Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 15:23-26

"In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] two years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. And Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the castle of the king`s house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites: and he slew him, and reigned in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel." — 2 Kings 15:23-26 (ASV)

THE REIGN OF PEKAHIAH
(Hebrew, Pĕkahyâh).

(23) In the fiftieth year. —The forty-ninth, if verse seventeen were exact.

But ... a captain of his. — And ... his adjutant (or knight, 2 Kings 7:2).

The palace of the king’s house. —The same expression occurred in 1 Kings 16:18. The word armôn, rendered “palace,” is usually explained as meaning citadel or keep, from a root meaning to be high (Compare ἡ ἄκρα in Greek). Ewald interprets it as the harem, which, as the innermost and most strongly guarded part of an Oriental palace, is probably what is meant here. Pekahiah had fled there for refuge from the conspirators.

With Argob and Arieh. —Pekah killed these two persons, probably officers of the royal guard, who stood by their master, as well as the king himself.

The peculiar names are an indication of the historical character of the account. Argob suggests that the person who bore this name was a native of the district of Bashan so designated (1 Kings 4:13). Arieh (“lion”), like our own Coeur-de-Lion, signifies strength and bravery (Compare 1 Chronicles 12:8, The Gadites, whose faces were as the faces of lions.).

And with him fifty men of the Gileadites. —Or, and with him were fifty, etc. Pekah was supported by fifty soldiers, probably of the royal guard.

Menahem himself was of Gadite origin (2 Kings 15:17) and so belonged to Gilead. He would therefore be likely to recruit his bodyguard from among the Gileadites, who were always famous for their prowess (Judges 11:12; 1 Chronicles 26:31). The two names Argob and Arieh agree with this supposition.

The Septuagint reads, instead of “the Gileadites,” ἀπὸ τῶν τετρακοσίων, “of the four hundred,” which reminds us of David’s six hundred Gibbôrîm (2 Samuel 15:18).

Josephus accounts for the short reign of Pekahiah by the statement that he imitated the cruelty of his father.