Menahem

Menahem was the sixteenth king of the northern kingdom of Israel, reigning around 752–742 BC after assassinating Shallum. He was known for extreme brutality, including ripping open pregnant women of Tiphsah when the city refused to surrender to him (2 Kings 15:16). To retain his throne against the threat from Assyria, he paid a heavy tribute of one thousand talents of silver to Tiglath-pileser III (called Pul), funded by a tax levied on wealthy Israelites (2 Kings 15:19–20). This transaction represents one of the first explicit records of Assyrian extraction of tribute from Israel and is confirmed by Assyrian annals. Like his predecessors, he continued the sins of Jeroboam throughout his ten-year reign.