PHACEE (Hebr. Péqáh). — King of Israel (736–732 B.C.), the 18th after the division of the Kingdom, persistently called “son of Romelia” (II Reg. 15, 27. 30; Is. 7, 4. 5. 9; 8, 6), an obscure and perhaps contemptible figure. Commander Phaceia (v.), he plotted against him and killed him, usurping his throne (II Reg. 15, 27–31), which he held for 3 or 4 years (certainly not 20 years, as is erroneously read in the biblical text owing to a scribal error).
The conspiracy seems to have arisen from popular discontent over the burdensome tribute that Israel had been forced to pay, Manahem (v.), to the king of Assyria, Theglathphalasar III (v.). This explains the hostile policy that the new King adopted toward the Assyrian power. For this purpose he promoted, together with Rasin II, king of Damascus, already tributary to Theglathphalasar, an anti-Assyrian league, to which he also sought to draw the king of Judah, Ioatham (v.). But when the latter refused, P. and Rasin waged war against him, also intending to divide the Kingdom of Judah between themselves (the Syro-Ephraimite War).
Hostilities intensified still further when Ioatham was succeeded by his son Achaz, who, defeated in the field, withdrew into fortified Jerusalem and was there besieged.
To this episode is connected the intervention of the prophet Isaiah on behalf of the threatened house of Judah, ALZON, EMMANUEL D' (v.) and the prediction of the imminent ruin of the Kingdom of Samaria (Is. 7, 1–16). ACAZ (v.) appealed for help to the Assyrian monarch, who immediately set out to punish P. and Rasin and to reduce them, together with their other allies, to definitive subjection. As Theglathphalasar approached (ca. 732), P. and Rasin lifted the siege of Jerusalem and hastened to defend their countries. Once Damascus, the linchpin of the league, had fallen, the Assyrian army invaded the Kingdom of Israel, which offered no serious resistance. All Galilee and Transjordan were lost, and the tribe of Nephthali and the Transjordanian tribes were deported to Assyria (I Par. 5, 26); Israel was left with only the mountainous territory around Samaria.
King P. did not long survive the disaster: when an internal revolt broke out, Osea (v.), who took his crown (II Reg. 15, 30). The Assyrian King must not have been uninvolved in the conspiracy; thus, in his annals, he relates the event, undoubtedly exaggerating it, but in agreement with the biblical account: “The house of Omri (this is how the Assyrian documents call the Kingdom of Israel even after the disappearance of the dynasty of Omri: V. AMBI), all its people together with its possessions, I deported to Assyria. When they overthrew Paqaha (Phacee), their king, I set Ausi (Osea) over them” (cf. H. Gressmann, Altorient. Texte, Berlin 1926, pp. 346–48).