Difference between revisions of "Adrammelech"

<p> &nbsp;Adram'melech. &nbsp;(splendor of the king). </p> <p> 1. The name of an idol introduced into Samaria by the colonists from Sepharvaim. &nbsp;2 Kings 17:31. He was worshipped with rites resembling those of Molech, children being burnt in his honor. Adrammelech was probably the male power of the sun, and &nbsp;Anammelech, who is mentioned with Adrammelech as a companion god, the female power of the sun. </p> <p> 2. Son of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, who, with his brother Sharezer, murdered their father in the temple of [[Nisroch]] at Nineveh, after the failure of the Assyrian attack on Jerusalem. The parricides escaped into Armenia. &nbsp;2 Kings 19:37; &nbsp;2 Chronicles 32:21; &nbsp;Isaiah 37:38. </p>

<p> &nbsp;1. The idol of the [[Sepharvite]] colonists of Samaria planted by [[Assyria]] (&nbsp;2 Kings 17:31); means "burning splendor of the king" (compare Molech). The male power of the sun; as ANAMMELECH is the female, sister deity. [[Astrology]] characterized the Assyrian idolatry. Adrammelech was represented as a peacock or a mule; Anammelech as a pheasant or a horse. [[Children]] were burnt in his honor. </p> <p> &nbsp;2. Son and murderer of Sennacherib in Nisroch's temple at Nineveh. He and Sharezer his brother escaped to [[Armenia]] (&nbsp;2 Kings 19:36; &nbsp;2 Chronicles 32:21). Named so from the idol. </p>

<p> &nbsp;Adrammelech (&nbsp;a-drăm'me-l&nbsp;ĕk), &nbsp;splendor of the king, or &nbsp;fire king. 1. One of the idols adored by the Sepharvaim, who were settled in Samaria. They made their children pass through the fire in honor of this deity, and of another called Anammelech, "image of the king." Rawlinson supposes the sun and his wife Anunit—perhaps the moon-to be referred to. &nbsp;2 Kings 17:31. 2. A son of Sennacherib, who aided in slaying his father. &nbsp;2 Kings 19:37; &nbsp;Isaiah 37:38. </p>

<p> &nbsp;1. The god of the Sepharvites, to whom they burnt their children, placed in one of the houses of the high places among the Samaritans. &nbsp;2 Kings 17:31 . A sort of Adar-Mars, <i> i.e., </i> sun-god, who was regarded as a destroying being (Fürst). </p> <p> &nbsp;2. One of the sons of Sennacherib who smote his father with the sword and then fled to the land of Armenia. &nbsp; 2 Kings 19:37; &nbsp;Isaiah 37:38 . </p>

<p> (Heb. Adramme&nbsp;’ lek, &nbsp;אִדְרִמֶּלֶךְ &nbsp;, prob. for, &nbsp;אֶדֶר &nbsp;הִמֶּלֶךְ, &nbsp;glory of the king, i.e., of Moloch; Sept. &nbsp;Ἀδραμέλεχ )&nbsp;, the name of a deity, and also of a man. (See [[Cuneiform]] Inscriptions). </p> <p> &nbsp;1. An idol worshipped by the sacrifice of children in the fire, in connection with Anammelech, by the inhabitants of Sepharvaim, who were transported to Samaria by the king of Assyria (&nbsp;2 Kings 17:31). Selden &nbsp;(De Diis Syris, 2, 9) has confounded the two idols, being misled by a corrupt reading of the text (&nbsp;אֵֹלהִ, &nbsp;god, instead of 1.&nbsp;אֵֹלהֵי, &nbsp;gods of, as in the margin). The above etymology (making the name equivalent to the splendid king), first proposed by Jurien (Hist. des cultes, 4, 653) favors the reference of this divinity to the sun, the moon perhaps being denoted by the associated Anammelech (as the female companion of the sun, comp. Rawlinson&nbsp;’ s Herodotus, 1, 611), in general accordance with the astrological character of Assyrian idolatry (Gesenius, Comment. ub. Jesaias, 2, 327 sq.), and seems preferable to the [[Persian]] derivation (i. q. adar or azar, fire) proposed by Reland (De vet. ling. Pers. 9). The kind of sacrifice has led to the conjecture (Lette, De idolo Adrammelech, in the Bibl. Bremens. nov. &nbsp;— fasc. 1, p. 41 sq.) that [[Saturn]] is meant; but Selden (De Diis Syris, 1, 6) and others have identified him with Moloch, chiefly on the ground that the sacrifice of children by fire, and the general signification of the name, are the same in both (see Gregorius, Feuergotzen d. Samaritaner, Lauban, 1754). Little credit is due to the rabbinical statements of the Bab. Talmud, that this idol was worshipped under the form of a peacock, or, according to Kimchi, that of a mule (Carpzov, Apparatus, p. 516); but it is probable that the former notion may have arisen from a confusion with some other ancient idol of the [[Assyrians]] of that form. The Yezidees, or so-called devil-worshippers of the same region, appear to retain a striking vestige of such a species of idolatry in their sacred symbol called Melek Taus, or king peacock, a name by which they personify Satan, the chief object of their reverence (Layard&nbsp;’ s Nineveh, 1st ser. 1, 245; 2d ser. p. 47). </p> <p> &nbsp;2. A son of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. Both he and Sharezar were probably the children of slaves, and had therefore no right to the throne. Sennacherib, some time after his return to Nineveh, from his disastrous expedition against Hezekiah, was put to death by them while worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch; having accomplished this crime, they fled for safety to the mountains of Armenia, and their brother [[Esarhaddon]] succeeded to the throne (&nbsp;2 Kings 19:37; &nbsp;Isaiah 37:38; comp. &nbsp;2 Chronicles 32:21), B.C. 680. See SENNACHERIB. [[Moses]] Chorensis (p. 60) calls him Adramelus; so, also, [[Abydenus]] (in Euseb. Chron. Armen. 1, 53), who makes him the son and murderer of Nergal, Sennacherib&nbsp;’ s immediate successor (see Hitzig, Begriff d. Kritik, p. 194 sq.); while, according to [[Alexander]] Polyhistor (in Euseb. Chron. Arm. 1, 43), Sennacherib was assassinated by his son Ardumusanus. Colossians Rawlinson (Outlines of Assyrian History, also in the Lond. Athenaeum, March 18 and April 15, 1854) thinks he has deciphered the names of two Assyrian kings called Adrammelech, one about 300 and the other 15 years anterior to Sennacherib; but neither of them can be the one referred to in Scripture. </p>