Lives of Scripture

Berechiah, son of Meshillemoth, was one of four chiefs of the tribe of Ephraim named in 2 Chronicles 28 during the reign of Ahaz of Judah. After Israel's king Pekah won a devastating victory over Judah, killing many and taking 200,000 women and children captive along with much plunder (2 Chronicles 28:5-8), the prophet Oded met the returning army at Samaria and rebuked them: bringing their own kinsmen into slavery would only add to Israel's guilt before the LORD, whose wrath was already against them (28:9-11). Berechiah, together with Azariah, Jehizkiah, and Amasa, backed Oded's warning and confronted the soldiers directly: "You must not bring the captives in here, for you are proposing to bring upon us guilt against the LORD... for our present guilt is already great" (28:12-13). Their intervention worked. The army left the captives and plunder before the officials and the assembly, and these four men took charge of the captives, clothing the naked from the plunder, giving them sandals, feeding and giving them drink, anointing the weak with oil, carrying the feeble on donkeys, and escorting them all the way home to Jericho before returning to Samaria (28:14-15). Berechiah's brief, unexpected appearance shows mercy breaking into a bitter civil war between two Israelite kingdoms.