum	King of Israel 745–738 BC Chr.	Pekahya

personal data
SURNAME	Menahem
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	King of the Northern Kingdom of Israel
DATE OF BIRTH	8th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	around 740 BC Chr.

[1] Hans Rechenmacher : Old Hebrew names, Münster 2012, p. 91.124.182.