JAAZANIAH (n4nw, or with 't parag. MTN' ; LXX. ; Vulg. Yezoltias).
1. One of Zedekiah's captains of the forces,' who escaped capture by the army of Nebuchad nezzar and to whom, with his troops, Gedaliati, after his appointment as governor of Juda, gave assurances of safety (2 Kings xxv. 23). He is de scribed as the son of the Maachathite vrizmr,rr.z) which probably means that lie was the son or de scendant of a native of Maachah, a district on the slope of Mount Hermon, the Canaanitish inhabit ants of which were not expelled by the Israelites, but were permitted to dwell amongst them on friendly terms (Josh. xii. 5 ; xiii. 13). In the book of Jeremiah his name appears in the slightly abbreviated form of Jezaniah (nr ; LXX.
xl. 8, xlii. ; and in the latter passage he is said to he the son of Ifoshaiah.
2. Son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and the head of that family of Rechabites to whom the prophet Jeremiah announced the divine blessing because of their faithful observance of the com mandments of Jonadab their ancestor ( Jer. xxxv. 3).
The LXX. reads in this passage Jechoniah vfar), which is probably an error of transcription ; the same form occurs as a various reading in Ezek.
viii. 11.
3. Son of Shaphan (Ezek. viii. I), and an elder of tbe house of Israel, who took a prominent part in the idolatrous abominations practised in Jerusa lem during the reig,n of Zedekiah.
4. Son of Azur (Ezek. xi. 1), and one of the princes of Jerusalem who ` gave wicked counsel in this city,' and encouraged the people in their dis belief of the prophetic warnings which had an nounced to them the approaching destruction of their city by the king of Babylon.—S. N.