HADADEZER: An Aramean king and opponent of David (II Sam. viii. 3-12; I Kings xi. 23). The name means "Hadad helps." A variant is Hadarezer, to which the form Hadadezer is superior, since Hadad (q.v.) is the name of an Aramaic deity, and "Hadadezer" is formed on customary lines (cf. Hebr. Eliezer, Joezer; and Phenician Eshmunezer). The name occurs on a seal of the seventh century in which the letters 1 and r are clearly distinguished (Euting, Sitzungsberichte der Berliner. Akademie, 1885, p. 879). It is probable ',, that Hadadezer was the name of the king of Dama6cus whom the Old Testament mentions as the second Benhadad. The subject of this article was king of Zobah (q.v.), a principality lying south of Mt. Hermon and the chief of a group of Aramean states extending as far south as the borders of Ammon. When David was engaged in war with the Ammonites, Hadadezer assisted the latter and was defeated by David; he then secured the aid of the king of Damascus, and again met defeat. He finally summoned all the remaining Aramean states to the south of Hermon except Hamath (then an ally of Israel), only to be beaten again.

Such is the account of the events of David's Aramean wars as compiled from the two accounts in II Sam. viii. and x., which in part supplement each other and in part are different versions of the same event. Confusion has been introduced by the use of the term "river" in viii. 3 and x. lg, which has been taken to mean the Euphrates, which indeed some manuscripts read in viii. 3 and as the Septuagint reads in the parallel i Chron. gix. 16. Probably, however, the Jordan is meant, and the area of the transactions referred to in the context was restricted to eastern Palestine and its northern Aramean border.

J. F. McCurdy.

Bibliography: H. Ewald, Gesthichte des Volkes Israel, iii. 202-212, Göttingen, 1888, Eng. transl., London, 1871; F. Hitaig, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, pp. 143-148, Leipsic, 1869; E. Schrader, %eilinschriften und Geschichtstorachung, p. 386, Giessen, 1878; A. Kohler, Lahrbuch der bibliadenn Geeschichte, 11. i. 282-286, Stuttgart, 1884; E. Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, i. 383-384, Erlangen, 1884; J. Euting, Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1886, P. 879; B. Stale, Geschichte des Volkes load, i. 278, Berlin, 1887; F. Baethgen, Beifrage cur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, p. 87, Berlin, 1889; E. Renan, Hist. du peuple Israel, ii. 37-41, Paris, 1889, Eng. transl., Boston, 1889; J. F. McCurdy, History, Prophecy and the Monuments, i. 247-248, New York, 1894; R. Kittel, Geschichte der Hebräer, ii. 140-141, Göttingen, 1892, Eng. transl., London, 1898; DB, ii. 273-274; BB, ii. 1930; JR, vi. 131; Schrader, KAT, pp. 231, 460.