Hadad,thunder god

Name of an Aramaic, and possibly of an Edomitish, deity. It occurs as an element in personal names, for instance, in "Hadadezer," "Benhadad" (see Baudissin, "Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgesch." i. 310). In these compound names, the variant reading occasionally gives "Hadar" for "Hadad." The connection of "Hadad" with "Ezer" is the more usual, and "Ben-hadad" seems originally to have been a secondary form of the common name "Hadadezer," in Assyrian inscriptions "Hadad-idri" ("idri" = ; Schrader, "K. G. F." pp. 371, 538-539; idem, "K. A. T." 2d ed., p. 200). "Hadad" may have been identical with "Rimmon," or "Raman," since for "Hadad-idri" the equivalent "Raman-idri " is also found. The meaning of this name is apparent from that of the root (= "to make a loud noise"; in Arabic "hadd," used of a falling building, of rain, of the sea, etc., so that "haddah" connotes "thunder"). The name designates the Aramaic weather- or storm-god; as such this element is met with in names on the Zenjirli inscription (see Lidzbarski, "Handbuch der Nordsemitischen Epigraphik," Index), in such compounds as (Scholz, "Götzendienst," etc., p. 245; comp. Euting in "Sitzungsberichte der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin," p. 410; Baethgen, "Beiträge zur Semitischen Religionsgesch." p. 68), and in names on the El-Amarna tablets (Bezold, "The Tell el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum," p. 155, London, 1892). As to its occurrence in Arabia, see Wellhausen, "Skizzen und Vorarbeiten," iii. 31. According to Halévy ("Etudes Sabéennes," p. 27), "Hadad" represents also a Sabean deity.
In the Old Testament "Hadad," without the addition of a qualifying word (verb), occurs as a personal noun, designating the Edomites. It is probable that where "Hadad" is found alone the second element has dropped out, and "Hadad" must be regarded as denoting the deity (Schröder, "Die Phönizische Sprache," 1869, p. 254; Nestle, "Die Israelitischen Eigennamen," 1876, pp. 114-116; Kerber, "Die Religionsgesch. Bedeutung der Hebräischen Eigennamen," 1897, p. 10). Variants of this name are "Hadar," "Hadad" (Wellhausen, l.c. p. 55), "Haddam" (?) in Himyaritic inscriptions ("C. I. S." Him. et Sab. No. 55), and "Hadu," in Nabatæan (G. Hoffmann, in "Zeit. für Assyr." xi. 228).
Earlier Interpretations. "Hadad" combined with "Rimmon" is found in Zech. xii. 11; the context of the verse shows that the mourning of, or at (see below), Hadadrimmon represented the acme of desperate grief. The older exegetes agree in regarding "Hadadrimmon" as denominating a locality in the neighborhood of Megiddo. The lamentations, of Sisera's mother (Judges v. 28), and the assumed weeping over Ahaziah, King of Judah, who died at Megiddo (II Kings ix. 27), have been adduced in explanation of the allusion. The most favored explanation is that given by the Peshiṭta, that the plaint referred to was for King Josiah, who had fallen at Megiddo (II Kings xxiii. 29). The Targum to Zech. xii. 11 combines two allusions, one to Ahab, supposed to have met his death at the hands of a Syrian by the name of "Hadadrimmon," and another to Josiah's fall at Megiddo. These various references to public lamentations over one or the other Biblical personage have been generally abandoned by modern scholars. Following Hitzig, it is now held that Zechariah had in mind a public mourning for the god Hadadrimmon, identified with the Phenician Adonis (Ezek. viii. 14, "Tammuz"), whose yearly death was the occasion for lament. This theory, plausible on the whole, is, however, open to objections arising from the text of the verse in Zechariah.
A Thunder-God. Hittite Representation of Hadad.

(In the Royal Museum, Berlin.)"Hadadrimmon" is certainly a compound of two names of deities. The Masoretic text identifies the second element with Rimmon, "the pomegranate," and among modern scholars the attempt has been made to justify this reading on the assumption that the pomegranate was a symbol of the Hadad-Adonis cult. This view, however, still awaits confirmation. In the pictorial representations of Hadad (see "Mitteilungen aus den Orient. Sammlungen," p. 84, plate vi.) the god is shown bearded, wearing a cap and having horns on his head; while the description of the god of Heliopolis (identified with the Aramean Hadad by recent writers like Baudissin) which is found in Macrobius shows him with a whip, or lightning-bolt, in one hand, and with cars of grain in the other. These data, in which the pomegranate is missing, confirm the opinion that Hadad was a god of thunder, corresponding thus to the assumedAssyrian god Raman ("the thunderer"), and that the second element probably read, originally, "Raman." Adonis-Tammuz, however, was a solar deity; the thunder-god is not believed to have died, and why a lament should have been instituted over him and should have become typical of mourning is one of the unsolved riddles in the way of the interpretation now generally favored. It is true, Baudissin (in Herzog-Hauck, "Real-Encyc." vii. 292) deduces from the place-name, Heliopolis, and the material of the statue, gold, as described by Macrobius, that later, as a result of Egyptian influences, the Aramean thunder-god was conceived of as a sun-god. He adduces other pictorial representations, including a seal with the legend "Hadad" ("C. I. S." Aramaic, No. 75). Still, the transformation of the thunderer Hadad into a dying (solar) Adonis-Tammuz appears to be problematic. Of ceremonies, such as are known to have been central in the Adonis cult, in connection with the worship of Hadadrimmon, nothing is known. Nor, even if Hadad, identified with the Adonis of Byblus, or worshiped alongside this Adonis and thus gradually confounded with him (see Baudissin, l.c. p. 294), was believed to die every year, are data at hand to prove that such a lament took place at Megiddo.
Difficulties of Identification. In view of these uncertainties the explanation of "Hadadrimmon" as the name of a locality in the plain of Megiddo has come again to the front, modified by the supposition that the place derived its name from a sanctuary supposed to exist there for the worship of Hadad-Raman. Still, a locality of this name is not known, notwithstanding Jerome's equation "Adadremnon"="Maximianapolis." Perhaps the modern Rummanah, in the plain of Jezreel, might serve to locate the Biblical (Hadad) Rimmon. Then "Hadadrimmon" would be analogous to such names as "Ba'al-Lebanon," "Ashtart-Karnayim," and would signify the Hadad of the place Rimmon, which place received its name from an old (Canaanitish; see Judges i. 27) temple or altar erected to a deity (Rimmon, or Raman) by later Aramean settlers, and identified with their god Hadad, so that finally it came to be known by the double name.
This leaves open the question as to what mourning could have been observed at this place. The death of Josiah seems to afford the most plausible explanation of the prophet's simile. But even if the mourning is regarded as having taken place where the king died and not at the place of his burial (Jerusalem), it is difficult to believe that the one historical mourning should have been vivid enough in the minds of the people to evoke such an allusion; especially so if Zech. xii. belongs to the apocalyptic writings. The mourning at Hadadrimmon must have been constant and excessive. George Adam Smith ("The Twelve Prophets," ii. 482) calls the locality the "classic battle-field of the land"; the mourning, then, would have reference to the thousands slain in the various battles fought there. But this fails to account for the prominent mention of Hadadrimmon. Perhaps the difficulty would be removed, without recourse to such forced textual emendations as those proposed by Cheyne (in Cheyne and Black. "Encyc. Bibl."), by taking into consideration the fact that Hadad had the qualities of Moloch (see Baudissin, "Moloch," in Herzog-Hauck, "Real-Encyc." xii.). At his sanctuary human sacrifices were usual. Hence the lament both of the victims and of the mothers. As "Gehinnom," the name of a Moloch furnace, occurs as a common apocalyptic simile, why should not "Hadadrimmon" be associated with similar horrors? The murder of him whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have pierced (Zech. xii. 10, 11), for whom they shall lament as for an only son, as for a first-born, carries out the analogy to the Moloch cult. The first-born (that is, the only son) was offered to this Hadad-Melek-Raman.

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