Pekahiah
“Jehovah has opened (the eyes); opening by Jehovah”
Summary
Pekahiah was the seventeenth king of Israel and son of Menahem, who reigned only two years before being assassinated by his captain Pekah in a palace conspiracy.
☩Brief Reign
Pekahiah succeeded his father Menahem as king of Israel and reigned for two years (approximately 758-757 BC). Like his predecessors, he continued in the sins of Jeroboam, maintaining the calf-worship that had characterized the northern kingdom since its founding (2 Kings 15:24). His reign came during a period when Israel had been severely weakened by enormous tribute payments to Assyria and internal instability.
☩Assassination
Pekah, son of Remaliah and one of Pekahiah's captains (likely of his bodyguard), organized a conspiracy against him. With fifty Gileadites, Pekah attacked Pekahiah in the citadel of the royal palace at Samaria, assassinating him along with his friends Argob and Arieh. Pekah then seized the throne, becoming the eighteenth king of Israel. The involvement of Gileadites suggests political or regional tensions within the kingdom that Pekah exploited to gain power.
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Pekahiah," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. VII (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Pekah," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).