Bible Strands
2 Kings 23:35
So Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold to Pharaoh Neco, but to meet Pharaoh’s demand he taxed the land and exacted the silver and the gold from the people, each according to his wealth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jehoiakim, newly installed as king by Pharaoh Neco after the removal of Jehoahaz, pays tribute to the Egyptian ruler following Neco’s military intervention in Judah.
The words — הֶעֱרִיךְ (he.'e.Rikh) translates literally as “he taxed,” and כֶּסֶף (ke.sef) means “silver,” describing the mechanism and currency of the imposed tribute.
The thread — This pattern of vassal kings paying silver to secure foreign support appears in 2 Kings 15:19 with Menahem and Assyria, and follows directly from Neco’s seizure of power in 2 Kings 23:33.
Why it lands — The text records how political survival forces a ruler to extract wealth from his own people, distributing the burden according to individual means to satisfy an external power.
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
And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh–nechoh.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 23:33 And Pharaoh Neco imprisoned Jehoahaz at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he could not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
- 2 Kings 15:19 Then Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in order to gain his support and strengthen his own grip on the kingdom.