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2 Kings 15 · a question people ask

Why would the LORD begin to send Rezin and Pekah against Judah, in the account of a king who did right?

In the text

The chapter says it and gives no reason. In Jotham's account, which says he "did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes" (15:34), comes "In those days, the LORD began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah" (15:37). The chapter doesn't join this to the high places of 15:35, or to anything else. Later, when "The LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans" and others in Jehoiakim's days (24:1-2), the book gives its reason there: "for the sins of Manasseh" (24:3). For 15:37 it gives none. What Rezin and Pekah did is told in the next chapter, in the days of Jotham's son Ahaz: they "came up to Jerusalem to wage war" and "could not overcome him" (16:5).

The verses

“He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes. He did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of the LORD’s house. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In those days, the LORD began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.”
2 Kings 15:34-37 · World English Bible
“In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. The LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, bands of the Syrians, bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the LORD’s word which he spoke by his servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of the LORD this came on Judah, to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did,”
2 Kings 24:1-3 · World English Bible
“Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war. They besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.”
2 Kings 16:5 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Kings 15

2 Kings 15: So it came to pass

2 Kings 15 calls one king of Judah both Azariah and Uzziah, and Matthew's genealogy of Jesus uses Uzziah: "Uzziah became the father of Jotham" (Matthew 1:9). Of the five kings of Israel whose reigns it tells, four are killed by the man who reigns after them, the LORD's word to Jehu is kept, "So it came to pass" (15:12), and the king of Assyria first comes into Kings.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions