What Does 2 Kings 15:20 Mean in the King James?
And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The hidden exchange is directional: silver is brought out of Israel so the Assyrian king turns back.
THE MEANING
When power presses against your land, this verse shows resources drawn from the wealthy to buy the threat’s retreat. The threat changes its position, while the leverage that made the payment necessary remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that when a threat retreats after payment, its power over you has ended; this verse separates a bought withdrawal from freedom.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹצֵא
wayyotse
GROWS FROM
יצא
Go out or come forth; in this causative form, bring out.
“Exacted” names the coercive act, while the Hebrew verb keeps the movement visible: Menahem causes silver to go out from Israel. The Assyrian king then turns back; the transaction moves resources outward to move the threat away.
ALSO GROWS
hotsi: Bring out; cause to go out.
הוֹצִיא
This causative form makes the levy’s direction concrete: wealth is made to leave the people who hold it.
motsa: Going out; an exit.
מוֹצָא
This noun from the same root keeps the focus on what is made to depart, illuminating the outward flow hidden by the abstract English “exacted.”
הַחַיִל
ha-chayil
GROWS FROM
חיל
Strength, force, or capacity.
The expression translated “men of wealth” uses a word also associated with strength, valor, and an army. Wealth here is bound up with capacity and power: the silver is drawn from those whose resources make them a force.
ALSO GROWS
chayil: Army or military force.
חַיִל
The same word can name organized force, showing how closely resources and power sit together in this passage.
eshet chayil: Woman of valor or strength.
אֵשֶׁת חַיִל
This phrase uses the same word for strength and capacity, showing that chayil reaches beyond material wealth.
THE PATTERN
A tribute can redirect an immediate threat while leaving the payer under the threat’s leverage.
And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not.He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him.THE THREAD
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.Both verses use יָצָא (yatsa, go out or bring out): here silver is made to go out from Israel, while Exodus says Israel goes out from Egypt. The shared root reveals the difference between resources being drawn out to buy a ruler’s retreat and a people coming out from constriction.
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