Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
Then Rezin ... and Pekah ... came up to Jerusalem to war. Notwithstanding their great efforts and military preparations, they failed to take it, and, being disappointed, raised the siege and returned home (cf. Isaiah 7:1). It appears from Isaiah 7:6 that the invasion of Judah by the confederate kings (confederate in one sense; but Rezin was the superior, and Pekah a tributary vassal, bound to follow his master) was not a mere predatory expedition, but that it was the permanent reduction of the country, the destruction of the whole family of David, and the establishment of another tributary prince, that they had in view. A close examination of the seventh and eighth chapters in the hook of that prophet will furnish clear proof that there was in Jerusalem itself a powerful faction who were actively favouring the designs of the northern allies. [The word qesher (H7195), rendered (2 Kings 16:12) a confederacy, is used throughout the history of the kings to signify a conspiracy only (2 Kings 11:14; 2 Kings 12:21; 2 Kings 14:19; 2 Kings 15:30).]
At the head of this conspiracy was the son of Tabeal, whom the invaders intended to set, as their vassal, on the throne of Judah, as the geographical position of Syria excluded the possibility of dividing the former country, and annexing any part of it to the dominions of Rezin. Their ultimate object was to bring Judah as well as Israel under vassalage to Syria, that by the union of the three kingdoms (and it is probable, cf. 2 Kings 17:4, that Egypt secretly favoured this policy) a broad, compact phalanx of opposition might be presented to the overwhelming power of Assyria. The extirpation of whole dynasties was familiar to those who were connected with Oriental courts; and the older a dynasty was, the more venerated and beloved by the people, the more necessary it was that no survivor should be left to claim back the crown from its usurper. But the unconditional promise given to David, that his seed should for ever sit on the throne of Israel, irrespective of the conduct of his descendants (2 Samuel 7:12-16), prevented such dynastic changes in Judah, and occasioned purpose of the allied kings being defeated, in spite of Ahaz. This result was all the more striking, that at another time, and in other circumstances, he was left to himself under incomparably greater calamities, when his kingdom was all but annihilated (see the notes at 2 Chronicles 28:5; 2 Chronicles 28:8; 2 Chronicles 28:17-18) (see 'Jewish Intelligence,' March,
1867.)