2 Kings 15:16

16 Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and its territory from Tirzah, because they did not open [to him]; and he smote [it]: all the women in it that were with child he ripped 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 to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.

15 And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

16 Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and its territory from Tirzah, because they did not open [to him]; and he smote [it]: all the women in it that were with child he ripped up.

17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, for ten years, in Samaria.

18 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah: he departed not, all his days, from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.