HADADEZER hăd’ ə de’ zər (הֲדַדְעֶ֥זֶר, הֲדַדְעֶ֨זֶר׃֙, Hadad is help). KJV HADAREZER, hā’ derē’ zer. A king of Zobah in Syria, whose kingdom in David’s time extended as far eastward as the Euphrates and as far southward as Ammon. There are three accounts in the OT of conflicts between him and David.

In each, Hadadezer was defeated, and finally he was made tributary. The first is found in 2 Samuel 8:3-8 in which it is said that as Hadadezer went to restore his power at the Euphrates, David dealt him a severe defeat, and when the Syrians of Damascus came to help him, David killed 22,000 Syrians. The second account is found in 2 Samuel 10:5-14, which says that the Ammonites formed a league of Aramean rulers to protect them from the wrath of David, whom the Ammonites had insulted by shaving off the beards of his ambassadors (vv. 1-6). David sent Joab against them, and they were badly beaten. The last passage, 2 Samuel 10:15-18, relates a defeat of the army of Hadadezer at Helam under their commander Shobach, after which Hadadezer made peace with Israel and became subject to them. After these wars, David put a garrison in Damascus and received a tribute from Hadadezer.

Bibliography T. H. Robinson, A History of Israel, I (1951), 201, 237, 238; G. E. Wright, Biblical Archeology (1957), 123; M. F. Unger, Israel and the Arameans of Damascus (1957), 42-48.