Hadrach

Hadrach was a northern Aramean kingdom in the upper Orontes valley named at the head of Zechariah's great oracle of judgment against Israel's ancient enemies: "The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be the rest thereof" (Zechariah 9:1). The oracle then sweeps south through Hamath, Tyre, Sidon, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod — naming the cities one by one as the announcement of coming destruction. Hadrach (Akkadian Hatarikka) was a small independent Aramean state through the 8th century BCE before falling to Assyria; its appearance in Zechariah suggests the post-exilic prophet was using older geographic vocabulary inherited from the pre-exilic period.