Zadok
Za’dok (just).
1. Son of Ahitub, and one of the two chief priests in the time of David, Abiathar being the other. Zadok was of the house of Eleazar the son of Aaron, 1 Chron. 24:3, and eleventh in descent from Aaron. 1 Chron. 12:28. He joined David at Hebron after Saul’s death, 1 Chron. 12:28, and thenceforth his fidelity to David was inviolable. When Absalom revolted, and David fled from Jerusalem, Zadok and all the Levites bearing the ark accompanied him. When Absalom was dead, Zadok and Abiathar were the persons who persuaded the elders of Judah to invite David to return. 2 Sam. 19:11. When Adonijah, in David’s old age, set up for king, and had persuaded Joab, and Abiathar the priest, to join his party, Zadok was unmoved, and was employed by David to anoint Solomon to be king in his room. 1 Kings 1:34. For this fidelity he was rewarded by Solomon, who “thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord,” and “put in Zadok the priest” in his room. 1 Kings 2:27, 35. From this time, however, we hear little of him. Zadok and Abiathar were of nearly equal dignity. 2 Sam. 15:35–36; 19:11. The duties of the office were divided. Zadok ministered before the tabernacle at Gibeon, 1 Chron. 16:39; Abiathar had the care of the ark at Jerusalem.
2. According to the genealogy of the high priests in 1 Chron. 6:12, there was a second Zadok, son of a second Ahitub, son of Amariah, about the time of King Ahaziah. It is probable that no such person as this second Zadok ever existed, but that the insertion of the two names is a copyist’s error.
3. Father of Jerushah, the wife of King Uzziah and mother of King Jotham. 2 Kings 15:33; 2 Chron. 27:1.
4. Son of Baana, and
5. Son of Immer, persons who repaired a portion of the wall in Nehemiah’s time. Neh. 3:4, 29.
6. In 1 Chron. 9:11 and Neh. 11:11 mention is made, in a genealogy, of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub; but it can hardly be doubtful that Meraioth is inserted by the error of a copyist, and that Zadok the son of Ahitub is meant.