2 Kings 15:23

2Ki 15:23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] two years.

Ver. 23. Reigned two years.] Not ten years, as Drusius affirmeth. {a}

{a} Regnavit annos decem.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

REIGN OF PEKAHIAH, 2Ki_15:23-26.

23. The fiftieth year — According to 2Ki_15:17, Menahem must have died in the forty-ninth year of Azariah, so that perhaps several months elapsed before his son became the acknowledged king. Perhaps, as Keil suggests, his right to the throne was contested.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15:23-25 Menahem’s son Pekahiah reigned only two years before Pekah conspired to assassinate him. Pekahiah continued the sins associated with the religious policies initiated by Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:26-33). Pekah, an army commander, had apparently been a rival for the throne for some time.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

PEKAHIAH'S REIGN. (Kg2 15:22-24)

Pekahiah . . . son of Menahem began to reign--On comparing the date given with Azariah's reign, it seems that several months had intervened between the death of Menahem and the accession of Pekahiah, probably owing to a contest about the throne.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(23-26) THE REIGN OF PEKAHIAH

(Heb., Pĕkahyâh).

(23) In the fiftieth year.—The forty-ninth, if verse seventeen were exact.

(25) But . . . a captain of his.—And . . . his adjutant (or knight, 2Ki_7:2).

The palace of the king’s house.—The same expression occurred in 1Ki_16:18. The word armôn, rendered “palace,” is usually explained as meaning citadel or keep, from a root meaning to be high. (Comp. ἡ ἄκρα in Greek.) Ewald makes it the harem, which, as the innermost and most strongly-guarded part of an Oriental palace, is probably meant here. Thither Pekahiah had fled for refuge before the conspirators.

With Argob and Arieh.—Pekah slew these two persons, probably officers of the royal guard, who stood by their master, as well as the king himself.

The peculiar names are an indication of the historical character of the account. Argob suggests that the person who bore this name was a native of the district of Bashan so designated (1Ki_4:13); Arieh (“lion”), like our own Cceur-de-Lion, betokens strength and bravery. (Comp. 1Ch_12:8, “The Gadites, whose faces were as the faces of lions.”)

And with him fifty men of the Gileadites.—Or, and with him were fifty, &c. Pekah was supported by fifty soldiers, probably of the royal guard. Menahem himself was of Gadite origin (2Ki_15:17), and so belonged to Gilead. He would therefore be likely to recruit his body-guard from among the Gileadites, who were always famous for their prowess. (Comp. Jos_17:1; Jdg_11:12; 1Ch_26:31.) The two names Argob and Arieh agree with this supposition. The LXX. reads, in place of “the Gileadites,” ἀπὸ τῶν τετρακοσίων, “of the four hundred,” which reminds us of David’s six hundred Gibbôrîm (2Sa_15:18).

Josephus accounts for the short reign of Pekahiah by the statement that he imitated the cruelty of his father.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign,.... Alone, after the death of his father:

and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his reign, upon the whole, was a good reign:

and his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok; a person well known in those times; Dr. Lightfoot (h) thinks he was high priest.

(h) Works, vol. 1. p. 100.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Vers. 23-26. SHORT REIGN OF PEKA-HIAH. The short reign of Pekahiah was wholly undistinguished. He held the throne for two years only, or perhaps for parts of two years, and performed no action that any historian has thought worthy of record. Our author has nothing to relate of him but the circumstances of his death (ver. 25), wherewith he combines the usual formulae (vers. 23, 24, 26).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Reign of Pekahiah. - Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign "in the fiftieth year of Uzziah." As Menahem had begun to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah and reigned ten years, he must have died in the forty-ninth year of Uzziah; and therefore, if his son did not become king till the fiftieth year, some months must have elapsed between the death of Menahem and Pekahiah's ascent of the throne, probably cause, in the existing disorganization of the kingdom, the possession of the throne by the latter was opposed. Pekahiah reigned in the spirit of his predecessors, but only for two years, as his aide-de-camp (שׁלישׁ, see at Sa2 23:8) Pekah conspired against him and slew him in the citadel (ארמון, see at Kg1 16:8) of the king's palace, with Argob and Aryeh. Argob and Aryeh were not fellow-conspirators of Pekah, who helped to slay the king, but principes Pekachijae, as Seb. Schmidt expresses it, probably aides-de-camp of Pekahiah, who were slain by the conspirators when defending their king. We must take the words in this sense on account of what follows: וגו חמשּׁים ועמּו, "and with him (Pekah) were fifty men of the Gileadites" (i.e., they helped him). The Gileadites probably belonged to the king's body-guard, and were under the command of the aides-de-camp of Pekah.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Pekahiah and Pekah in Israel

v. 23. In the fiftieth year of Azariah, king of Judah, probably after some months of anarchistic turmoil, Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years.

v. 24. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, his idolatry with the calves having persisted through all the history of Israel.

v. 25. But Pekah, the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, the king’s adjutant, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king’s house, the fortified part of his palace, where he had fled at the approach of the conspirators, with Argob and Arieh, who, as high officials faithful to Pekahiah, were killed with him, and with him, on the side of Pekah, fifty men of the Gileadites; and he killed him, and reigned in his room.

v. 26. And the rest of the acts of Pekahlah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

v. 27. In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah, the son of Remaliah, began to reign over Israel in Samarla, and reigned twenty years, his accession to the throne following his assassination of the king.

v. 28. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, the constantly recurring phrase serving to draw attention to this continual defection of the ruler and the nation.

v. 29. In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, came Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, with some of the districts on its boundary,and carried them captive to Assyria. This was the beginning of Israel’s end.

v. 30. And Hoshea, the son of Elah, evidently as a result of this Assyrian campaign, made a conspiracy against Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, this note taking into account Jotham’s viceregency.

v. 31. And the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. It is a source of great comfort that, shortly after the events here recorded, Isaiah prophesied of the light and glory of the Messiah which was to appear to the inhabitants of the devastated districts in Galilee, Isa 9:1.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah

It can be stated clearly that this is the fiftieth year of his reign. AT: "In year 50 of the reign of Azariah king of Judah" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Numbers)

Pekahiah

This is a man's name. (See: How to Translate Names)

what was evil in the sight of Yahweh

The sight of Yahweh represents Yahweh's judgment. See how you translated this in 2 Kings 3:2. AT: "what was evil in Yahweh's judgment" or "what Yahweh considers to be evil" (See: Metaphor)

He did not leave behind the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat

Leaving behind sins represents refusing to do those sins. AT: "Pekahiah did not refuse to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat" or "He sinned as Jeroboam son of Nebat had sinned" (See: Metaphor)

he had caused Israel to sin

Here the word "Israel" represents the people of the kingdom of Israel. (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

Uzziah

reign

Jeroboam

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.