Rezin

Firm; a prince, a king of Syria, who joined Pekah (q.v.) in an invasion of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 15:37; 16:5-9; Isa. 7:1-8). Ahaz induced Tiglath-pileser III. to attack Damascus, and this caused Rezin to withdraw for the purpose of defending his own kingdom. Damascus was taken, and Rezin was slain in battle by the Assyrian king, and his people carried into captivity, B.C. 732 (2 Kings 16:9).

1. King of Damascus. He attacked Jotham during the latter part of his reign, (2 Kings 15:37) but his chief war was with Ahaz, whose territories he invaded, in conjunction with Pekah about B.C. 741. Though unsuccessful is his siege of Jerusalem, (2 Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:1) he "recovered Elath to Syria." (2 Kings 16:6) Soon after this he was attacked defeated and slain by Tiglath-pileser II, king of Assyria. (2 Kings 16:9)
2. One of the families of the Nethinim. (Ezra 2:48; Nehemiah 7:50) (B.C. before 536.)

re'-zin (retsin; Rhaasson): The last of the kings of Syria who reigned in Damascus (2Ki 15:37; 16:5-10; Isa 7:1; 8:4-7). Alona with Pekah, the son of Remaliah, who reigned 20 years over Israel in Samaria, he joined in the Syro-Ephraimitic war aaainst Ahaz, the king of Judah. Together they laid siege to Jerusalem, but were unsuccessful in the effort to take it (2Ki 16:5; Isa 7:1). It was to calm the fears, and to restore the fainting spirits of the men of Judah, that Isaiah was commissioned by the Lord to assure them that the schemes of "these two tails of smoking firebrands" (Isa 7:4) were destined to miscarry. It was then, too, that the sign was aiven of the vigin who should conceive, and bear a son, and should call his name Immanuel. Rezin had to content himself on this campaign to the South with the capture of Elath from the men of Judah and its restoration to the men of Edom, from whom it had been taken and made a seaport by Solomon (2Ki 16:6, where it is agareed that "Syria" and "Syrians" should be read "Edom" and "Edomites," which in the Hebrew script are easy to be mistaken for one another, and are in fact often mistaken). Rezin, however, had a more formidable enemy to encounter on his return to Damascus. Ahaz, like kings of Judah before and after him, placed his reliance more on the arm of flesh than on the true King of his people, and appealed to Tiglath-pileser III, of Assyria, for help. Ahaz deliberately sacrificed the independence of his country in the terms of his offer of submission to the Assyrian: "I am thy servant and thy son" (2Ki 16:7). Tiglath-pileser had already carried his arms to the West and ravaged the northern border of Israel; and now he crossed the Euphrates and hastened to Damascus, slaying Rezin and carrying his people captive to Kir (2Ki 16:9). In the copious Annals of Tialath-pileser, Rezin figures with the designation Racunu(ni), but the tablet recording his death, found and read by Sir Henry Rawlinson, has been irrecoverably lost, and only the fact of its existence and loss remains (Schrader, COT, I, 252, 257). With the death of Rezin the kingdom of Damascus and Syria came to an end.

Rezin, Sons of: Mentioned among the Nethinim (Ezr 2:48), who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel from captivity (compare Ne 7:50).

LITERATURE.

Schrader, COT, as above; Driver, Authority, 99 ff,

T. Nicol.

• 1. A king of Syria who harassed the southern kingdom (Judah) 2Ki 15:37; 16:5-9
  • Prophecy against Isa 7:1-9; 8:4-8; 9:11
• 2. A returned Babylonian captive Ezr 2:48; Ne 7:50