adoni-zedek Summary and Overview

ADON'I-ZE'DEK (lord of justice), the Amorite king of Jerusalem at the time the country was entered by the Israelites. Josh 10:1. The name was probably the official title of the Jebusite kings of Jerusalem. Hearing of Joshua's victories over Ai and Jericho, and finding that the inhabitants of Gibeon, one of the most important cities of the kingdom, had made a league with him, he called four other kings of the Ammonites to his aid and laid siege to Gibeon, with a view to destroy it as a punishment for their conduct. But Joshua came to the assistance of the Gibeonites; hailstones fell upon the armies of the five kings, and after a hard battle they were overthrown. See Joshua. Adoni-zedek, with his allies, fled to a cave at Makkedah, in which they were soon discovered and brought before Joshua, who caused them to be slain and hanged on separate trees until evening, and then their bodies were taken down and cast into the cave in which they had concealed themselves. Josh 10:27. ADOP'TION is an act by which a stranger is received into a man's family as his own child, and becomes entitled to the peculiar privileges of that connection as fully and completely as a child by birth. So Moses was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, Ex 2:10, and Esther by her cousin Mordecai. Esth 2:7. In the figurative use of the term by the sacred writers it indicates that intimate relation of the believer to God which follows regeneration and conversion from sin to holiness, when we are received into the family of God and are made, by grace, his children or sons, and heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Gal 4:4, 1 Chr 6:5; Rom 8:14-17.

("lord of righteousness".) An Amorite king of Jerusalem, answering to the ancient king of it, Melchizedek (king of righteousness); one of many proofs that the Canaanite idolatry was an apostasy from the primitive truth of God which they once had. He headed the confederacy against Joshua, which the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon also joined. Attacking Gebeon for having made peace with Israel, they in turn were attacked by Joshua, who came by forced march from Gilgal to the relief of his ally. Routed they fled to Bethhoron, thence to Azekah and Makkedah, amidst the fearful hailstorm from God, followed by the sun's standing still at Joshua's command. Brought forth from their hiding place, a cave at Makkedah to the mouth of which Joshua had caused great stones to be rolled, they had their necks trodden down by his captains, and then were slain and hung on trees until sunset (Deuteronomy 21:23), and their bodies were buried in the cave.