HEZION (ti+11:1) ; LXX. ; Alex. 'AraijA ; Vulg. Hezion), the grandfather of the first of the Benhadads mentioned in Scripture History. A question has long been raised whether this name (which occurs in 1 Kings xv. x8) indicates the same person as the REZON of Kings xi. 23. Thenius, after Ewald, suggests that the successful adventurer who became king of Damascus, and was so hostile a neighbour to Solomon throughout his reign, was really called Hezion, and tbat the designation Rezon prince') was either assumed by him, or be stowed on him by his followers after he was seated on his new throne. There is of course no chrono logical difficulty in this supposition. Less than forty years intervened between the death of Solo mon, when Rezon was reigning at Damascus (r Kings xi. 25), and the treaty between Asa and lienhadad I. (1 Kings xv. 18, 19), during which interval there is no violence to probability in assum ing the occurrence of the death of Rezon or Ifezion, the accession and entire reign of Tabrimon his son, who was unquestionably king of Syria and con temporary with Asa's father (1 Kings xv. 19), and the succession of Tabrimon's son, Benhadad I. This ider"ity of Hezion with Rezon is an idea ap parently old as the Septuagint translators ; for they associated in their version with Solomon's adversary the Edomite Hadad [or, as they called him, Ader, Top "A Sep], Esronz, the son of Eliadah' (see the LXX. of 1 Kings xi. 14) ; a name which closely resembles our Hezion, though it refers to Rezon, as the patronymic proves (r Kings xi. 23).
The later versions, Peschito ( 05501, Hedron), and • Arabic Hedron), seem to approximate also more nearly to Hezion than to RCZOli. Of the older commentators, Junius, Piscator, Malvenda, and Menochius have been cited (see Poli Synops. in loc.) as maintaining the identity. Kohler also, and Marsham (Can. Citron. p. 346) and Dathe, have been referred to by Keil as in favour 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 Winer (B. .R. tv., p. 245, and vol. ii. p. 322). If the account be correct which is communicated by Josephus (Antiq. vii. 5. 2) from the 4th book of Nicolaus Damascenus, to the effect that the name of the king of Damascus who was contempo rary with David was Hadad ("A.SaSos), we have in it probably' 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 generations. According to Macrobius (Saturnalia, 1. 23) Adad was the name of the supreme god of the Syrians r Deo quern summum maximumque venemtur Adad nomen decleruntl ; and as it was a constant practice with the kings of Syria and Babylon to assume names which connected them with their gods (cf. Tabrim mon of Kings xv. 18, the son of our Hezion, whose name =-- ny, good is Rimmon,' another Syrian deity, probably the same with Adad ; see 2 Kings v. IS, and Zech. xii. 1), we may not unreasonably conjecture that Hezion, who in his taitica/ relation called himself Rezon, or prince, adopted the name Hadad [or rather Ben hadad, Son of the supreme Godl in relation to the religion of his country and to his own ecclesiasti cal supremacy. It is remarkable that even after the change of dynasty in Hazael, this title of Ben kadad seemed to survive (see 2 KingS Xiii. 3). If this conjecture be tnie, the energetic marauder who passes under the names of Rezon and Bezion in the passages which we quoted at the commencement ot this art., was strong enough not only to harass the great Solomon, but to found a dynasty of kings which occupied the throne of Syria to the tenth descent, even down to the revolution effected by Hazael, near two hundred years, according to the exactest chronology of Josephus' (Whiston's note, on Antig. vii. 5, 2).—P. II.