2 Kings 15:16

16 Then Menahem smote the city Tiphsah, and all the men that were therein, and the terms thereof from Tirzah, for they would not open their gates to him ; and he killed all the women thereof with child, and carved them (up).

2 Kings 15:16 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 15:16

Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the
coasts thereof from Tirzah
The Jewish writers commonly take this Tiphsah to be without the land of Israel, the same with that in ( 1 Kings 4:24 ) on the borders of Syria, and near the Euphrates; but it seems to be some place nearer Samaria, and Tirzah; according to Bunting ^F20, it was but six miles from Samaria:

because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it;
they refused to open the gates of their city to him, and receive him, and acknowledge him as their king; therefore he exercised severity on the inhabitants of it, and the parts adjacent, as far as Tirzah, putting them to the sword:

and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up:
which was a most shocking instance of barbarity, and which he did, to terrify others from following their example. Ben Gersom interprets it of strong towers built on mountains, which he demolished, deriving "haroth", which we render "women with child", from (rh) , "a mountain".

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Travels p. 169.

2 Kings 15:16 In-Context

14 And Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah, and came into Samaria; and he smote Shallum, the son of Jabesh, in Samaria, and killed him, and reigned for him (and reigned in his place).

15 Soothly the residue of the words of Shallum, and his conspiracy, by which he setted treasons, whether these be not written in the book of [the] words of [the] days of the kings of Israel(?).

16 Then Menahem smote the city Tiphsah, and all the men that were therein, and the terms thereof from Tirzah, for they would not open their gates to him ; and he killed all the women thereof with child, and carved them (up).

17 In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Menahem, the son of Gadi, reigned upon Israel ten years in Samaria. (In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, or Uzziah, the king of Judah, Menahem, the son of Gadi, began to reign upon Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samaria.)

18 And he did that, that was evil before the Lord; he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that made Israel to do sin.