2 Kings 16:5

THE WAR AGAINST AHAZ BY PEKAH AND REZIN OF SYRIA

"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. At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there, unto this day."

" 2 Kings 16:5 here is practically identical with Isaiah 7:1."[10] In fact, Isaiah probably is the author of a great many passages in Kings. From the account in Isaiah we learn the reason for this war against Judah. Syria, mentioned first here, was the leader of a coalition in which they had also enlisted Pekah with a projected purpose of forming a wide-spread alliance against the rising authority of Assyria. They desperately wanted Judah to join this coalition, and when Ahaz refused, Syria and Israel under Pekah decided to replace Ahaz on the throne of Judah with a man of their own choice, Ben-Tabeel (Isaiah 7:6).

Cook pointed out that, "A large party in Judah were weary of the house of David (Isaiah 7:13) and were ready to join the coalition."[11] Their siege of Jerusalem was for that purpose, but although they inflicted great damage and casualties upon Judah, they could not compel the removal of Ahaz.

We shall not comment on 2 Kings 16:6, as it appears here, because scholars generally agree that the text is defective, as indicated by the RSV rendition as follows:

"2 Kings 16:6, (RSV): At that time the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom, and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day."

The Hebrew words for Aram and Edom are quite similar, and the translators switched the passage to Edom, rather than Aram (Syria), because of the more appropriate meaning. The inclusion of this information here seems to have been for the purpose of showing how the difficulties against Ahaz were multiplied.