Bible Strands
2 Kings 15:16
At that time Menahem, starting from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in its vicinity, because they would not open their gates. So he attacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Menahem’s military campaign following Shallum’s conspiracy, as Menahem moves from Tirzah to besiege Tiphsah during the thirty-ninth year of King Azariah’s reign.
The words — The Hebrew אָז (ʾaz, "then") marks the chronological pivot, while מְנַחֵם (Menahem) and תִּפְסַח (Tiphsah) name the actor and target, and יַכֶּה־ (yakkēh, "he struck") describes the initial assault.
The thread — The text places Tiphsah within Israel’s northern territorial scope (1 Kings 4:24) and records the same city’s later violent downfall, echoing the broader pattern of bloodshed against women and children condemned in Hosea 13:16.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition of recorded historical violence without moral evasion, showing how political retaliation fulfills the prophetic record of Israel’s escalating brutality (2 Kings 8:12).
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the coasts thereof from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 8:12 “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”
- 1 Kings 4:24 For Solomon had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates—over all the kingdoms from Tiphsah to Gaza—and he had peace on all sides.
- Hosea 13:16 Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
- Amos 1:13 This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.