| Pekah | |
|---|---|
| King Of Israel | |
 Portrait from Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum (1553) by Guillaume Rouillé | |
| King of Israel (Northern Kingdom) | |
| Reign | c. 740 – c. 732 BC |
| Predecessor | Pekahiah |
| Successor | Hoshea |
| Died | c. 732 BC |
| Father | Remaliah |
Pekah (/ˈpɛkɑː, ˈpiː-/, Hebrew: פֶּקַח Peqaḥ; Akkadian: 𒉺𒅗𒄩 Paqaḫa [pa-qa-ḫa]; Latin: Phacee)[1] was the eighteenth and penultimate king of Israel. He was a captain in the army of king Pekahiah of Israel, whom he killed to become king. Pekah was the son of Remaliah.[a]
Pekah became king in the fifty-second and last year of Uzziah, king of Judah.
William F. Albright has dated his reign to 737–732 BC, while E. R. Thiele, following H. J. Cook[3] and Carl Lederer,[4] held that Pekah set up in Gilead a rival reign to Menahem's Samaria-based kingdom in Nisan of 752 BC, becoming sole ruler on his assassination of Menahem's son Pekahiah in 740/739 BC and dying in 732/731 BC.[5] This explanation is consistent with evidence of the Assyrian chronicles, which agree with Menahem being king in 743 BC or 742 BC[6] and Hoshea being king from 732 BC.
When Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram, to attack Ahaz, the king of Judah, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help. While the Assyrian king obliged, Judah would become a tributary of Assyria.
- ^ churchofjesuschrist.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «pē´kä»
- ^ churchofjesuschrist.org: "Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide" (retrieved 2012-02-25), IPA-ified from «rĕm-a-lī´a»
- ^ Cook, H. J., "Pekah," Vetus Testamentum 14 (1964) 14121–135.
- ^ Carl Lederer, Die biblische Zeitrechnung vom Auszuge aus Ägypten bis zum Beginne der babylonischen Gefangenschaft, 1887, cited in Cook, Pekah 126, n. 1.
- ^ Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (3rd ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983) 129–134, 217.
- ^ T. C. Mitchell, "Israel and Judah until the Revolt of Jehu (931–841 B.C.)" in Cambridge Ancient History 3, Part 1, ed. John Boardman et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) 326.
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