LiTERATCKE.— Delitzsch, Parodies, p. 297: Schrader in Riehm, HWB.s.v., COT ii.n. 1. G. PINCHES.
REZIN (yrt). — No doubt the name was oriCTn- ally spelled jisi, i.e. Rczon or Rnzon. The LXX 'Vaacaiiiv (in Kings, but in Isaiah 'Vaach or 'Paalp disputes the place) points to the 0 sound ; so does
p 9 the Assyrian Ra-sun-nu and the Pesh. . , }•
1. From 2 K 16' and Is 7''° we leara that Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Israel, planned an attack on_Judah. This was in the year B.C. 734. Damascus and Israel were vassal States, subject to the suzerainty of Assyria. In IU Raw. 9, No. 3, Tiglath-pile.ser (see Winckler, Keilinsch. Textb. p. 17) enumerates the articles paid him in tribute by i?a-*«n-H?J of Damascus and Menahem pf Samaria. Tiie two tributaries were now anxious to throw ofl' the yoke. Naturally they sought to enlist the aid of their neighbour Judah, which, for all that appears, was at this time noiuinally independent of '.he great king. Meeting with a refusal, the comoderates moved forwards against Ahaz. We have no reliable in- formation as to the earlier events of the campaign. The assertion in 2 K 16* that Rezin ' recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elatli ; and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there unto this day,' is obviously an error. The Sj'riana had nothing to do with tliat district, which came rather within the sphere of Edom. The original oiiN (Edom) of the text has been corrupted into DIN (Aram), d'diin (Edomites) into d-diin (Ar.tma-ans, Syrians), and when once this was done the iiser-
* Probably there should bo a vowel at the end('^itfau, or perhaps, Abda'C). Cf. tf^^y and its variant ■'^;'^3i'.
REZON
RHEGIUM
267
tion of the king's name, Rezin, easily followed. It sliould be noted that according to '2 Ch 2G" the Edoniites were actively hostile to Aliaz. All, then, that we really know of the beginning of the campaign is that the two kings, of whom Rezin was the more active and powerful, advanced with their troops against Jerusalem and besieged it. Isaiah endeavoured to allay the intense alarm which this caused amongst the citizens, but his eflbrts did not meet with much success. Ahaz, at all events, put morf confidence in foreign intervention than in the prophet's assurance of Divine protec- tion. He 'took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present,' i.e. as tribute, to Tiglath-pileser, entreat- ing his immediate help. The Assyrian was only too delighted with the pretext for interference. His apiiroach was the signal for the murder of Pekah by his own subjects (2 K 15*), who then accepted the great king's nominee, HosilEA, as their sovereign : ' I took the land of Bit-Chumria [Beth-Omri] . . . the whole of its people. I carried away their possessions to Assyria. Pekah their king did they dethrone, and I set Hosliea to rule over them' (III Raw. 10, No. 2, in Winckler). Turning ajjainst Damascus, he encountered a more determined resistance. 2 K 16^ states that he ' took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.' But the Assyrian monarch himself informs us that the siege lasted more than a year. It ended in B.C. 7.^2. bchrader (COT i. 257) saj's that Rawlinson found the slaying of Rezin mentioned on a block, which was unfortunately left behind in Asia and has since disappeared.
\\inck\eT (AUtest, Untersuch. pp. 74, 75) identifies 'the son of Tabeel' (Is 7*) with Kezin. He ex- plains la-hbeXCfdh-El) as meaning ' El is wise,' and argues from the equivalent name Eliada ( 1 K 1 1'-^) and from the fab-rimmon of 1 K 15" that such a name as J'&h-El was not uncommon amongst the kings of this dynasty. And since ' the son of Remaliah' in 18 7'' means Pekah, he holds that ' the son of TAb-El ' in Is V means Rezin. Dam- ascus, too, being the predominant partner, the chief profit of the expedition would fall to its king. The series of Damascene kings, therefore, accord- ing to him is as follows : —
Circa 950 B.C. . . . Rezon.
From about 885-844 . . Bir-'idrl, the Ben-hadad of
the Bible. From 844 to about 804 (7) \\-j.7m:\. 8O4(?)-744C0 . . . Muri— in the Bible, Ben-
liodod. 743{?>-? . . . . T:\hEl. J-732 .... Itczin.
But the identification on which this depends is precarious. Obviously the periphrasis, ' the son of Remaliah,' is intended to be contemptuous. It recalls the fact that Pekah was a usurper, entirely unconnected with the royal family. Probably, then, 'the son of fab-El' is also a scornful title, hurled at one who was a mere puppet in the hands of the two kings. If 'fab-El had been a king of Damiuicus, it would have been no derogation to Rezin's dignity to be entitled his son.
2. In Ezr 2« = Neh 7°" 'the children of Rezin' (pn ■;3) are mentioned amongst the Nethinim. The LXX has viol 'I'aauiv : the vloi Aaiffiv of 1 Es 5" is evidently a mere scribe's error, resulting from the common confusion of i and i. Gutlie, in Kautzsch's Apukr., unhcsiUitingly restores the * Rezin ' in this passage. J. Taylok.