King living before Israel's Monarchy
Adoni-zedek, the king of Jerusalem, formed an alliance with other Amorite kings to fight against Joshua and the Israelites but was defeated and killed.
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Adoni-zedek was the king of Jerusalem during the time of Joshua's conquest of Canaan. He is mentioned in Jos.10.1 and Jos.10.3 as one of the Amorite kings who opposed the Israelites' advance into the Promised Land.
When Adoni-zedek heard that Joshua had captured Ai and destroyed it, and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made a peace treaty with Israel, he became greatly alarmed. Gibeon was a significant city, and its alliance with Israel posed a threat to the other Amorite kings in the region.
Adoni-zedek formed an alliance with four other Amorite kings: Hoham of Hebron, Piram of Jarmuth, Japhia of Lachish, and Debir of Eglon. Together, they attacked Gibeon to punish them for making peace with Israel (Jos.10.3-4).
The Gibeonites sent word to Joshua, requesting help, and Joshua marched all night with his army to come to their aid. In the ensuing battle, the Lord threw the Amorite kings into confusion, and Israel defeated them with a great slaughter. The five kings fled and hid in a cave at Makkedah (Jos.10.5-16).
Joshua commanded that the cave be sealed until the battle was finished. After the victory, he brought the five kings out of the cave, and the Israelite commanders put their feet on the kings' necks, symbolizing their complete defeat. Joshua then struck and killed the kings, hanging their bodies on trees until evening (Jos.10.17-27).
The defeat of Adoni-zedek and the other Amorite kings was a significant victory for Israel, demonstrating God's power and faithfulness in giving them the Promised Land. It also served as a warning to the other Canaanite kings who would oppose Israel's advance.
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justice of the Lord; lord of justice
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.
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.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
2 verses in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H0139
Now Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had captured Ai and devoted it to destruction—doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king—and that the people of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were living near them.
Therefore Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent word to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon, saying,
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.