2 Kings 15:19

15:19 Pul26 king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem paid27 him28 a thousand talents29 of silver to gain his support30 and to solidify his control of the kingdom.31

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26	sn Pul was a nickname of Tiglath-pileser III (cf. 15:29). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 171–72.
27	tn Heb “gave.”
28	tn Heb “Pul.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
29	tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75,000 pounds of silver (cf. NCV “about seventy-four thousand pounds”); NLT “thirty-seven tons”; CEV “over thirty tons”; TEV “34,000 kilogrammes.”
30	tn Heb “so his hands would be with him.”
31	tn Heb “to keep hold of the kingdom in his hand.”