Adoni-Zedek

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.

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. 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.