ADONI-ZEDEK (pir+YIN ; Sept. 'AStoPc f3es`/K, confounding him with Adonibezek). The name denotes lord of justice, i, e. just lord, but some would rather have it to mean king of Zedele. He was the king of Jerusalem when the Israelites invaded Palestine ; and the similarity of the name to that of a more ancient king of (as is supposed) the same place, Melchi-zedek (king of justice, or king of Zedek), has suggested that Zedek was one of the ancient names of Jerusalem. Be that as it may, this Adonizedek was the first of the native princes that attempted to make head against the invaders. After Jericho and Ai were taken, and the Gibeonites had succeeded in forming a treaty with the Israelites, Adonizedek was the first to rouse himself from the stupor which had fallen on the Canaanites (Josh. x. 3) ; and he induced four other Amoritish kings, those of Hebron, Jar muth, Lachish, and Eglon, to join him in a con federacy against the enemy. They did not, how ever, march directly against the invaders, but went and besieged the Gibeonites, to punish them for the discouraging example which their secession from the common cause had afforded. Joshua no sooner heard of this than he marched all night from Gilgal to the relief of his allies ; and falling unexpectedly upon the besiegers, soon put them to utter rout [JosHuA.]. Adonizedek and his con
federates having been taken, the Hebrew chiefs set their feet upon the necks of the prostrate monarchs —an ancient mark of triumph, of which the monu ments of Assyria and Egypt still afford illustrations. They were then slain, and their bodies hung on trees until the evening, when, as the law forbade a longer exposure of the dead (Deut. xxi. 23), they were taken down, and cast into the cave, the mouth of which was filled up with large stones, which remained long after (Josh. x. 1-27). The severe treatment of these kings by Joshua has been censured and defended with equal disregard of the real circumstances, which are, that the war was avowedly one of extermination, no quarter being given or expected on either side ; and that the war usages of the Jews were neither worse nor better than those of the people with whom they fought, who would most certainly have treated Joshua and the other Hebrew chiefs in the same manner, had they fallen into their hands.—J. K.