Adoni-Zedek

Adoni-Zedek is in the book of Joshua in the Old Testament, the Amorite king of Jerusalem . He is mentioned in Jos 10.1  EU and 3 EU .

etymology

The Hebrew personal name אֲדֹנִי־צֶדֶק 'ǎdonî ṣædæq , German ' Adoni-Zedek ' is a nominal sentence name, consisting of subject and predicate. The subject forms the theophore element אֲדֹן 'ǎdon “Lord” and the predicate צֶדֶק ṣædæq “Justice”. Hence the name means "Lord is righteousness". However, Zedek is also a proper name of a deity, which makes the meaning "(the) Lord is (the God) Zedek" possible. The name is also documented in Ugaritic . Herennios Philon mentions a Ugaritic god named Suduk .

Have more personal names, justice as a predicate, are Melchizedek (Malki מַלְכִּי-צֶדֶק sedeq "(the) king is justice") and Zedekiah (צִדְקִיָּהוּ ṣidqîjāhû " YHWH is justice")

The Septuagint gives the name Adoni-Zedek as Αδωνιβεζεκ Adonibesek and identifies the bearer of the name with the Adoni-Besek mentioned in Ri 1.5  EU , the Vulgate gives the name as Adonizedec .

Biblical report

Adonizedek was the king of Jerusalem before the conquest by the Israelites. He heard of the conquest and destruction of Ai by Joshua and his peace treaty with Gibeon . Because of the military strength of Ais and Gibeon, he became afraid and sent messengers to the four other kings of the Amorites, Hoham of Hebron , Piram of Jarmut, Jafia of Lachish and Debir of Eglon, with the request that they go with him against Gibeon, since it turned out to be allied with the Israelites. Thereupon the five kings marched against Gibeon and besieged it. The men of Gibeon asked Joshua for military assistance, whereupon the latter advanced with his army from Gilgal . With Yhwh's help, the armies of Joshua inflicted a heavy defeat on the armies of the Amorite kings. The kings fled and hid in the cave at Makkeda. Found by the Israelites, Joshua had the entrance to the cave closed with large stones and the kings guarded. They were later slain and hung from five trees. They were buried in the cave near Makkeda.

literature

• Dominik Markl SJ:  Adoni-Zedek. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
• Art. אֲדֹנִי־צֶדֶק, In: Gesenius, 18th edition 2013 , p. 17.
• Martin Noth : The Israelite personal names in the context of common naming , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1928, p. 114, 234.
• Hans Rechenmacher : Old Hebrew personal names. Münster 2012, pp. 117, 198.