26. PEKAH

PEKAH

"Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, for twenty years.In [his] days Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took [5 northern cities], and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.Then Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to battle; and they besieged Ahaz, but were unable to conquer him."

2Ki 15:27; 2Ki 15:29; 2Ki 16:5

During the twenty years Pekah reigned there were major changes in Israel’s situation. Assyria’s mighty warrior kings conquered the northern and eastern parts of the land and deported their people to Assyria. Threatened by Assyria, Israel and Syria were allies and sought to overthrow the house of David in Judah, for Ahaz, the wicked king of Judah, had become tributary to Assyria and was leaning upon its king for help against these enemies. In 2Ch 28:1-27 we learn that the Lord allowed Pekah to win a great victory over Judah. Several of the highest ranking men of Judah plus 120,000 valiant men were slain in one day and 200,000 women and children plus much spoil were taken captive. The Lord sent the prophet Oded to rebuke the men of Israel and to tell them to send back their captives. We do not read of any response on the part of Pekah, but four of the heads of the children of Ephraim openly acknowledged their nation’s guilt before the Lord. They then fed, clothed, shod, and anointed their captives from the plunder, put the weak on donkeys, and returned them to their brethren. It is good to see, even at this low point in Israel’s history, a remnant responding to the word of the Lord.

Syria fell to the Assyrian king. Pekah, like so many of his predecessors, met his end as a result of a conspiracy against him. He was attacked, killed, and succeeded by his assassin.