2 Kings 15:30

“And Hoshea the son or Elab made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, etc.] Did by him as he had done by Pekahiah, (<121528>2 Kings 15:28), this was measure for measure, as the Jews say: and this he did in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah; and yet Jotham is said to reign but sixteen years, (<121533>2 Kings 15:33), this must be reckoned therefore either from the time of his being viceroy, and judging Israel in his father’s lifetime, (<121505>2 Kings 15:5) or this was the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth year, reckoning from the time Jotham began to reign, who is the rather mentioned, because as yet the…”

“Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy . . . and slew him--He did not, however, obtain possession of the kingdom till about nine or ten years after the perpetration of this crime [HALES]. in the twentieth year of Jotham--Jotham's reign lasted only sixteen years, but the meaning is that the reign of Hoshea began in the twentieth after the beginning of Jotham's reign. The sacred historian, having not yet introduced the name of Ahaz, reckoned the date by Jotham, whom he had already mentioned (see Ch2 27:8).”

“Hoshea, the son of Elah - One of Pekah’s friends, according to Josephus. The twentieth year of Jotham - According to 2 Kings 15:33 and 2 Chronicles 27:1, Jotham reigned only 16 years. See also the suggestion in the margin. Strangely enough, this first year of Hoshea is also called, not the fourth, but the twelfth of Ahaz 2 Kings 17:1. The chronological confusion of the history, as it stands, is striking. Uzziah - i. e. Azariah. See 2 Kings 15:1-4. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Twentieth year - The meaning is, that he began his reign in the twentieth year after the beginning of Jotham's reign; or, which is the same thing, in the fourth year of Ahaz, son of Jotham. 4 Kings (2 Kings) 15:33”

“am 3265, bc 739 made: Kg2 15:10, Kg2 15:25 and smote: Hos 10:3, Hos 10:7, Hos 10:15 reigned: "After an anarchy for some years." in the twentieth: "In the fourth year of Ahaz, in the twentieth year after Jotham had begun to reign." - Usher. Kg2 15:32, Kg2 15:33, Kg2 16:1, Kg2 17:1; Ch2 28:4-6, Ch2 28:16; Isa 7:1-9, Isa 8:6 4 Kings (2 Kings) 15:32”

“Pekah met with his death in a conspiracy organized by Hosea the son of Elah, who made himself king "in the twentieth year of Jotham." There is something very strange in this chronological datum, as Jotham only reigned sixteen years ( Kg2 15:33), and Ahaz began to reign in the seventeenth year of Pekah ( Kg2 16:1); so that Pekah's death would fall in the fourth year of Ahaz. The reason for this striking statement can only be found, as Usher has shown (Chronol. sacr. p. 80), in the fact that nothing has yet been said about Jotham's successor Ahaz, because the reign of Jotham himself is not mentioned till Kg2 15:32. (Note: Other attempts to solve this difficulty are either arbitrary and…”