His name is derived from Chazah, to see; and the E1 joined to it means to see God. We have his history, and the effect wrought upon the mind of the prophet Elisha in beholding him with his prophetic spirit, foreseeing the cruelties of Hazael on the children of Israel. (2 Kings 8 - 15.) The circumstance of Hazael’s spreading a cloth dipped in water over the face of Benhadad, hath been thought by some to have been done not with the design to kill him. Historians tell us, that it is the custom in the east, in those violent fevers calledNedad, to make use of chilling methods for their recovery. The patients drink cold water, and a quantity of water is thrown upon them. So that whether Hazael wished the death of his master, or not, the dipping the cloth in water and covering his face with it, was among the methods used on those occasions for recovery. Be this, however, as it may, Hazael stands on record for a very awful character, and his name was highly unsuitable to his conduct. All that the prophet Elisha foretold literally came to pass; and he, that, while the servant of the king his master, stood astonished at the bare mention only of the cruelties Elisha admonished him of, actually perpetrated the very murders which he had shuddered at, when he became clothed with the royal purple. (See 2 Kings 13. 3 - 7.) Oh, what an awful representation doth his history afford of the sin and iniquity lurking in the human heart! In the whole nature of man it must be the same, for the seeds of sin are alike in all; and that they do not ripen and bear the like deadly fruit in all, is whollyowing to the preventing and restraining grace of God. The heart that is not conscious of this, is not conscious of the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Elisha coming to Damascus, the capital of Syria, Benhadad, the reigning monarch, being then indisposed, sent Hazael, who was one of his principal officers, to wait upon the prophet, and consult him as to the issue of his disorder, 2Ki 8:7-13. The prophet told Hazael that certainly his master might recover, because his complaint was not mortal; yet he was very well assured that he would not recover; and, looking him steadfastly in the face, Elisha burst into tears. Surprised at this conduct, Hazael inquired the cause. “Because I know,” said the prophet, “the evil that thou wilt do to the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their infants against the stones, and rip up their women with child.” Hazael indignantly exclaimed, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great things?” Elisha merely answered, “The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria,” 2Ki 8:7-13. On his return home, Hazael concealed from his master Benhadad the prophet’s answer, and inspired him with hopes of recovery; but on the following day, he took effectual means to prevent it, by stifling the king with a thick cloth dipped with water; and, as Benhadad had no son, and Hazael was a man much esteemed in the army, he was, without difficulty, declared his successor, A.M. 3120. Hazael soon inflicted upon Israel all the cruelties which Elisha had foretold. For when Jehu broke up the siege of Ramoth-Gilead, and came with his army to Samaria, Hazael took advantage of his absence to fall upon his territories beyond Jordan, destroying all the land of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, from Aroer to Bashan, 2Ki 10:32. Some years passed after this, before Hazael undertook any thing against the kingdom of Judah, it being remote from Damascus; but in the reign of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, A.M. 3165, he besieged the city of Gath, and, having taken it, marched against Jerusalem, 2Ki 12:17-18. But Joash, conscious of his inferiority, bribed him at the price of all the money he could raise, to evacuate Judea, with which he for the moment complied; yet, in the following year, the army of Hazael returned, entered the territories of Judah, and the city of Jerusalem, slew all the princes of the people, and sent a valuable booty to their royal master, 2Ki 13:22; 2Ch 24:23.
Hazael (vision of God), an officer of Benhadad, king of Syria, whose eventual accession to the throne of that kingdom was made known to Elijah (1Ki 19:15); and who, when Elisha was at Damascus, was sent by his master, who was then ill, to consult the prophet respecting his recovery. He was followed by forty camels bearing presents from the king. When Hazael appeared before the prophet, he said, ’Thy son Benhadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to thee saying, Shall I recover of this disease?’ The answer was, that he might certainly recover. ’Howbeit,’ added the prophet, ’the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die.’ He then looked stedfastly at Hazael till he became confused: on which the man of God wept; and when Hazael respectfully inquired the cause of this outburst, Elisha replied by describing the vivid picture then present to his mind of all the evils which the man now before him would inflict upon Israel. Hazael exclaimed, ’But what! Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing?’ The prophet exclaimed that it was as king of Syria he should do it. Hazael then returned, and delivered to his master that portion of the prophetic response which was intended for him. But the very next day this man, cool and calculating in his cruel ambition, took a thick cloth, and, having dipped it in water, spread it over the face of the king, who, in his feebleness, and probably in his sleep, was smothered by its weight, and died what seemed to his people a natural death (2Ki 8:8, etc.), B.C. 885. We are not to imagine that such a project as this was conceived and executed in a day, or that it was suggested by the words of Elisha. His discomposure at the earnest gaze of the prophet, and other circumstances, show that Hazael at that moment regarded Elisha as one to whom his secret purposes were known. In that case, his cry, ’Is thy servant a dog,’ etc. was not, as some suppose, a cry of joy at the first view of a throne, but of horror at the idea of the public atrocities which the prophet described. This was likely to shock him more than it would do after he had committed his first crime, and obtained possession of a throne acquired at such a cost.
The further information respecting Hazael which the Scriptures afford is limited to brief notices of his wars with Ahaziah and Joash, kings of Judah, and with Jehoram, Jehu, and Jehoahaz, kings of Israel (2Ki 8:28; 2Ki 9:14; 2Ki 10:32; 2Ki 12:17; 2Ki 13:3; 2Ch 22:5). It is difficult to distinguish the several campaigns and victories involved in these allusions, and spread over a reign of forty years; but it is certain that Hazael always had the advantage over the Hebrew princes. He devastated their frontiers, rent from them all their territories beyond the Jordan, traversed the breadth of Palestine, and carried his arms into the states of the Philistines; he laid siege to Jerusalem, and only retired on receiving the treasures of the temple and the palace. The details of these conquests redeemed to the very letter the appalling predictions of Elisha. This able and successful, but unprincipled usurper left the throne at his death to his son Benhadad.
An officer of Benhadad king of Syria, whose future accession to the throne was revealed to the prophet Elijah, then at Damascus, as to his recovery from sickness, and on the next day smothered the king with a wet cloth, 2Ki 8:7-15, B. C. 885. His discomposure under the eye of the prophet was an indication that he had already meditated this crime. Having usurped the throne, he reigned forty years; and by his successful and cruel wars against Judah and Israel justified the forebodings of Elisha, 2Ki 8:28 10:32 12:17 13:3,7 2Ch 22:5 .\par
Haz’a-el. (whom God sees). A king of Damascus, who reigned from about B.C. 886 to B.C. 840. He appears to have been, previously, a person in a high position, at the court of Ben-hadad, and was sent by his master to Elisha, to inquire if he would recover from the malady, under which he was suffering. Elisha’s answer led to the murder of Ben-hadad, by his ambitious servant, who forthwith mounted the throne. 2Ki 8:7-15. He was soon engaged in war, with the kings of Judah and Israe, l for the possession of the city of Ramoth-gilead. 2Ki 8:28.
Towards the close of the reign of Jehu, Hazael led the Syrians against the Israelites, (about B.C. 860), whom he "smote in all their coasts," 2Ki 10:32, thus accomplishing the prophecy of Elisha. 2Ki 8:12. At the close of his life, having taken Gath, 2Ki 12:17. Compare Amo 6:2. He proceeded to attack Jerusalem, 2Ch 24:24, and was about to assault the city, when Joash bribed him to retire. 2Ki 12:18. Hazael appears to have died about the year B.C. 840, 2Ki 13:24, having reigned forty-six years.
King of Damascus from 886 to 840 B.C. Sent by his master Benhadad originally to Elisha to ask if he would recover from his sickness. The prophet answered he might recover (the disease not being fatal), but "that he should surely die." Then Elisha gazing at Hazael burst into tears (typifying Him who wept over Jerusalem, Luk 19:41), and said his weeping was "because I know the evil thou wilt do unto Israel ... their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child." Hazael replied, expressing surprise at such a one as he being about to do so
Hazael having murdered Benhadad became king, and fought with Ahaziah king of Judah, and Jehoram of Israel, for Ramoth Gilead (2Ki 8:28). The atrocities foretold (the same as in Hos 13:16) were doubtless perpetrated by him when in Jehu’s days "Jehovah cut Israel short, and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel, from Jordan eastward, all ... Gilead, the Gadites, Reubenites, Manassites, from Aroer by the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan" (2Ki 10:32-33). Jehovah therefore threatened, and executed his threat, "for three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; and I will send a fire into the house of Hazael," etc. (Amo 1:3.) The very same image is used in the independent history (an undesigned coincidence and mark of genuineness), concerning the king of Syria’s oppression of Israel under Jehoahaz, Jehu’s son: "he made them like the dust by threshing" (2Ki 13:7).
A black marble obelisk of the central palace of Nimrud, now in the British Museum, is inscribed with the names of Hazael and Benhadad of Syria, and Jehu of Israel, mentioned as tributaries of Shalmauubar king of Assyria. The tribute from Jehu is mentioned, gold, pearls, precious oil, etc. The name Hazael means "whom God looks on," implying some connection with the true God (El). El was also in the name of ELisha, who appointed him in the name of El; probably he assumed this name because of this call. Benhadad means on the contrary "worshipper of Hadad," the Syrian idol. Hazael led the Syrians, we read in the Assyrian monuments, in confederacy with the Hittites, Hamathites, and Phoenicians, against Assyria; at Antilibanus the Assyrians slew 16,000 of his warriors, and took 1,100 chariots. Three years later Hazael submitted to the Assyrians when they again invaded Syria.
It was after this, when the Assyrians were prevented by internal troubles from continuing to invade, that Hazael assailed Gilead toward the close of Jehu’s reign (about 860 B.C.), and held Israel in a kind of subjection (2Ki 13:3-7; 2Ki 13:22). He took Gath and even "set his face to go up to Jerusalem" (2Ki 12:17) in Joash’s reign (2Ch 24:23-24), "and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people" (it was God’s righteous retribution, for it was "the princes of Judah" who with flattering "obeisance" at Jehoiada’s death persuaded Joash to "leave the house of the Lord God of their fathers, to serve groves and idols," 2Ki 12:17-18, and stoned Zechariah son of Jehoiada, who "testified against them," 2Ki 12:19-22), and sent all the spoil to Damascus; Jehovah delivering "a very great host into the hand of a small company of Syrians, because the Jews had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers" (2Ki 12:23-24).
Joash saved Jerusalem only by "sending to Hazael all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah his fathers had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and in the king’s house" (2Ki 12:18). Hazael died about 840 B.C., after a 46 years’ reign. Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, recovered from Benhadad, Hazael’s son, the cities taken by Hazael. Jeroboam II still further "restored the coast of Israel from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the plain," according to Jonah’s prophecy, through the Lord’s great compassion (2Ki 13:25; 2Ki 14:25-27). Hazael’s cruelty and ambition failed to secure a lasting dynasty; see Jer 17:11.
Hazael (hăz’a-el or hâ’za-el), whom God beholds, i.e., cares for. A king of Syria. 1Ki 19:15; 1Ki 19:17. Jehu was to extirpate the authors of idolatry, Hazael to chastise the whole nation of Israel, and Elisha to slay with the quick and powerful sword of the divine word. Comp. Jer 1:10. When Elisha visited Damascus, and Ben-hadad, who was sick, had sent Hazael, a trusted servant, to inquire whether he should recover, Elisha intimated his approaching sovereignty. Hazael was astonished. The next day, however, Ben-hadad died, apparently by Hazael’s hand, though some question this; and Hazael succeeded as king; and his reign, with the exception of the time when he was called on to defend himself against the Assyrian power, was occupied with continual wars upon Israel and even against Judah. 2Ki 8:7-15; 2Ki 8:28-29; 2Ki 9:14-15; 2Ki 10:32-33; 2Ki 12:17-18; 2Ki 13:3; 2Ch 22:5-6. Hazael is supposed to have reigned about 46 years, 886-840 b.c. He was succeeded by his son, Ben-hadad II. 2Ki 13:22-25; Amo 1:4
[Haza’el]
King of Syria. When an officer of Ben-hadad, he was sent to Elisha (who was visiting Damascus) to know whether Ben-hadad should recover of his sickness. Elisha’s answer was indefinite: "Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die." Elisha then wept and explained it was in view of the cruelty that Hazael would do to Israel. Hazael repudiated this imputation, whereupon Elisha told him that he would be king over Syria. Elijah had been bidden to anoint Hazael as king of Syria, but we do not read that he ever anointed him, neither is there any word of Elisha’s doing this on the above occasion. Hazael returned to his master and told him that the message was that he should surely recover; but the next day he smothered him and reigned in his stead.
For some time Hazael was attacked by Assyria, and his kingdom suffered severely; but when these hostilities ceased, he turned his arms against Israel, and was the instrument God used to punish His guilty people, and ’to cut Israel short.’ Hazael smote all the coasts of Israel. This antagonism he continued to the end of his life. From time to time God gave His people relief, but they turned not from their evil ways, and the oppression was renewed with varying success by Hazael’s son, Ben-hadad III. 2Ki 19:15; 2Ki 19:17; 2Ki 8:8-29; 2Ki 9:14-15; 2Ki 10:32; 2Ki 12:17-18; 2Ki 13:3; 2Ki 13:22-25; 2Ch 22:5-6; Amo 1:4. The name of Hazael has been identified on one of the obelisks of Assyria.
By: Emil G. Hirsch, J. Frederic McCurdy
The most powerful of the kings of Damascus, and a ruler of general historical as well as of Biblical importance. While Ahab was still reigning as King of Israel the prophet Elijah was ordered by Yhwh to anoint Hazael as the coming King of Damascus (I Kings xix. 15). At this time Ben-hadad II was at the height of his power. It is not mentioned whether Elijah was able to carry out this difficult and dangerous commission; but in anycase the prophetic and reforming party in Israel had a share in the promotion of Hazael's ambition. When Joram, the successor of Ahab, was near the end of his reign (about 845 B.C.), Ben-hadad fell sick, and sent Hazael to Elisha, the successor of Elijah, to inquire as to the issue of his sickness. Elisha told Hazael in reply that his master would not recover, and predicted to him that he himself would be the next king, and would wage war against Israel with relentless cruelty. Hazael upon his return assassinated Ben-hadad and seized the throne (II Kings viii. 7-15).
The result of Hazael's encounters with Israel was disastrous to the latter. Joram, in alliance with his nephew Ahaziah, King of Judah, was defeated and wounded at Ramoth-gilead in a battle against the forces of Hazael (II Kings viii. 28 et seq.). After the murder of Joram by the usurper Jehu, the latter also found himself compelled to defend his kingdom against Damascus, again without success. Hazael "smote them in all the coasts of Israel," and secured for Damascus not only the long-disputed territory of Bashan and Gilead, but also the whole of the country east of Jordan, which in the days of Omri had been for a time subject to Israel (II Kings x. 32 et seq.). These successes of Hazael were followed by invasions of western Palestine, in the course of which he destroyed the city of Gath, ranged at will over the kingdom of Judah, and dictated terms of submission to King Jehoash, from whom he took the richest spoil of the Judean palace and temple in return for cessation of hostilities (II Kings xii. 17-18). His march through Philistia and Judea implies that northern Israel had been rendered helpless, and probably reduced to vassalage.
Still more remarkable was the stand made by Hazael against the attacks of the Assyrians, then under the leadership of Shalmaneser II. (860-825). Hazael's predecessor, Ben-hadad II., had on at least two occasions (854 and 849) been able to secure the aid of several powerful princes in defending the western country against the great conqueror; but Hazael had to endure the brunt of invasion alone. Shalmaneser recounts two great battles fought with Hazael, in 842 and 839, in which he claims to have been victorious. He was, however, unable to take the city of Damascus, and during the latter part of the reign of Hazael southern Syria was unmolested by the Assyrians. Thus, while Hazael was the conqueror and oppressor of Israel, he did memorable service to the Mediterranean coast-land by standing as a bulwark against its most powerful and persistent invader.
Bibliography:
Obelisk inscription of Shalmaneser II., lines 97 et seq.;
McCurdy, History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, §§ 236, 241 et seq.
HAZAEL usurped the throne of Syria (c
The next mention of Hazael shows him fighting at Ramoth-gilead against the allied armies of Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah (2Ki 8:28-29; 2Ki 9:14; 2Ki 9:16); the narrative here breaks off to deal with other matters, and does not say what the result of the fighting was, but from 2Ki 10:32 ff. it is clear not only that Hazael was victorious then, but that he continued to be so for a number of years (see, further, 2Ki 12:17 ff., cf. Amo 1:3-5); indeed, it was not until his death that the Israelites were once more able to assert themselves.
W. O. E. Oesterley.
1. In Biblical History
Comes first into Biblical history as a high officer in the service of Ben-hadad II, king of Syria (2Ki 8:7; compare 1Ki 19:15). He had been sent by his sick sovereign to inquire of the prophet Elisha, who was then in Damascus, whether he should recover of his sickness or not. He took with him a present “even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden,” and stood before the man of God with his master’s question of life or death. To it Elisha made the oracular response, “Go, say unto him, Thou shalt surely recover; howbeit Yahweh hath showed me that he shall surely die.” Elisha looked steadfastly at Hazael and wept, explaining to the incredulous officer that he was to be the perpetrator of horrible cruelties against the children of Israel: “Their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child” (2Ki 8:12). Hazael protested against the very thought of such things, but Elisha assured him that Yahweh had shown him that he was to be king of Syria. No sooner had Hazael delivered to his master the answer of the man of God than the treacherous purpose took shape in his heart to hasten Ben-hadad’s end, and “He took the coverlet, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead” (2Ki 8:15). The reign which opened under such sinister auspices proved long and successful, and brought the kingdom of Syria to the zenith of its power. Hazael soon found occasion to invade Israel. It was at Ramoth-gilead, which had already been the scene of a fierce conflict between Israel and Syria when Ahab met his death, that Hazael encountered Joram, the king of Israel, with whom his kinsman, Ahaziah, king of Judah, had joined forces to retain that important fortress which had been recovered from the Syrians (2Ki 9:14, 2Ki 9:15). The final issue of the battle is not recorded, but Joram received wounds which obliged him to return across the Jordan to Jezreel, leaving the forces of Israel in command of Jehu, whose anointing by Elisha’s deputy at Ramoth-gilead, usurpation of the throne of Israel, slaughter of Joram, Ahaziah and Jezebel, and vengeance upon the whole house of Ahab are told in rapid and tragic succession by the sacred historian (2 Ki 9; 10).
Whatever was the issue of this attack upon Ramoth-gilead, it was not long before Hazael laid waste the whole country east of the Jordan - “all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan” (2Ki 10:33; compare Amo 1:3). Nor did Judah escape the heavy hand of the Syrian oppressor. Marching southward through the plain of Esdraelon, and following a route along the maritime plain taken by many conquerors before and since, Hazael fought against Gath and took it, and then “set his face to go up to Jerus” (2Ki 12:17). As other kings of Judah had to do with other conquerors, Jehoash, who was now on the throne, bought off the invader with the gold and the treasures of temple and palace, and Hazael withdrew his forces from Jerusalem.
Israel, however, still suffered at the hands of Hazael and Ben-hadad, his son, and the sacred historian mentions that Hazael oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu. So grievous was the oppression of the Syrians that Hazael “left not to Jehoahaz, of the people save fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing” (2Ki 13:1-7). Forty or fifty years later Amos, in the opening of his prophecy, recalled those Syrian campaigns against Israel when he predicted vengeance that was to come upon Damascus. “Thus saith Yahweh ... I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad” (Amo 1:3, Amo 1:4).
2. In the Monuments
Already, however, the power of Syria had passed its meridian and had begun to decline. Events of which there is no express record in the Biblical narrative were proceeding which, ere long, made it possible for the son of Jehoahaz, Joash or Jehoash, to retrieve the honor of Israel and recover the cities that had been lost (2Ki 13:25). For the full record of these events we must turn to the Assyrian annals preserved in the monuments. We do read in the sacred history that Yahweh gave Israel “a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians” (2Ki 13:5). The annals of the Assyrian kings give us clearly and distinctly the interpretation of this enigmatic saying. The relief that came to Israel was due to the crippling of the power of Syria by the aggression of Assyria upon the lands of the West. From the Black Obelisk in the British Museum, on which Shalmaneser II (860-825 bc) has inscribed the story of the campaign he carried on during his long reign, there are instructive notices of this period of Israelite history. In the 18th year of his reign (842 bc), Shalmaneser made war against Hazael. On the Obelisk the record is short, but a longer account is given on one of the pavement slabs from Nimroud, the ancient Kalab. It is as follows: “In the 18th year of my reign for the 16th time I crossed the Euphrates. Hazael of Damascus trusted to the strength of his armies and mustered his troops in full force. Senir (Hermon), a mountain summit which is in front of Lebanon, he made his stronghold. I fought with him; his defeat I accomplished; 600 of his soldiers with weapons I laid low; 1, 121 of his chariots, 470 of his horses, with his camp I took from him. To save his life, he retreated; I pursued him; in Damascus, his royal city, I shut him up. His plantations I cut down. As far as the mountains of the Hauran I marched. Cities without number I wrecked, razed, and burnt with fire. Their spoil beyond count I carried away. As far as the mountains of Baal-Rosh, which is a headland of the sea (at the mouth of the
Literature
Schrader, COT, 197-208; McCurdy, HPM, I, 282ff.
.
God told the prophet Elijah that Hazael of Syria would be God’s instrument to punish Israel for its Baal worship during the reign of Ahab (1Ki 19:15-17). Elijah’s successor, Elisha, wept when he saw the suffering that the cruel Hazael would bring upon Israel (2Ki 8:12-15).
Hazael began his brutal attacks on Israel during the reign of Ahab’s son Joram (2Ki 8:28-29). The attacks became more widespread during the reign of the next king, Jehu (2Ki 10:31-33). They even spread into Judah, with attacks on coastal towns and on the capital, Jerusalem (2Ki 12:17-18). Israel lost further territory to Hazael during the reign of Jehoahaz, and gained some relief only after Hazael’s death (2Ki 13:1-3; 2Ki 13:22-25). Israel looked longingly for the day when it would see a just punishment poured out on Syria because of Hazael’s cruelty (Amo 1:3-5).