Tiphsah

Two cities bear this name, separated in time and almost certainly in location. The umbrella collects both: a far-northern boundary marker in the description of Solomon's reach, and a town struck by Menahem during the unstable years of the northern kingdom.

The Euphrates marker under Solomon

The first Tiphsah names the northern edge of Solomon's domain. Paired with Gaza in the south, it sets the geographic span of the peace he held: "For he had dominion over all [the region] on this side the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side the River: and he had peace on all sides round about him" (1 Kgs 4:24).

The verse uses Tiphsah as a measuring point, not a site of action. It is named once and not revisited.

Menahem's assault on a second Tiphsah

The second occurrence describes a violent campaign. Menahem of Israel turned on a town that had refused him entry and inflicted the kind of atrocity reserved for cities held under siege: "Then Menahem struck Tiphsah, and all who were in it, and its borders, from Tirzah: because they did not open to him, therefore he struck it; and all the women in it who were pregnant he ripped up" (2 Kgs 15:16).

The route — from Tirzah outward — and the silence of the rest of scripture about this Tiphsah's location are why the entry treats it as a separate place from the Euphrates city. The text gives no further indication of its position.

What the umbrella holds

Two cities, two registers. The first is a name on a map at the edge of a peaceful kingdom; the second is a name attached to a particular massacre. Scripture does not bring the two together, and the umbrella does not invent a connection — it simply records that the same name covers both.