2. The great-great-grandfather of the prophet Zeph- aniah (Zeph. i, 1, where the name is Anglicized "Hiz- kiah"), supposed by some to be the same with the fore- going (see Wnetius, Demosir. Ecanci.\A\'ts.\t.bV2\ contra RosenmilUer, Prolerj. ad Zeph.). B.C. much ante 635.
3. A person mentioned in coimection with Ater (but whether as father or otherwise is not clear), which latter was the father (or former residence) of ninety-eight Is- raelites who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Neh. vii, 21). In Neh. x, 17 his name (Anglicized "Hizkijah") appears in a similar connection (but with- out the connective "of") among those who subscribed the covenant of Nehemiah. B.C. ante 536.
4. The second of the three sons of Neariah, a descend- ant of Salathiel (1 Chron. iii, 23) ; probably a brother of the Esli of Luke iii, 25, and also of the Azor of Matt. i, 13. (See Strong's Harm, and Exjjos. of the Gasp. p. 16.) B.C. post 536.
HezeL See Hetzel.
Hezer. See Hetzer.
He'zion (Reb.Chezyon', ''h'^m, vision ; Sept. 'A?t- m'), the father of Tabrimon and grandfather of the Ben-hadad I, king of Damascene-Syria, to whom Asa sent a largess to conciliate his aid against Baasha (1 Kings XV, 18). B.C. ante 928. A question has long been raised whether this name (which only occurs in the above passage) indicates the same person as the Rezon of 1 Kings xi, 23. Thenius, after Ewald, suggests that the successful adventurer who became L'mg of Damas- cus, and was so hostile a neighbor to Solomon through- out his reign, was really caUed Hezion, and that the des- ignation Rezon ('"IT'I, "prince") was cither assumed bj' him, or bestowed on him by his followers after he -was seated on his new throne. There is, of course, no chro- nological difficulty in this supposition. Less than forty years intervened between the death of Solomon, when Rezon was reigning at Damascus (1 Kijigs xi, 25), and
the treaty between Asa and Ben-hadad I (1 Kings xv, 18, 19), during which interval there is no violence to probability in assuming the occurrence of the death of Rezon or Hezion, the accession and entire reign (jf Tab- rimon his son, who was unquestionably king of Syria and contemporary with Asa's father (1 Kings xv, 19), and the succession of Tabrimon's son, Ben-liadad I. This identity of Hezion with Rezon is an idea api>ar- ently as old as the Sept. translators; for they associated in tlieir version with Solomon's adversary the Edomite Hadad [or, as they called him, Ader, Tiv"Ahp\, '^Es- rom, the son of Eliadah" (see the Sept. of 1 Kings xi, 14) ; a name which closely resembles our Hezion, though it refers to Rezon, as the patronymic proves (1 Kings xi, 23). The later versions, Peshito (Hedron) and Arabic {Hedron), seem to approximate also more nearly to He- zion than to Rezon. Of the old commentators, Junius, Piscator, Malvenda, and Menochius have been cited (see Poll Synops. ad loc.) as maintaining the identity. Kcih- ler also, and Marsham {Can. Chron. p. 346), anil Dathe have been referred to by Keil as in favor of the same view. Keil himself is uncertain. According to another opinion, Hezion was not identical with Rezon, but his successor; this is propounded by Wmer {B. R. W. i, 245, and ii, 322). If the accoimt be correct which is com- municated by Josephus (.4 nt. vii, 5, 2) from the fourth book of Nicolaus Damascenus, to the effect that the name of the king of Damascus who was contemporary with David was Hadad {"Adavoc), we have in it proba- bly the dynastic name which Rezon or Hezion adopted for himself and his heirs, who, according to the same statement, occupied the throne of Syria for ten genera- tions. According to Macrobius {Saturnalia, i, 23), AdadM'ns the name of the supreme god of the Syrians; and as it was a constant practice with the kings of Syria and Babylon to assume names which connected them with their gods (comp. Tabi-imon of 1 Kings xv, 18, the son of our Hezion, whose name = 'i152'n-|-Sl3, " good is Rimmon," another Syrian deity, probably the same with Adad; see 2 Kings v, 18, and Zech. xii, 11), we may not unreasonably conjecture that Hezion, who in his political relation called himself 7?eso??, or "prince," adopted the name Hadad [or, rather, Ben-hadad, " Son of the supreme God" J in relation to the religion of his country and to his own ecclesiastical supremacy. It is remarkable that even after the change of djiiasty in Hazael this title of Ben-hadad seemed to survive (see 2 Kings xiii, 3). If this conjecture be true, the energetic marauder who passes under the names of Rezon and He- zion in the passages which we quoted at the commence- ment of this article was strong enough not only to har- ass the great Solomon, but to found a dj-nasty of kings which occupied the throne of Syria to the tentli descent, even down to the revolution effected by Hazael, " near two hundred years, according to the exactest chronolo- gy of Josephus" (Whiston's note on Ant. vii, 5, 2). — Kitto, s. V, See Rezox.
He'zir (Heb. Chezir', T^W, a sivine, or, according to Flirst, stroncj; Sept. '\iZ,H(i and 'H?£ip v. r. Xjj^iv), the name of two men.
1. The head of the seventeenth course of priests as established by David (1 Chron. xxiv, 15). B.C. 1014.