IIADRACII (TM ; Scpt. fec5pdx). The meaning of the only passage in which this name occurs (Zech. ix. I) is obscure. It may be thus rendered, 'The announcement of the Word of the Lord upon the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be its (the word's) etc. Adri chomius says, Adrach, or Hadmch, alias Adra . . . is a city of Coelesyria, about 25 miles from Bostra, and from it the adjacent region takes the name of Land of Hadrach. This was the land which formed the subject of Zechariah's prophecy' (Theatrunt Terra Sancho, p. 75). Michaelis says— ' To this I may add what I learned, in the year 1768, from Joseph Abbassi, a noble Arab of the country beyond Jordan. I inquired whether he knew a city called Hadrakh( . . . He replied that there was a city of that name, which, though now small, had been capital of a large region called the land of Hadraa,' etc. (IIengs tenberg, Christology, p. 372, Edin. r858). 'fhe two names, however, are entirely different (Trin, Hadrach ; Edhr'a), and there is no historical evidence that Edhea ever was capital of a large territory [EDRE1]. Movers suggests that Hadrach may be the name of one of the old deities of Damascus (Die PhcYrzizier, i. 4.7S) ; and Bleek conjectures that reference is made to a king of that city (Stua'ien und Kr/ilk. 1852, p. 258). Hen derson supposes it to be only a corruption of 1111, the common names of the kings of Syria (Comment. ad loc.) Jarchi and Kimchi say, Rabbi Juda in terpreted it as an allegorical expression relating to the Messiah, Who is harsh CM) to the heathen, and gentle (11) to Israel.' Jerome's interprctation is somewhat similar— Et est ordo verborum ; as sumptio verbi Domini, acuti in peccatores, moili.r in justos. Adrach quippe hoc resonat ex duobus integris nomen compositum : AD on) crentum, RACH (11) molle, tenentmque significans' (Com ment. in Zach. ad loc.) Hengstenberg adopts the same etymology and meaning-, but regards the word as a symbolical appellation of the Persian empire, whose overthrow by Alexander Zechariah here toretells. He says the prophet does not men tion the real name, because, as he lived during the supremacy of Persia, such a reference would have exposed hint to clanger. It will thus be seen that the interpretations of the word are almost as nume rous as the commentators upon the passage.
Looking at the passage in what appears to be its plain and natural meaning, no scholar can deny that, according to the usual construction, the pro per name following linN is the name of the land' itself, or of the nation inhabiting the land, and the analogy presented by all the other names in the section is a sufficient proof that this must be the case here (Hengstenberg, iii. 375). All the other names
mentioned are well known—Damascus, Hamath, Tyre, Zidon, Gaza, etc. ; it is natural to infer that Hadrach is also the name of a place, known to the prophet. Its position is not accurately defined. The words of the passage do not connect it more closely with Damascus than with Hainath. It is remarkable that no such name is elsewhere found in ancient writers. The translators of the Septua gint were ignorant of it. So was Jerome. No such place is now known. The writer can affirm that there is no town or province near Damascus or Hamath bearing a name at all resembling Had rach. Yet this does not prove that there never was such a name. Many ancient names have disap peared, as it seems to be the case with this (see Hengstenberg Lc. ; Realwcerterbuch s.v. ; Alpheus, Diss. de terra Chadrach, etc.)—J. L. P.
H AGADICor Homiletic Exegesis. Rd tortAstr, 167.1 HAGAR con, a stranger ; Sept. '.A.7ap), a native of Egypt, and servant of Abraham ; but how or when she became an inmate of his family we are not informed. The name Hagar, which is pure Hebrew, signifying stranger, having been pro bably given her after her arrival, and being the one by which she continued to be designated in the patriarch's household, seems to imply that her con nection with it did not take place till long after this family had emigrated to Canaan ; and the presumption is that she was one of the female slaves presented to Abraham by Pharaoh during his visit to Egypt (Gen. xii. 16). But some derive the name front "V, to flee ; and suppose it to have been applied to her from a remarkable incident in her life, to be afterwards mentioned ; just as the Mo hammedans call the flight of Mohammed by the col lateral term Hegira.' 'Whatever were her origin and previous history, her servile condition in the family of Abraham must have prevented her from being ever known beyond the limits of her humble sphere, had not her name, by a spontaneous act of her mistress, become indissolubly linked with the patriarch's history. The long-continued sterility of Sarah suggested to her the idea (not uncommon in the East) of becoming a mother by proxy through het handmaid, whom, with that view, she gave to Abrnham as a secondary wife [Amount ; ADOPTION ; CONCUBINE].