Pekah
Name meaning: "he that opens"
Pekah (meaning: open-eyed or watchful), the son of Remaliah, was a military captain who assassinated King Pekahiah of Israel and seized the throne (2 Kings 15:25), becoming the eighteenth king of the northern kingdom. He reigned approximately 732–730 BC. Pekah formed a coalition with Rezin of Damascus against Judah, launching the Syro-Ephraimite War described in 2 Kings 16 and Isaiah 7, in an attempt to force Judah into their anti-Assyrian alliance.
His aggression against Judah provoked King Ahaz to appeal to the Assyrian emperor Tiglath-pileser III (Pul) for help. The Assyrian king responded by devastating Israel's northern territories and deporting their populations (2 Kings 15:29) — precisely the catastrophe Pekah's policy had aimed to prevent. Pekah was subsequently assassinated by Hoshea the son of Elah, who became Israel's last king. Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 7:1–9, addressed during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis, contains the famous Immanuel sign.