Mattan

Two Old Testament men carry the name Mattan. The first is the priest of Baal whom the people of Judah killed when Jehoiada's reform tore down the Baal-house in Jerusalem. The second is the father of one of the officials who pressed Zedekiah to put Jeremiah to death.

Priest of Baal Slain at Jehoiada's Reform

When Jehoiada the priest brought the boy-king Joash to the throne and dismantled the Baal worship Athaliah had patronised, the crowd carried the reform into the Baal-house itself: "And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 11:18). The Chronicler tells the same scene in nearly identical terms: "And all the people went to the house of Baal, and broke it down, and broke his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars" (2Ch 23:17). Mattan dies on the spot where he had served, the altar-precinct turned execution-ground as the Baal-installation itself is torn down.

Father of Shephatiah Under Zedekiah

A second Mattan appears a single time, in the genealogy of one of the four officials who heard Jeremiah's surrender-preaching during the final siege of Jerusalem and demanded the prophet's death: "And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah, heard the words that Jeremiah spoke to all the people, saying," (Jer 38:1). Nothing else is said of this Mattan; his name surfaces only as patronymic for Shephatiah, the first-named of the four princes who would soon throw Jeremiah into the muddy cistern.