IIAZAEL (haz'a-e1), (Heb. 17'$M, khac-aw-ale', vision of God).
(1) Consults Elisha. An officer of Benha dad, king of Syria, whose eventual accession to the throne of that kingdom was made known to Elijah (i Kings xix :15) ; and who, when Elisha was at Damascus, was sent by his master, who was then to consult the prophet respecting his recovery. He was followed by forty camels bear ing presents from the king. When Hazael ap peared before the prophet, Ile said, 'Thy son Benhadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to thee, saying, 'Shall I recover of this disease?' The an swer was. that Ile ;night certainly recover. 'How beit,' added the prophet, `the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die.' He then looked steadfastly at Hazael till he became confused: on which the man of God then wept ; and when Ilazael respectfully inquired the cause of this out burst, Elisha replied by describing the vivid pic ture then present to his mind of all the evils which the now before him would inflict upon Israel. Ilazael exclaimed, 'But what! Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing?' The prophet explained 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 fur him.
(2) Kills Benhadad. But the very next day this man, cool and calculating in his cruel ambi tion, 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 (2 Kings viii:8,etc.), B. C. about 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 Eli sha. His discomposure at the earnest gaze of the prophet, and other circumstances, show that Ha zael at that moment regarded Elisha as one to whom his secret purposes were known. In that case, his cry, 'ls 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.
(3) King and Wars. The further informa tion respecting Hazael which the Scriptures af ford is limited to brief notices of his wars with Allazjah and Joash, kings of Judah, and with Jehorani, Jelni, and Jelloahaz, kings of Israel (2 Kings viii :28 ; ix :14 ; x :32 ; xii :17 ; xiii :3 ; 2 Chron. xxii: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 Hazacl always had the ad vantage over the Hebrew princes. Ile devastated their frontiers, rent from them all their territorics beyond the Jordan. traversed the breadth of Pales tine, 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 predic tions of Elisha. This able and successful, but unprincipled usurper left the throne at his death to his son Benhadad (B. C. about 8i5).
Hazael figures more than once in the cuneiform inscriptions. Shalmaneser II, who in the early part of his reign had defeated an alliance formic' by Dadidri (Ben-hadad II), Ahab of Israel, and other kings, and again in the fourteenth year of his reign had a second time worsted Dadidri. states that in his eighteenth year (B. C. 842) Ile joined battle with Hazael of Damascus, who had assembled a large army and entrenched himself upon the mountain of Sanir in the Anti-Lebanon. I-Iere he awaited the Assyrian onslaught. Six thousand of his soldiers were killed in battle, while 1,121 of his chariots and 470 horses. with his camp equipage, were taken. liazael fled to Damascus, and was pursued and besieged by the Assyrians. But it appears that. powerful though he was, Shalmaneser was not able to take Da mascus. and had to content himself with a thor onghly characteristic conclusion of the campaign. He cut down the trees about the city, and then marching southward. entered Hauran, where he wasted and burned the cities. (Obelisk. lines 97 oo and Fragmentary Text, III R. 5, No. 6, 4o-65. See translations by Rogers, op. cit. pp. 220. 221; See Rogers, Hist. of Bab. and Assyr., p. 82.)