Ben-Hadad
Ben-hadad ("son of Hadad") is the dynastic name borne by three successive kings of Syria who reigned from Damascus and whose dealings with Judah and Israel run from the divided-monarchy years of Asa down to the recovery campaigns of Jehoash. The biblical record presents three distinct holders of the name: Ben-hadad I, the contemporary of Asa whom Judah hires against Baasha; Ben-hadad II, the contemporary of Ahab whose campaigns against Samaria fill the Elisha cycle and whose own death at the hand of Hazael ends his reign; and Ben-hadad III, the son of Hazael, against whom Jehoash recovers the cities lost under Jehoahaz.
Ben-hadad I, contemporary of Asa
Ben-hadad I appears as the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion, "king of Syria, who dwelt at Damascus" (1Ki 15:18). Asa empties the treasures of the house of Yahweh and of the king's house and sends them to him with a request to break his standing league with Baasha king of Israel: "[There is] a league between me and you, between my father and your father: look, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold; go, break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me" (1Ki 15:19). Ben-hadad complies and turns his armies northward against Israel: "And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali" (1Ki 15:20).
The Chronicler narrates the same episode with parallel wording. Asa "sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who dwelt at Damascus" (2Ch 16:2), repeating the appeal to a league between fathers (2Ch 16:3); and Ben-hadad once again "listened to King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali" (2Ch 16:4).
Ben-hadad II, contemporary of Ahab and Elisha
The second Ben-hadad — described in the heading of his record as a king of Syria reigning during the time of Ahab and as the son of Ben-hadad I — is the antagonist of the long Elisha cycle in 2 Kings. He opens with a coalition siege of Samaria: "And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together; and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it" (1Ki 20:1). His demands escalate from silver, gold, wives, and sons (1Ki 20:3) to a sweeping right of plunder (1Ki 20:6), and he sends the boast that "the gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria will suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me" (1Ki 20:10). When Ahab is told by a prophet that Yahweh will deliver the multitude into his hand (1Ki 20:13), Ben-hadad — drinking himself drunk in the pavilions with his thirty-two allied kings (1Ki 20:16) — is routed and "escaped on a horse with horsemen" (1Ki 20:20). The next year he musters the Syrians at Aphek on the counsel that "Their god is a god of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we: but let us fight against them in the plain" (1Ki 20:23), and Israel slays a hundred thousand Syrian footmen in a day (1Ki 20:29). Ben-hadad himself flees into an inner chamber (1Ki 20:30); his slaves come out in sackcloth, "Your slave Ben-hadad says, I pray you, let my soul live," and Ahab answers, "Is he yet alive? He is my brother" (1Ki 20:32). The two kings cut a covenant in which Ben-hadad pledges, "The cities which my father took from your father I will restore; and you will make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria" (1Ki 20:34).
The same Syrian king stands behind the Naaman narrative. Naaman is "captain of the host of the king of Syria... a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria" but a leper (2Ki 5:1). The king of Syria sends a letter ahead with him to the king of Israel: "And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, And now when this letter has come to you, look, I have sent Naaman my slave to you, that you may recover him of his leprosy" (2Ki 5:6). The Syrian raiding-bands and the king's wars against Israel set the frame for the chapter that follows.
In 2 Kings 6 the king of Syria conducts a private campaign against Israel from his bedchamber: "Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took counsel with his slaves, saying, In such and such a place will be my camp" (2Ki 6:8). Elisha repeatedly betrays the plan to the king of Israel until the Syrian king demands, "Will you⁺ not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?" (2Ki 6:11) and learns it is "Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel" who "tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber" (2Ki 6:12). The Syrian force sent to Dothan is struck blind, led to Samaria, and dismissed unharmed; the closing line of the episode reports that "the bands of Syria did not come into the land of Israel anymore" (2Ki 6:23). Then the dynastic name reappears: "And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria" (2Ki 6:24). The siege produces the famine in which a donkey's head sells for eighty shekels of silver (2Ki 6:25) and the women boil and eat their sons (2Ki 6:28-29). Yahweh delivers Samaria by making "the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host" (2Ki 7:6); the Syrians flee in the twilight, and four lepers at the gate find the camp deserted (2Ki 7:5-8). The famine is lifted exactly as Elisha had foretold: "So a seah of fine flour was [sold] for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of Yahweh" (2Ki 7:16).
His reign closes with sickness and assassination at Damascus. Elisha himself comes to Damascus, and "Benhadad the king of Syria was sick" (2Ki 8:7). The king sends Hazael with a forty-camel present to inquire of Yahweh through the prophet (2Ki 8:8-9). Elisha replies, "Go, say to him, You will surely recover; nevertheless Yahweh has shown me that he will surely die" (2Ki 8:10), and weeps at what Hazael will do to Israel — "their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will slay with the sword, and will dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their pregnant women" (2Ki 8:12) — telling Hazael, "Yahweh has shown me that you will be king over Syria" (2Ki 8:13). Hazael returns, lies to his master that Elisha had promised recovery (2Ki 8:14), and the next day "he took the coverlet, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead" (2Ki 8:15).
Ben-hadad III, son of Hazael
The third Ben-hadad is Hazael's son. The record of the oppression under Jehoahaz names them together: "And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually" (2Ki 13:3). When Hazael himself dies, "Benhadad his son reigned in his stead" (2Ki 13:24); and "Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times Joash struck him, and recovered the cities of Israel" (2Ki 13:25).
Amos sets the same dynastic pair under judgment. The oracle against Damascus closes, "but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad" (Am 1:4).