ADRAMMELECH,
a-dram'el-ec:
1. Name of a deity worshiped with child-sacrifice by the colonists
whom Sargon, king of Assyria, transplanted from Sepharvaim to Samaria (II
Kings xvii. 31; cf. xviii. 34; Isa. xxxvi. 19, xxxvii. 13). Since Sepharvaim
is probably the Syrian city Shabara'in, mentioned in a Babylonian
chronicle as having been destroyed by Shalmaneser IV., the god Adrammelech
is no doubt a Syrian divinity. The name has been explained as meaning "Adar
the prince," "splendor of the king," and "fire-king,"
while others think that the original reading was "Adadmelech."
Since the name is Aramaic, the last is to be preferred.
2. According to II Kings xix. 37 and Isa. xxxvii. 38, Adrammelech
was the name of the son and murderer of the Assyrian king Sennacherib.
The form corresponds to the "Adramelus" of Abydenus in the Armenian
chronicle of Eusebius (ed. A. Schöne, i., Berlin, 1875, p.35) and
the "Ardumuzanus" of Alexander Polyhistor (p. 27).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: (1) Schrader, KAT, ii. 408, 450; P. Scholz,
Götzendienst und Zauberwesen bei den alten Hebräern, pp.
401-405, Ratisbon, 1877. (2) H. Winckler, Der Mörder Sanheribs,
in ZA, ii. (1887) 392-396.