מלכים ב, פרק ט״ו, פסוק ט״ז

A brutal military campaign led by King Menachem of Israel culminated in a ruthless massacre and severe acts of vengeance against the city of Tiphsah. Located outside the borders of the Land of Israel, Tiphsah was an Aramean city situated across the river [רד״ק, רלב״ג]. Setting out from his own city of Tirzah, Menachem launched a devastating attack, striking down Tiphsah along with all the surrounding territories and borders stretching outward from Tirzah [רד״ק, מצודת דוד, רלב״ג].

The total destruction of the city was triggered by a standoff. The primary approach among commentators is that the city's leaders or its residents simply refused to open their gates to Menachem. By rejecting his calls for peace, denying him tribute, and refusing to accept his royal authority, they provoked his wrath. However, a completely different perspective shifts the focus of the closed gates onto Menachem himself. According to traditional Jewish laws of war, an attacking army must besiege a city from only three sides, intentionally leaving one side open to allow people a chance to flee. Menachem blatantly violated this law. By providing no escape route, he trapped the inhabitants inside and slaughtered everyone in the city without leaving a single survivor [מלבי״ם].

The peak of Menachem's cruelty during this siege involved a horrific act of vengeance and humiliation. Most commentators agree that Menachem violently ripped open the bellies of the pregnant women in the city. As a military man, he adopted a foreign and barbaric wartime practice that stood in absolute opposition to the religion of Israel and its laws of warfare [רד״ק, מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. In stark contrast to this gruesome image, an alternative explanation softens the account by linking the description to the landscape rather than to the people. In this view, Menachem did not attack pregnant women, but rather breached and destroyed the heavily fortified towers built upon the mountains located within the city [רלב״ג].