Oded

o'-ded (`owdhedh (2 Chr 2), `odhedh (elsewhere), `odhedh, "restorer"):

(1) According to 2 Chr 15:1, he was the father of Azariah who prophesied in the reign of Asa of Judah (c 918-877), but 15:8 makes Oded himself the prophet. The two verses should agree, so we should probably read in 15:8, "the prophecy of Azariah, the son of Oded, the prophet," or else "the prophecy of Azariah the prophet."

See AZARIAH.

(2) A prophet of Samaria (2 Chr 28:9) who lived in the reigns of Pekah, king of the Northern Kingdom, and Ahaz, king of Judah. According to 2 Chr 2, Oded protested against the enslavement of the captives which Pekah had brought from Judah and Jerusalem on his return from the Syro-Ephraimitic attack on the Southern Kingdom (735 BC). In this protest he was joined by some of the chiefs of Ephraim, and the captives were well treated. After those who were naked (i.e. those who had scanty clothing; compare the meaning of the word "naked" in Mark 14:51) had been supplied with clothing from the spoil, and the bruised anointed with oil, the prisoners were escorted to Jericho.

The narrative of 2 Chr 2 as a whole does not agree with that of 2 Kgs 15:37; 2 Kgs 16:5 f, where the allied armies of Rezin of Damascus and Pekah besieged Jerusalem, but failed to capture it (compare Isa 7:1-17; Isa 8:5-8 a). As Curtis points out (Chronicles, 459, where he compares Exod 21:2 ff; Lev 25:29-43; Deut 15:12-18), wholesale enslavement of their fellow-countrymen was not allowed to the Hebrews, and this fact the passage illustrates. It seems to be a fulfillment in spirit of Isa 61:1-2, a portion which our Lord read in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-20).

David Francis Roberts