to refuse the payment of the Assyrian tribute and to re-establish the
independence of the Kingdom of Israel; but they were disappointed.
Pekaiah followed in the political footsteps of his father and the
hopes of the Samarian patriots waned when he succeeded his father on
the throne.

Rezin, however, was not to be denied in the plan he had laid out for
himself and for the other Assyrian tributaries. Pekaiah reigned in
Samaria less than two years, when, in 735, through the assistance of
Rezin and the connivance of the patriotic party in Samaria, he was
assassinated by one of his generals, Pekah, the son of Remaliah.

Pekah was thus raised to the throne of Israel with the avowed purpose of
uniting with Rezin in the proposed rebellion against Tiglath-Pileser.
Israel wanted, and needed, the help of Judah in the desperate conflict
that awaited them. The smaller countries north of Israel and Syria,
crushed under the burden of their Assyrian tribute, gladly joined the
Syro-Israelitish coalition; but the embassy to Jerusalem returned
empty-handed. Rezin and Pekah, however, were not dismayed by the refusal
of Judah to join them. They bided their time for a better opportunity.

This opportunity came the very next year when Jotham died, suddenly,
and his son, Ahaz, a young man of twenty, came to the throne of Judah.

Without any notice whatever, Rezin and Pekah united their armed forces
and marched upon Jerusalem. This sudden invasion of Judah had been
carefully planned beforehand. It was so arranged that, when the
Syro-Israelitish forces attacked Jerusalem, a certain man, the son of
Tabeal, who was willing to play the traitor, was to assassinate Ahaz,
proclaim himself king, admit the enemy into the city and throw all the