2 Kings 15:27–31, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Kings 15:27–31
Pekah loses northern territory and is killed
Pekah loses the north to Tiglath-pileser, then loses his life to Hoshea
Pekah son of Remaliah begins to reign over Israel in Samaria and reigns twenty years. He does what is evil and does not depart from the sins of Jeroboam. In his days Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria comes and takes Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carries the people captive to Assyria. The map shrinks in a list of names. Deportation has begun before Samaria itself falls.
Then Hoshea son of Elah makes a conspiracy against Pekah, strikes him down, kills him, and reigns in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah. The rest of Pekah's acts are in the chronicles. A twenty-year reign ends as the others have: a knife, a new name, and a smaller country already walking east.
How this should shape us
Watch what is already being carried away while the throne still argues over who sits on it. Losing towns and people is not a later problem for someone else; it is the present tense of a kingdom that will not turn.
Teach it back
Explain 2 Kings 15:27–31 in your own words. Include its movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, one affected or obscured person, and one misuse the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Assyrian campaigns and the regnal synchronisms are reconstructed from biblical and imperial sources with different agendas.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
2 Kings 15:27–31, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 15:27–31
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 649–651, translation and translator notes for 15:27–31
Supports: Unit-level literary, compositional, historical, and theological orientation used as one concise scholarly synthesis rather than consensus.
Dietrich, '1 and 2 Kings,' Oxford Bible Commentary (2001), printed pp. 257–261, exposition covering 2 Kings 15:27–31
Supports: Only the abstract-supported conclusion that regnal synchronisms, MT-LXX differences, and reconstruction remain contested without consensus.
McKenzie and Villar Vegas, 'The Royal Chronology of the Books of Kings,' Oxford Handbook (2024), official abstract and metadata for pp. 216–230
Supports: Only publisher-visible framing for Judah under Israelite, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Babylonian power using texts, inscriptions, and archaeology with limits.
Hasegawa, 'History and Archaeology: The Kingdom of Judah,' Oxford Handbook (2024), official abstract and metadata for pp. 243–257
Supports: Assyrian royal claims relevant to Samaria's fall, used critically because imperial inscriptions magnify the king and suppress subjected voices.
Frame, RINAP 2 (2021), official ORACC critical edition and Sargon II Samaria records, including the conquest, deportation, resettlement, administration, and tribute claims
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Kings 15:27–31, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 15:27–31
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 649–651, translation and translator notes for 15:27–31
Open source ↗scholarly commentary chapter
1 and 2 Kings
Walter Dietrich
The Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2001
Supports: Unit-level literary, compositional, historical, and theological orientation used as one concise scholarly synthesis rather than consensus.
Exact location: Dietrich, '1 and 2 Kings,' Oxford Bible Commentary (2001), printed pp. 257–261, exposition covering 2 Kings 15:27–31
Open source ↗scholarly handbook chapter abstract and metadata
Royal Chronology
Steven L. McKenzie and David Villar Vegas
The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings, Oxford University Press, 2024
Supports: Only the abstract-supported conclusion that regnal synchronisms, MT-LXX differences, and reconstruction remain contested without consensus.
Exact location: McKenzie and Villar Vegas, 'The Royal Chronology of the Books of Kings,' Oxford Handbook (2024), official abstract and metadata for pp. 216–230
Open source ↗scholarly handbook chapter abstract and metadata
History and Archaeology: The Kingdom of Judah
Shuichi Hasegawa
The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings, Oxford University Press, 2024
Supports: Only publisher-visible framing for Judah under Israelite, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Babylonian power using texts, inscriptions, and archaeology with limits.
Exact location: Hasegawa, 'History and Archaeology: The Kingdom of Judah,' Oxford Handbook (2024), official abstract and metadata for pp. 243–257
Open source ↗critical edition of primary assyrian inscriptions
The Royal Inscriptions of Sargon II, King of Assyria (721-705 BC)
Grant Frame; primary inscriptions of Sargon II
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, University of Pennsylvania, 2021
Supports: Assyrian royal claims relevant to Samaria's fall, used critically because imperial inscriptions magnify the king and suppress subjected voices.
Exact location: Frame, RINAP 2 (2021), official ORACC critical edition and Sargon II Samaria records, including the conquest, deportation, resettlement, administration, and tribute claims
Open source ↗