Hazael

Hazael is the Damascene who comes to the Aramean throne by Yahweh's prior appointment and then becomes the rod by which Yahweh cuts away at the borders of Israel and presses upon Judah. The arc runs from Elijah's wilderness commission, through a smothered bedside in Damascus, to a reign-long oppression of the northern kingdom and a treasury-stripping threat against Jerusalem, ending with his death and Benhadad's succession.

Anointed at the Wilderness of Damascus

Hazael's place in the larger plan is fixed before he ever appears in the narrative. At Horeb Yahweh sends Elijah back northward with a triple installation, the first name on the list being Hazael: "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when you come, you will anoint Hazael to be king over Syria" (1Ki 19:15). The Syrian throne is not vacant when this word is spoken — the commission marks Hazael as Yahweh's chosen successor while Ben-hadad still reigns, and sets him as the first member of the Hazael / Jehu / Elisha trio who will execute the chapter's judgment-chain on the house of Ahab and on Israel.

The Damascus Audience and the Accession

When Ben-hadad falls sick, the king of Syria sends his courtier to Elisha with a Damascus-caravan present and a question about recovery: "the king said to Hazael, Take a present in your hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying, Will I recover of this sickness?" (2Ki 8:8). Hazael goes with "every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden" and stands before the prophet (2Ki 8:9).

Elisha gives him a doubled reply that splits the polite answer from the divine word: "Go, say to him, You will surely recover; nevertheless Yahweh has shown me that he will surely die" (2Ki 8:10). The prophet's countenance then settles steadfastly on Hazael "until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept" (2Ki 8:11), and when Hazael asks why, Elisha answers, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of 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). Hazael's protest — "But what is your slave, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?" — is answered with the throne-word the wilderness commission had already pronounced: "Yahweh has shown me that you will be king over Syria" (2Ki 8:13).

The accession follows immediately. Hazael returns to Ben-hadad with the half-truth that he would surely recover (2Ki 8:14), and on 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).

War at Ramoth-Gilead

Hazael's first appearances as reigning king of Syria are at the Trans-Jordan border-city of Ramoth-gilead. Joram the son of Ahab and Ahaziah king of Judah go up against him: "he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians wounded Joram" (2Ki 8:28). Joram returns to Jezreel "to be healed... of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria," and Ahaziah of Judah goes down to see him there (2Ki 8:29). The Chronicler's parallel repeats both points — the Ramoth-gilead war and the Jezreel sickbed visit (2Ch 22:5-6).

This Ramoth-gilead pressure is also what opens the door for Jehu's coup. Joram and "all Israel" are pinned at the frontier "because of Hazael king of Syria" when Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat conspires against him (2Ki 9:14) — the very absence Hazael's siege creates is the absence Jehu drives a chariot through.

Yahweh's Striking-Hand on the Borders of Israel

The Elijah commission identified Hazael as one of three executioners of judgment, and the narrative names him precisely in those terms once Jehu is on the throne: "In those days Yahweh began to cut off from Israel: and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel" (2Ki 10:32). The territory cut off is then named in detail — "from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan" (2Ki 10:33). The whole Trans-Jordan goes.

Through the next generation the same pattern continues. Yahweh's anger against Israel is what hands them over: "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). And the duration is total: "Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz" (2Ki 13:22).

The Threat Against Jerusalem

Hazael's pressure does not stop at Israel's frontier. He turns south against Philistine Gath and then against Judah: "Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem" (2Ki 12:17). Jerusalem is bought off by a treasury-stripping tribute drawn from both temple and palace: "Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and of the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem" (2Ki 12:18).

Death and Succession

The reign-long oppression closes with a single line: "Hazael king of Syria died; and Benhadad his son reigned in his stead" (2Ki 13:24). The Damascus throne passes to the son already named alongside him in the handing-over of Israel (2Ki 13:3), so the Aramean pressure on the northern kingdom continues into the next reign without a break.