Lives of Scripture
Pekah (M)
First named in 2 Kings 15:25-31
Pekah, son of Remaliah, assassinated Pekahiah in the royal citadel and reigned twenty years over Israel, continuing the sins of Jeroboam like every northern king before him (2 Kings 15:25-28). His reign is defined largely by a major military alliance with Rezin, king of Aram, against Judah -- the Syro-Ephraimite war -- in which the two kings besieged Jerusalem, killed a great number of Judah's forces, and took captives, though Judah's ally-turned-enemy Assyria would soon overshadow the entire conflict (2 Kings 16:5; 2 Chronicles 28:5-8). This crisis is the backdrop for Isaiah's famous confrontation with King Ahaz of Judah, urging him to trust the LORD rather than fear Pekah and Rezin, whom Isaiah dismissed as two 'stubs of smoldering firebrands' soon to fail (Isaiah 7:1-9). Ahaz instead appealed directly to Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria for help, a decision with lasting consequences (2 Kings 16:7-9). Tiglath-pileser responded by attacking Israel itself during Pekah's reign, capturing large territories including Gilead and Galilee, and deporting their populations to Assyria -- an early, decisive stage of the process that would end the northern kingdom entirely within a generation (15:29). Pekah's reign ended when Hoshea conspired against him, struck him down, and took the throne as Israel's final king (15:30).
Thought for Today
Pekah allied with Aram to besiege Jerusalem, and Isaiah told Ahaz these two kings were only 'stubs of smoldering firebrands' soon to fail. Jesus is the king any earthly alliance against God's people ultimately cannot outlast, however threatening it looks in the moment.
References: 2 Kings 15:25-31; 2 Kings 16:1-9; 2 Chronicles 28:5-8; Isaiah 7:1-9
Genealogy
Connections
- Remaliah (M) — begot → Pekah (M)
- Pekah (M) — besieged Jerusalem with an ally → Ahaz (M)
Pekah of Israel allied with Rezin of Aram against Ahaz of Judah, killing many of Judah's soldiers and besieging Jerusalem, a crisis that drove Ahaz to appeal to Assyria rather than trust the LORD's promise of deliverance through Isaiah.
2 Kings 16:5; 2 Chronicles 28:5-8; Isaiah 7:1-9
- Pekah (M) — assassinated him and seized his throne → Pekahiah (M)
Pekah, one of Pekahiah's own military officers, conspired with fifty men of Gilead and struck Pekahiah down inside the citadel of the royal palace in Samaria along with two other officials, then took the throne of Israel for himself.
2 Kings 15:25
- Pekah (M) ↔ allied with him to besiege Jerusalem ↔ Rezin (M)
Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Aram allied together against Judah, marching on Jerusalem intending to depose Ahaz and install a puppet king who would join their coalition against Assyria, a siege Isaiah told Ahaz not to fear even though it could not be stopped by Judah's own strength.
2 Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:1-9
- Tiglath-pileser (M) — invaded Israel and deported its people → Pekah (M)
Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria invaded northern Israel during Pekah's reign, capturing Gilead, Galilee, and Naphtali and deporting their populations to Assyria -- the beginning of the deportations that would end in the northern kingdom's fall within a generation.
2 Kings 15:29
- Hoshea (M) — assassinated him and seized his throne → Pekah (M)
Hoshea conspired against King Pekah, struck him down, and became king in his place -- one more entry in the northern kingdom's accelerating pattern of violent successions in its final decades before Assyria's conquest.
2 Kings 15:30