person · P0435 · bible
Pekach פקח
The officer who killed Pekachyah and reigned as Assyria closed in. Allied with Retzin of Aram against Yehudah (the crisis of Yeshayahu 7 — "the son of Remalyahu"), he lost Gilead, the Galil, and all Naftali to Tiglath-Pileser, who exiled them — the first stage of the northern exile. Hoshea's conspiracy against him is confirmed from the Assyrian side. No parent edge: usurper.
Who
- Hebrew
- פקח
- Also known as
- Pekah, Pekach ben Remalyahu
- Era
- bible
When
- Traditional
- c. 3146–3196 AM (reigned 3176–3196, twenty years)
- Civil (computed)
- 3146–3196 AM · 615–565 BCE (trad.)
- Academic
- reigned c. 736–732 BCE (the stated twenty years overlap earlier reigns)
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈50 years
- Precision
- approximate
How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| In the fifty-second year of Azaryah king of Yehudah, Pekach ben Remalyahu became king over Israel in Shomron — twenty years.
The twenty years sit awkwardly with the synchronisms; chronologists ancient and modern count much of the span as overlapping rival reigns. The atlas chains the stated figure schematically.
|
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| In the days of Pekach king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took Iyon, Avel-Beit-Maachah, Yanoach, Kedesh, Chatzor, the Gilead, and the Galil — all the land of Naftali — and exiled them to Assyria. | biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Hoshea ben Elah conspired against Pekach, struck him and killed him, and reigned in his place; Tiglath-Pileser III's annals state the same transition from the Assyrian side: "They overthrew their king Pekah (Pa-qa-ḫa), and I placed Hoshea (A-ú-si-ʾ) over them as king."
A rare double witness: the same royal succession recorded in Kings and in the Assyrian annals.
|
biblical external archaeology | ★★★★★ | |
| The placement (reigned 3176–3196 AM) is a schematic Mesorah Atlas reconstruction: the northern kings' regnal years stated in Kings are chained forward from the division of the kingdom in 2964 AM, with sub-year reigns counted as zero; the chain closes exactly at the fall of Shomron in 3205 AM (Chizkiyahu's sixth year, Melachim II 18:10). The cited source states the reign's length, not absolute dates.
The cited sources establish relative chronology or regnal duration; they do not state the absolute AM range.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |