Difference between revisions of "Hezion"

<p> <strong> [[Hezion]] </strong> . Father of Tabrimmon, and grandfather of Benhadad, the [[Syrian]] king (&nbsp; 1 Kings 15:18 ). It has been plausibly suggested that Hezion is identical with <strong> Rezon </strong> of &nbsp; 1 Kings 11:23 , the founder of the kingdom of Damascus, and an adversary to Solomon. </p>

<p> (Heb. Chezyon', חֶזְיוֹן '', Visionz;'' Sept. Ἀζιών ), the father of [[Tabrimon]] and grandfather of the Ben-hadad I, king of Damascene-Syria, to whom Asa sent a largess to conciliate his aid against [[Baasha]] (&nbsp;1 Kings 15:18). B.C. ante 928. A question has long been raised whether this name (which only occurs in the above passage) indicates the same person as the REZON of &nbsp;1 Kings 11:23. Thenius, after Ewald, suggests that the successful adventurer who became king of Damascus, and was so hostile a neighbor to [[Solomon]] throughout his reign, was really called ''Hezion,'' and that the designation [[Rezon]] (רְזוֹן, "prince") was either assumed by him, or bestowed on him by his followers after he was seated on his new throne. There is, of course, no chronological difficulty in this supposition. Less than forty years intervened between the death of Solomon, when Rezon was reigning at [[Damascus]] (&nbsp;1 Kings 11:25), and the treaty between Asa and Ben-hadad I (&nbsp;1 Kings 15:18-19), during which interval there is no violence to probability in assuming the occurrence of the death of Rezon or Hezion, the accession and entire reign of Tabrimon his son, who was unquestionably king of Syria and contemporary with Asa's father (&nbsp;1 Kings 15:19), and the succession of Tabrimon's son, Beni-hldad I. This identity of Hezion with Rezon is an idea apparently as old as the Sept. translators; for they associated in their version with Solomon's adversary the [[Edomite]] [[Hadad]] [or, as they called him, Ader, τὸν ῎Αδερ ], ''"Es-Rom,'' the son of Eliadah" (see the Sept. of &nbsp;1 Kings 11:14); a name which closely resembles our ''Hezion,'' though it refers to Rezon, as the patronymic proves (&nbsp;1 Kings 11:23). </p> <p> The later versions, [[Peshito]] ''(Hedron)'' and Arabic ''(Hedron),'' seem to approximate also more nearly to [[Hezion]] than to ''Rezon.'' Of the old commentators, Junius, Piscator, Malvenda, and Menochius have been cited (see Poli ''Synops.'' ad loc.) as maintaining the identity. Kohler also, and Marsham ''(Can. Chronicles'' p. 346), and Dathe have been referred to by Keil as in favor of the same view. Keil himself is uncertain. According to another opinion, Hezion was not identical with Rezon, but his successor; this is propounded by Winer ''(B. R. W.'' 1, 245, and 2, 322). If the account be correct which is communicated by [[Josephus]] ''(Ant. 7,'' 5, 2) from the fourth book of ''Nicolaus Damascenus'' to the effect that the name of the king of Damascus who was contemporary with David was ''Hadad ('' ῎Αδαδος), we have in it probably the ''Dynastic'' name which Rezon or Hezion adopted for himself and his heirs, who, according to the same statement, occupied the throne of Syria for ten generations. According to [[Macrobius]] ''(Saturnalia,'' 1, 23), [[Adad]] was the name of the supreme god of the Syrians; and as it was a constant practice with the kings of Syria and [[Babylon]] to assume names which connected them with their gods (comp. Tabrimon of &nbsp;1 Kings 15:18, the son of our Hezion, whose name= רַמּוֹן +טָב, "good is Rimmon," another Syrian deity, probably the same with Adad; see &nbsp;2 Kings 5:18, and &nbsp;Zechariah 12:11), we may not unreasonably conjecture that Hezion, who in his political relation called himself Rezon, or "prince," adopted the name Hadad [or, rather. Ben-hadad, "Son of the supreme God"] in relation to the religion of his country and to his own ecclesiastical supremacy. It is remarkable that even after the change of dynasty in [[Hazael]] this title of Ben- hadad seemed to survive (see &nbsp;2 Kings 13:3). If this conjecture be true, the energetic marauder who passes under the names of [[Rezon]] and [[Hezion]] in the passages which we quoted at the commencement of this article was strong enough not only to harass the great Solomon, but to found a dynasty of kings which occupied the throne of Syria to the tenth descent, even down to the revolution effected by Hazael, "near two hundred years, according to the exactest chronology of Josephus" (Whiston's note on Ant. 7 5, 2). (See Rezon). </p>