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Bible Dictionaries
Hadad
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or A name often recurring in the Syrian and Edomite dynasties, meaning the sun; so applied as the official title to the king, as supreme on earth as the sun is in the sky. It appears in Ben-hadad, son, i.e. worshipper, of Hadad; Hadad-ezer, helped by Hadad. It appears as Hadar. (See HADAR.) (Genesis 25:15; compare 1 Chronicles 1:30; 1 Chronicles 1:50). Nicolaus of Damascus (Fragm. 31), friend of Augustus Caesar (Josephus, Ant. 7:5, sec. 2), confirms 2 Samuel 8:3 as to David's defeating Hadadezer or Hadarezer, king of Zobah, "when he went to recover his border at the river Euphrates"; Nicolaus says, "a certain Hadad, a native Syrian, had great power, ruling over Damascus and all Syria except. Phoenicia (this accords with 2 Samuel 8:5, 'the Syrians of Damascus came to support Hadadezer,' being his vassals); he contended against David king of Judea in many battles; in the last, which was by the Euphrates, he suffered defeat (making his third defeat: 2 Samuel 8:3; 2 Samuel 8:5; 2 Samuel 10:18), showing himself a prince of the greatest prowess."
1. Son of Ishmael (Genesis 25:15). The Attaei, Attene, Chateni, on W. of Persian gulf, seem his descendants (Ptol. 6:7, section 15; Plin. 6:32). Hadad, a mountain belonging to TEMA on the borders of the Syrian desert N. of el-Medeenah, corresponds to the dwelling of this tribe.
2. King of Edom; conquered Midian on the field of Moab (Genesis 36:35); Avith was his capital. (See AVITH.)
3. King of Edom (Pan was his capital: Genesis 36:39); probably living when Moses wrote, for Moses does not record his death as he does that of his predecessors; last of the kings. In the later written 1 Chronicles 1:50 Hadad's death is recorded. The dukes that follow were not successors, but hereditary sheikhs who chose one emir or king to preside. Hadad's death does not therefore, as Smith's Bible Dictionary supposes, mark a change to the dukedom. (See EDOM.) "Hadad could hardly have been living after the times of the kings of Israel, to which period those who consider Genesis 36:31-48 an interpolation would assign the genealogy" (Speaker's Commentary).
4. Of the royal house of Edom (1 Kings 11:14, etc.). In childhood escaped the massacre of every Edomite male by Joab, and fled into Egypt. Pharaoh gave him house, victuals, and land, and his wife Tahpenes the queen's sister in marriage, who bore him Genubath. At David's death, in spite of Pharaoh's entreaties he left Egypt for his own country. The Septuagint read Edom for Aram (Syria), 1 Kings 11:25, thus making Hadad succeed in his attempt to regain rule over Edom, from whence he harassed Israel; but the Septuagint omits all as to Rezon, so that its authority is worth little here. Josephus (Ant. 8:7, section 6) reads as KJV; Hadad thus having failed to recover Edom joined Rezon in assailing Israel and received from him a portion of Syria; "he reigned over Syria" refers to Rezon, and is a repetition of verse 24.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Hadad'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/h/hadad.html. 1949.
