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does not stand alone as the introductory formula, as is the case in Isaiah and Nahum, but is followed by nirr IJH (debhar Yehovah\ " the word of Jehovah " ; as is the case also in Mai. i. I, which begins, " The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel
Very many pages have been devoted by commentators to the discussion as to the meaning of Hadrach, Because the name occurs nowhere else in the Bible, and because of the difficulty in identifying it with any known place or district in Syria, it has been generally understood by Jewish and Christian commentators as having a symbolical or mystical significance. Thus Kimchi says, " We find in the words of our Rabbis of blessed memory that Rabbi Benaiah says Hadrach is the name of the Messiah, who is sharp in (Jiad) to the Gentiles, and tender "P_ (rakli) to Israel." And this interpretation of Rabbi Benaiah is echoed also by other Jewish expositors. The explanations given by most Christian commentators have been quite as fanciful. Thus Hengstenberg (who devotes eight learned pages to it in his Christology), Kliefoth, Keil, and others explain Hadrach to be " a symbolic epithet, descriptive of the Medo-Persian Empire, which is called sharp-soft, or strong-weak, on account of its inwardly divided character." *
Gesenius, Bleek, and others have taken Hadrach as the name of some Syrian king who is supposed to have reigned in Damascus between Benhahad in. and Rezin, which utterly baseless supposition (since there is no trace whatever in history of the existence of such a king) has been taken by them as a support for the theory of a pre- exilic origin of these chapters.
Others have wrongly understood the word as standing for " an Assyrian fire-god," or as the name of " a deity of Eastern Aramea," of which also there is no trace in history ; while Olshausen, Von Ortenberg, Bredenkamp, and others regard Hadrach as a scribal error for Hauran, which is a district south of Damascus, and is mentioned also in con nection with Hamath and Damascus in Ezek. xlvii. 1 8.
1 Keil.
