(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 (2 Kings 15:33), and the year assigned as the beginning of Hoshea’s reign (2 Kings 17:1). For, according to 2 Kings 15:32, Pekah had reigned about two years when Jotham succeeded in Judah, and Jotham reigned sixteen years; and, according to 2 Kings 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 1 Chronicles 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. 1 Kings 15:20.
Janoah. — Not the border-town between Ephraim and Manasseh (Joshua 16:6), as the context requires a place in the northernmost part of Israel.
Kedesh. — On the western shore of the waters of Merom (Joshua 21:37).
Hazor. — See 1 Kings 9:15.
Gilead. — See 2 Kings 14:25; 1 Chronicles 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 2 Kings 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 2 Kings 15:33, according to which Jotham reigned sixteen years only.