2 Kings xiii. 3, 24, 25. In the year of the World 3168.III. BEN-HADAD, the Son of Hazael, whom we have been speaking of. Jehoash King of Israel recovered all from Ben -hadad, that Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz King of Israel, his Predecessor. Jehoash beat him three several times, and compell’d him to surrender all the Country beyond Jordan, that is to say, the lands belonging to Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, which Hazael had made himself master of in the foregoing reigns.
Josephus1 calls these two last Princes Hadad, who in Scripture have the name of Ben-hadad, or Son of Hadad; and adds that2 the Syrians of Damascus paid divine honours to the last Hadad, and Hazael in consideration of the benefits of their Government, and particularly because they adorn’d the City of Damascus with magnificent Temples. They carried their Statues every day in procession, and boast of their Antiquity, tho’ they are by no means ancient, and it is not eleven hundred years from their time to ours, says Josephus. But according to our Chronology, from the death of the second Ben-hadad and beginning of Hazael’s reign, to the Death of Jesus Christ, there are not above nine hundred and seventeen years.
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