


PEKAH pe’ kə (פֶּ֨קַח, he has opened [the eyes], a shortened form of פְּקַחְיָ֖ה, Yahu has opened [the eyes]). King in Israel 741-732 b.c., contemporary with Ahaz of Judah and Rezin of Damascus.

The actual chronology of Pekah’s reign appears inconsistent with the Biblical data of his accession and death, but a survey of the Biblical data and historical records will resolve the problem. The problem may be stated that the dates 753/752 b.c. (Thiele, Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings [1965], 79-81) for the thirty-eighth year of Uzziah, and the fall of Samaria in 732 b.c. do not permit enough time for the reigns of Zachariah (six months), Shallum (one month), Menahem (ten years), Pekahiah (two years), Pekah (twenty years) and Hoshea (nine years), the total being forty-one years and seven months while the actual time was only thirty years.

The solution is based on 2 Kings 15:30 and 17:1, when the last year of Pekah, the first of Hoshea, the twelfth of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jo