ADAD is the name of the chief deity of the Syrians, the sun, according to Macrobius, whose words are (Saturnal, i. 23): Accipe quid Assyrii de Solis potentia opinentur ; deo enim, quem sum. mum maximumque venerantur, Adad nomen deder unt. Ejusnoininis interpretatio significat . . Simulacrum, Adad insigne cernitur radiis in clinatis, quibus monstratur vim coali in radiis esse Solis, qui demittuntur in terram.' Moreover, Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 11, 71), speaking of re markable stones named after parts of the body, mentions some called Adadunephros, ejusdem oculus ac digitus dei ;' and adds, 'et hic colitur a Syris.' He is also called "AaceSos paataebs 66.4$ by Philo Byblius (in Eusebii Prapar. Evan. i. 10), where the occurrence of the long o for a is to be ascribed to the characteristic pronunciation of the Western Aramaean dialect. The passage of Hesy chius which Harduin adduces in his note to Pliny, concerning the worship of this god by the Phrygians, only contains the name '15wOor by an emendation of Salmasius, which Jablonski declares to be in admissible (De Ling. Lycaonica, p. 64).
This Syrian deity claims some notice here, be cause his name is most probably an element in the names of the Syrian kings Benhadad and Had adezer. Moreover, several of the older commenta tors have endeavoured to find this deity in Isaiah lxvi. 17 ; either by altering the text there to suit the name given by Macrobius ; or by adapting the name he gives to his interpretation and to the read ing of the Hebrew, so as to make that extract bear testimony to a god Achad. Michaelis has argued at some length against both these views : and the modern commentators, such as Gesenius, Hitzig, Bbttcher (in Proben Alltest. Schrifterkliir.), and Ewald, do not admit the name of any deity in that passage.—J. N.