-Pekah:
was an evil king:.2Kings
16:1,2. His dad was Remaliah,
a captain in the Syrian
army.
Pekah himself was general/captain
of the army of
Pekahiah
king of Israel.
He conspired against Pekahiah,
attacked him in the tower of his royal palace in Samaria
and having slain him, B.C.E.
758, he reigned in his place twenty years as the 17th king of Israel,
B.C.E. 759-739.
Although he was evil, he
was an instrument used by God to awaken Israel from their, yet
another
stint,
with idolatry.
Seventeen years later, in
the latter part
of his evil reign, Pekah formed an alliance with the Syrians
of Damascus under their king Rezin,
in
order to strengthen his kingdom which had suffered much by civil wars
and foreign exactions.
Together they attacked Ahaz
king of Judah. Slain were 120,000 in one day and carried away were 200,000."women,
sons and daughters":.2Chronicles
28:1-8. Some of the captives were taken to Damascus.(map).and
others to Samaria;
note verses 5 and 8.
It was on this occasion of
the captives that were being taken to Samaria in Israel, that the prophet
Oded, with others, protested against the children of Judah being made slaves.
They listened to the prophet of God and the captives were thereupon released,
clothed, fed, helped and sent back to their homes:.2Chronicles
28:9-15.
In retaliation,
Ahaz
sought the aid of Tiglath-Pileser
king of Assyria. The result
was that the Syrian
city of Damascus was taken and with it all the lands of Israel east of
the Jordan and north of the Sea of Galilee and their inhabitants carried
captive to Assyria:.2Kings
15:29; Isaiah 7:1; 17:1.
Shortly afterwards Hoshea
son of Elah
conspired against Pekah, slew him and reigned in his stead:.2Kings
15:30
Fausset's
Bible Dictionary:."In
the Assyrian inscription Menahem
is mentioned as the king of Israel whom Tiglath Pileser subdued; possibly
a mistake of the engraver, confusing Pekah with the king whom Pul
reduced to be tributary."
Pekahiah:
16th king of Israel. He was son and successor of Menahem:.2Kings
15:22-24. Reigned B.C.E.
759-757.
Within two years of his accession
he was murdered in a foul
manner and his throne was seized
by the regicide.Pekah:.2Kings
15:23-26.
Pekahiah was the sixth king
of Israel who had met his death by violence. The others were Nadab,
Elah,
Jehoram,
Zachariah
and Shallum.
Like his predecessors,
Pekahiah did not depart from the system of worship introduced by Jeroboam
I, the son of Nebat."who
made Israel to sin". Despite
the denunciations
of the prophets of the northern kingdom.(Hosea
1:1,5-9; 8:1-6).the
worship of the calves.remained,
till the whole of them were swept away a few years later by the fall of
the kingdom.
