Hadad

Hadad, the name of a Syrian deity, is met with in the Old Testament as the name of several human persons; it also occurs in compound forms like Benhadad and Hadadezer. The divinity primarily denoted by it is the storm-god who was known also as Ramman, Bir and Dadda. The Syrian kings of Damascus seem to have habitually assumed the title of Benhadad, or son of Hadad (three of this name are mentioned in Scripture), just as a series of Egyptian monarchs are known to have been accustomed to call themselves sons of Amon-Ra. The word Hadadrimmon, for which the inferior reading Hadarrimmon is found in some MSS. in the phrase “the mourning of (or at) Hadadrimmon” (Zech. xii. 11), has been a subject of much discussion. According to Jerome and all the older Christian interpreters, the mourning for something that occurred at a place called Hadadrimmon (Maximianopolis) in the valley of Megiddo is meant, the event alluded to being generally held to be the death of Josiah (or, as in the Targum, the death of Ahab at the hands of Hadadrimmon); but more recently the opinion has been gaining ground that Hadadrimmon is merely another name for Adonis (q.v.) or Tammuz, the allusion being to the mournings by which the Adonis festivals were usually accompanied (Hitzig on Zech. xii. 11, Isa. xvii. 8; Movers, Phönizier, i. 196). T. K. Cheyne (Encycl. Bibl. s.v.) points out that the Septuagint reads simply Rimmon, and argues that this may be a corruption of Migdon (Megiddo), in itself a corruption of Tammuz-Adon. He would render the verse, “In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of the women who weep for Tammuz-Adon” (Adon means lord).

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