Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 15
Pekah became king of northern and central Israel about 30 years before the army of Assyria completely destroyed that country. This was the time when God sent the prophets (holy men) Isaiah, Hosea and Micah to warn the people about their evil deeds. For the people in northern and central Israel, the time to turn back to God was short. Many of them would still be alive when God’s judgment against their nation happened. They would lose their homes, their freedom, and all their possessions in that judgment.
However, it did not seem to the people in northern and central Israel that their nation was in trouble. Rather, it seemed that a new period of wealth and success had begun. Pekah ended the peace agreement that Menahem had made with the king of Assyria. That freed the people from the expensive taxes that Menahem had forced them to pay (15:20).
Instead of the peace agreement with Assyria, Pekah made an agreement with the king of Aram (also called Syria). The armies of Aram and of northern and central Israel agreed to support each other in war. Together, the two armies were extremely powerful in that region. They attacked Judah (2 Chronicles 28:5-8), and they made a plan to destroy it (Isaiah 7:1-2 and 7:5-6). In great fear, Ahaz, the king of Judah, paid the king of Assyria to support him against them (16:5-9).
The king of Assyria first attacked and destroyed Damascus, the capital of Aram (16:9). Then he entered northern Israel, where his soldiers destroyed several towns and cities (15:29). It was a terrible defeat for Pekah’s army – but much worse events would soon happen in Israel.
Pekah was an evil man. Like the other kings of northern and central Israel, he belonged to the wrong religion that Jeroboam, its first king, had established.
Next part: The king of Assyria deports the tribe of Naphtali (2 Kings 15:29)
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