Pekah

AI summary: Pekah matters because the cross references present him as one of the key rulers in the prophetic setting of Isaiah 7. He seizes power violently, threatens Jerusalem in coalition with Syria, and then sees his own kingdom cut down by Assyria before his assassination. His role helps explain the fear-driven politics of Ahaz's reign and the context for Isaiah's Immanuel prophecy. Taken together, the material presents Pekah as a consequential northern king whose ambitions accelerate both regional crisis and national loss.¹

Open-eyed, the son of Remaliah a captain in the army of Pekahiah, king of Israel, whom he slew, with the aid of a band of Gileadites, and succeeded (B.C. 758) on the throne (2 Kings 15:25). Seventeen years after this he entered into an alliance with Rezin, king of Syria, and took part with him in besieging Jerusalem (2 Kings 15:37; 16:5). But Tiglath-pilser, who was in alliance with Ahaz, king of Judah, came up against Pekah, and carried away captive many of the inhabitants of his kingdom (2 Kings 15:29). This was the beginning of the “Captivity.” Soon after this Pekah was put to death by Hoshea, the son of Elah, who usurped the throne (2 Kings 15:30; 16:1-9. Comp. Isa. 7:16; 8:4; 9:12). He is supposed by some to have been the “shephard” mentioned in Zech. 11:16. ³