2 Kings 15:22 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead— This shews that Menahem was a man of great weight, since, notwithstanding all his violence and cruelty, he left the kingdom in his own family, which his two predecessors could not do. It is manifest however, that there was a small interregnum of about a year's continuance between his death and his son's accession; for his son did not begin to reign till the 50th year of Azariah; and yet the father must have been dead a year before, because it is said of him that he began to reign (2 Kings 15:17.) in the 39th year of Azariah, and reigned but ten years; there was therefore apparently an interregnum; but what the occasion of it was, is not so well known, though there is reason to suppose that it proceeded from the interest of his successor, who might raise a party to keep him out of the throne, as he did afterwards to dispossess him both of that and of life; for, according to Josephus, he was cut to pieces, with several of his friends about him, at a public feast, by the treasonable practice of Pekah, one of his principal officers, who, seizing upon the government, reigned about twenty years, and left it at last a difficult question to determine, whether he was more remarkable for his impiety towards God, or his injustice towards men. See Exodus 15:25 and Joseph. Antiq. lib. 5: cap. 11.