Azel

The name Azel surfaces in the UPDV in two distinct settings: as a Benjamite of the Saulide line whose six sons close out the Chronicler's genealogy, and as a place at the far end of the cleft valley in Zechariah's vision of the Day of Yahweh. The two uses do not connect to one another in the text; each stands on its own.

A Benjamite of the Saulide Line

In the Chronicler's genealogy of Benjamin, Azel appears at the end of a short line descending from Saul through Jonathan: "And Moza begot Binea; Raphah was his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son" (1 Chr 8:37). His household is then enumerated: "And Azel had six sons, whose names are these: Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael, and Sheariah, and Obadiah, and Hanan. All these were the sons of Azel" (1 Chr 8:38).

The same line is repeated in the parallel register in the next chapter, with one variant in the intermediate name: "and Moza begot Binea; and Rephaiah his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son" (1 Chr 9:43). The list of six sons is given again in identical order: "And Azel had six sons, whose names are these: Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael, and Sheariah, and Obadiah, and Hanan: these were the sons of Azel" (1 Chr 9:44).

Within the UPDV's text, this is the full record of Azel the Benjamite: a position in a Saulide descent (Moza, Binea, Raphah/Rephaiah, Eleasah, Azel) and a household of six named sons.

Azel as a Place in Zechariah 14:5

The same name appears as a geographical marker in Zechariah's oracle of the Day of Yahweh: "And you⁺ will flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you⁺ will flee, like you⁺ fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and Yahweh my God will come, and all the holy ones with you" (Zech 14:5).

Here Azel marks the far point of the cleft valley that opens through the mountains, the route by which the addressed plural-you (⁺) flees. The verse pairs the flight with an earlier flight remembered from the earthquake under Uzziah, and it closes with Yahweh's coming together with all the holy ones. The text does not explicitly tie this place to the Benjamite of 1 Chronicles; the two uses share a name and nothing more in what the UPDV gives us.