HADRACH

(Haʹdrach).

A land against which Jehovah expressed a pronouncement through his prophet Zechariah. This prophecy, pronounced probably in 518 B.C.E., showed that Hadrach had incurred Jehovah’s displeasure. It is mentioned in association with a number of cities surrounding Israel, such as Damascus, Hamath, Tyre, Sidon, and the Philistine cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod.​—Zec 9:1-8.

It may be that Hadrach was a city-state that exercised control over the area surrounding it. It is believed to be the Hatarikka of the Assyrian inscriptions, identified with the mound of Tell Afis, about 45 km (28 mi) SW of Aleppo. Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser III lists Hatarikka among the “19 districts belonging to Hamath.”​—Ancient Near Eastern Texts, edited by J. Pritchard, 1974, pp. 282, 283.