2 Kings 15:27

2Ki 15:27 In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] twenty years.

Ver. 27. And he reigned twenty years.] Not without many troubles, and at last a violent death. {2Ki 15:30}

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.

2Ki 15:27. In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah Pekah began to reign — This is the fifth king that reigned over Israel during the reign of Azariah king of Judah. Pekah, however, reigned much longer than any of the preceding four. For though he also, like Shallum and Menahem, got the kingdom by treason and blood, he kept possession of it twenty years. So long it was before his violent dealing returned upon his own head. And he made himself more noted abroad than any of these usurpers; for even in the latter part of his time, in the reign of Ahaz, (which began in his seventeenth year,) he was a great terror to the kingdom of Judah, as we find, Isa 7:1. Mr. Locke justly observes, that the prophecies of Hosea, Joel, and Amos, come in here, who all prophesied about this time.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

REIGN OF PEKAH, 2Ki_15:27-31.

27. Pekah… twenty years — According to Bahr we should here read thirty years. Pekah’s reign is especially noted for its connexion with Syrian and Assyrian wars. After Tiglath-pileser’s first invasion Pekah, and Rezin king of Syria, made a league against Judah, and proposed to reduce Jerusalem, and make a “son of Tabeal” king there in place of Ahaz. 2Ki_16:5; Isa_7:1-2; Isa_7:6. This led Ahaz to seek an alliance with Tiglath-pileser, who immediately marched against Damascus, captured the city, and carried its inhabitants into captivity. 2Ki_16:9.

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

15:27 fifty-second year of King Uzziah’s reign: The date for Pekah’s accession is the final year of Uzziah’s reign (740 BC). Because of the standing relationship between Tiglath-pileser and Menahem, Pekah confined his influence to Gilead during Menahem’s reign (752–742 BC). With Menahem’s death, Pekahiah made Pekah an army commander. This provided Pekah with a broader base of support and gave him opportunity to seize the throne of Israel in 740 BC.

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

(27-31) THE REIGN OF PEKAH, SON OF REMALIAH, IN SAMARIA.

(27) Reigned twenty years.—This does not agree with the duration assigned to the reign of Jotham (2Ki_15:33), and the year assigned as the beginning of Hoshea’s reign (2Ki_17:1). For, according to 2Ki_15:32, Pekah had reigned about two years when Jotham succeeded in Judah, and Jotham reigned sixteen years; and, according to 2Ki_17:1, Pekah was succeeded by Hoshea in the twelfth year of Jotham’s successor, Ahaz. These data make the duration of Pekah’s reign from twenty-eight to thirty years. We must, therefore, either assume, with Thenius, that “the numeral sign for 30 (ל) has been corrupted into 20 (כ),” or, with Ewald, that “and nine” has been accidentally omitted after “twenty.”

(29) Tiglath-pileser.—This Assyrian sovereign, who reigned from 745 to 727 B.C. , is called in his own inscriptions, Tukulti- (or Tuklat) ‘abal-Esarra, which Schrader renders, “my trust is Adar”—literally, Trust is the son of the temple of Sarra. (See Note on 1Ch_5:26.) “The idea we get of this king from the remains of these inscriptions corresponds throughout to what we know of him from the Bible. Everywhere he is presented as a powerful warrior-king, who subjugated the entire tract of anterior Asia, from the frontier mountains of Media in the east to the Mediterranean sea in the west, including a part of Cappadocia” (Schrader, K.A.T., p. 247).

Took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah . . . all the land of Naphtali.—Comp. 1Ki_15:20.

Janoah.—Not the border-town between Ephraim and Manasseh (Jos_16:6), as the context requires a place in the northernmost part of Israel.

Kedesh.—On the western shore of the waters of Merom (Jos_21:37).

Hazor.—See 1Ki_9:15.

Gilead.—See 2Ki_14:25; 1Ch_5:26. It was no long time since Jeroboam II. had recovered it for Israel. According to Schrader (K.A.T., pp. 254, seq.) the reference of the verse is to Tiglath Pileser’s expedition in B.C. 734, called in the Eponym list an expedition to the land of Pilista (Philistia). With this Schrader connects a fragment of the annals which begins with a list of towns conquered by Tiglath, and ends thus: . . . “the town of Gaal (ad) . . . (A) bil . . . of the upper part of the land of Beth-Omri (i.e., Samaria) . . . in its whole extent I annexed to the territory of Assyria; my prefects the sagans I appointed over them.” The fragment goes on to mention the flight of Hânûn, king of Gaza, to Egypt, and the carrying off of his goods and his gods by the conqueror. It is added, “The land of Beth-Omri . . . the whole body of his men, their goods, to the land of Assyria I led away, Pakaha (i.e., Pekah) their king I slew (so Schrader;? ‘they slew’), and A-u-si-ha (i.e., Hoshea) . . . over them I appointed. Ten (talents of gold, 1,000 talents of silver) 1 received from them.”

(30) Hoshea . . . slew him, and reigned in his stead.—See the inscription of Tiglath Pileser, quoted in the last Note, from which, as Schrader remarks, it is clear that Hoshea only secured his hold on the crown by recognition of the suzerainty of Assyria. The brief record of Kmgs does not mention this; but 2Ki_17:3 represents Hoshea as paying tribute to Shalmaneser IV., the successor of Tiglath.

In the twentieth year of Jotham.—This is a suspicious statement, as not agreeing with 2Ki_15:33, according to which Jotham reigned sixteen years only.

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

27–31. Pekah king of Israel for twenty years. Invasion of Israel by Tiglath-pileser. Pekah is slain by Hoshea (Not in Chronicles)

27. Pekah the son of Remaliah] This king is chiefly remarkable because of the attempts which he made against the kingdom of Judah, and which gave rise to the prophecies recorded in Isaiah 7-9. On the history of these attacks on the sister kingdom, see notes on 2Ki_16:5-9. Isaiah often speaks of Pekah as ‘the son of Remaliah’ only, without mention of his own name, so that we are led to conclude that Remaliah must have been some well-known person.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father,.... Died, and was buried with the kings of Judah in their sepulchres:

and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead; an account of whose reign we have in the next chapter.

Next: 2 Kings Chapter 16

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

Romelia. St. Jerome (ep. 142.) places the birth of Romulus in this year, which preceded the famous Olympiads. But Salien differs that event 14 years. (The year before Christ 769.) (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Vers. 27-31. REIGN OF PEKAH. The writer is again exceedingly brief. Pekah"s reign was a remarkable one, and might have furnished much material to the historian. In conjunction with Rezin of Damascus, he made war upon Judaea, defeated Ahaz with great loss, (2Ch_28:6) and laid siege to Jerusalem. (Isa_7:1) Ahaz called in the aid or" Assyria, and Tiglath-pileser made two expeditions into Palestine the one mentioned in ver. 29, and another some years afterwards. In the latter he seems to have had the assistance of Hoshea, who, with his sanction, slew Pekah, and became king. The scanty notices of our author must be supplemented from 2Ch 28; Isa_7:1-9 Isa_8:1-8; and the Assyrian inscriptions. In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah King of Judah; rather, in the thirty-ninth or thirty-eighth year (see the comment on ver. 23). Pekahiah"s "two years" may not have been complete. Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years. The Assyrian records make this number impossible. Tiglath-pileser"s entire reign lasted only eighteen years, yet it more than covered the entire reign of Pekah. When he first invaded the kingdom of Samaria, Menahem was upon the throne ("Eponym Canon," p. 120, line 29); when he last attacked it, probably in B.C. 730 two years before his death in B.C. 728 he set up Hoshea, or, at any rate, sanctioned his usurpation (ibid., pp. 123, 124, lines 15-18). Pekah"s entire reign must have come in the interval, which is certainly not more than one of fifteen, probably not more than one of ten years.

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 Pekah. - Pekah the son of Remaliah reigned twenty years.

(Note: As this is apparently at variance not only with Kg2 15:30, according to which Pekah was slain in the twentieth year of Jotham, i.e., in the fourth year of Ahaz, abut also with Kg2 17:1, according to which Hosea the murderer of Pekah became king in the twelfth year of Ahaz and reigned nine years, Ewald has added ותשׁע after עשׂרים without any hesitation, and lengthened Pekah's reign to twenty-nine years, whereas Thenius proposes to alter twenty into thirty. But we do not thereby obtain an actual agreement either with Kg2 15:30 or with Kg2 17:1, so that in both these passages Thenius is obliged to make further alterations in the text. For instance, if Pekah had reigned for thirty years from the fifty-second or closing year of Uzziah's reign, Hosea would have ascended the throne in the fourteenth year of Ahaz, supposing that he really became king immediately after the murder of Pekah, and not in the twelfth, as is stated in Kg2 17:1. It is only with a reign of twenty-eight years and a few months (one year of Uzziah, sixteen of Jotham, and eleven of Ahaz), which might be called twenty-nine years, that the commencement of Hosea's reign could fall in the twelfth year of Ahaz. But the discrepancy with Kg2 15:30, that Hosea conspired against Pekah and slew him in the twentieth year of Jotham, is not removed thereby. For further remarks see at Kg2 15:30 and Kg2 17:1.)

During his reign the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser came, and after conquering the fortified cities round Lake Merom took possession of Gilead and Galilee, namely the whole land of Naphtali, and led the inhabitants captive to Assyria. Tiglath-pileser (פּלאסר תּגלת or פּלסר תּגלת, Kg2 16:7; פּלנאסר or פּלנסר תּלגת פּלנסר, Ch1 5:26, and Ch2 28:20; Θεγλαθφαλασάρ or Θαλγαθφελλασάρ, lxx; written Tiglat-palatsira or Tiglat-palatsar on the Assyrian monuments, and interpreted by Gesenius and others "ruler of the Tigris," although the reading of the name upon the monuments is still uncertain, and the explanation given a very uncertain one, since Tiglat or Tilgat is hardly identical with Diglath = Tigris, but is probably a name of the goddess Derketo, Atergatis), was, according to M. v. Niebuhr (pp. 156, 157), the last king of the Derketade dynasty, who, when the Medes and Babylonians threw off the Assyrian supremacy after the death of Pul, attempted to restore and extend the ancient dominion.

(Note: M. Duncker (Gesch. des Alterthums, i. pp. 658, 659) also assumes that the dynasty changed with the overthrow of the Derketades, but he places it considerably earlier, about the year 900 or 950 b.c., because on the one hand Niebuhr's reasons for his view cannot be sustained, and on the other hand there are distinct indications that the change in the reigning family must have taken place about this time: viz., 1. in the ruins of the southern city of Nineveh, at Kalah, where we find the remains of the palace of two rulers, who sat upon the throne of Assyria between the years 900 and 830, whereas the castles of Ninos and his descendants must undoubtedly have stood in the northern city, in Nineveh; 2. in the circumstance that from the time mentioned the Assyrian kingdom advanced with fresh warlike strength and in a fresh direction, which would agree with the change in the dynasty. - Which of these two assumptions is the correct one, cannot yet be decided in the present state of the researches on this subject.)

His expedition against Israel falls, according to Kg2 15:29 and Kg2 16:9, in the closing years of Pekah, when Ahaz had come to the throne in Judah. The enumeration of his conquests in the kingdom of Israel commences with the most important cities, probably the leading fortifications. Then follow the districts of which he took possession, and the inhabitants of which he led into captivity. The cities mentioned are Ijon, probably the present Ayun on the north-eastern edge of the Merj Ayun; Abel-beth-maacah, the present Abil el Kamh, on the north-west of Lake Huleh (see at Kg1 15:20); Janoach, which must not be confounded with the Janocha mentioned in Jos 16:6-7, on the border of Ephraim and Manasseh, but is to be sought for in Galilee or the tribe-territory of Naphtali, and has not yet been discovered; Kedesh, on the mountains to the west of Lake Huleh, which has been preserved as an insignificant village under the ancient name (see at Jos 12:22); Hazor, in the same region, but not yet traced with certainty (see at Jos 11:1). Gilead is the whole of the land to the east of the Jordan, the territory of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh (Ch1 5:26), which had only been wrested from the Syrians again a short time before by Jeroboam II, and restored to Israel (Kg2 14:25). הגּלילה (the feminine form of הגּליל, see Ewald, 173, h.) is more precisely defined by the apposition "all the land of Naphtali" (see at Kg1 9:11). - In the place of אשּׁוּרה, "to the land of Assyria," the different regions to which the captives were transported are given in Ch1 5:26. For further remarks on this point see at Kg2 17:6.

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.)

In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah

It can be stated clearly that this is the fifty-second year of his reign. AT: "In year 52 of the reign of Azariah king of Judah" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Numbers)

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 depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat

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

translationWords

evil

Yahweh

sin

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.