Hazael

The Biblical Record

Hazael was king of Aram (the region of modern Syria) and reigned from its capital, Damascus. His name first appears in 1 Kings 19:15-17, where God commands Elijah to anoint Hazael king over Aram, Jehu king over Israel, and Elisha as prophet in his place.

In 2 Kings 8:7-15, Hazael appears as an official of Ben-hadad, the ailing king of Aram. At the king's command he brings a gift to Elisha and asks whether the king will recover. Elisha answers that the king will recover from his illness but will nevertheless die. Elisha then fixes his gaze on Hazael and weeps, foretelling the atrocities Hazael will commit against Israel and announcing that he will become king of Aram. The next day Hazael covers Ben-hadad's face with a cloth soaked in water so that he dies, and he takes the throne.

After becoming king, Hazael fought against Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah at Ramoth-gilead (2 Kings 8:28-29; 2 Chronicles 22:5-6). It was during this war that Jehu's revolt broke out. In Jehu's time Hazael seized Gilead and Bashan east of the Jordan (2 Kings 10:32-33). He also captured Gath and set his face toward Jerusalem, whereupon Joash king of Judah sent him the treasures of the temple and the palace, and Hazael withdrew (2 Kings 12:17-18). In the days of Jehoahaz he oppressed Israel so severely that its army was greatly reduced (2 Kings 13:3, 7, 22). After Hazael's death his son Ben-hadad succeeded him. At that time Joash king of Israel (a different person from Joash of Judah) recovered the cities that had been taken (2 Kings 13:24-25).

Significance Within Scripture

The books of Kings present Hazael's attacks as God's chastisement for Israel's sin (2 Kings 10:32; 13:3). By contrast, Amos 1:3-4 proclaims that fire will be sent upon "the house of Hazael" because Damascus cruelly threshed Gilead. This is read to mean that even a nation used as an instrument of discipline is judged for its own cruelty. Hazael is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Issues

• The anointing: There is no record that Elijah personally anointed Hazael. Many interpreters hold that the command was fulfilled through Elisha.
• Elisha's answer: In 2 Kings 8:10, reading the consonantal text as written in the Hebrew manuscripts yields "Thou shalt not recover," whereas the traditional oral reading yields "Say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover." The Korean New Revised Version (Gaeyeok Gaejeong) follows the latter reading. On the question of whether Elisha instructed Hazael to lie, many explain the statement to mean that the king would recover from the illness itself but die from another cause.
• Ben-hadad's death: Most read the account as a deliberate murder, although a minority view interprets it differently.
• Extrabiblical sources: Hazael appears in the records of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, which are known to describe him as a man of non-royal origin. An Aramaic inscription discovered at Tel Dan in the 1990s claims that its author killed the king of Israel and the king of the "House of David," and many scholars regard it as Hazael's inscription. This differs from 2 Kings 9, which records the deaths of Joram and Ahaziah as the work of Jehu. Various explanations have therefore been proposed; the king's name itself is not preserved in the inscription.

In Korean Churches

In Korean Protestant preaching, sermons devoted solely to Hazael are relatively rare; he is usually mentioned in sermons on passages about Elisha or Jehu. The scene in which he denies the prophecy, saying, "But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" (2 Kings 8:13), and then ultimately does exactly as foretold, is sometimes used as an illustration warning of the potential for sin hidden within the human heart.