ZADOK zā’ dŏk (צָדֹ֧וק; LXX Σαδδούκ, righteous). The name of several individuals mentioned in the OT. All but one are mentioned only briefly. One, however, who will be discussed first, was a very prominent priest in the reign of David, and is mentioned frequently from 2 Samuel 8 to 1 Kings 4.

1. Zadok, the son of Ahitub, is listed along with Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, and later with another Abiathar, prob. the grandson of the first, as a leading priest (2 Sam 8:17; 20:25). When David fled from Absalom Zadok started to accompany him, taking along the Ark of the Lord, but David ordered him to return to Jerusalem (2 Sam 15:24-29). Zadok always showed unswerving loyalty to David. His son, Ahimaaz, served as a courier in the time of conflict (2 Sam 15:36; 17:17-20; 18:19, 22, 27). At David’s request, after the defeat of Absalom, Zadok and Abiathar induced the elders of Judah to invite David to return to Jerusalem (2 Sam 19:11-14). Zadok and Abiathar served jointly as priests until the end of David’s reign, with Zadok for a time having special responsibility for the worship at the Tabernacle in Gibeon (1 Chron 16:39). Zadok crowned Solomon as king, instead of, like Abiathar, supporting Adonijah (1 Kings 1). As a result Solomon deposed Abiathar from the priesthood (1 Kings 2:27, 35), thus fulfilling the dire prediction about the house of Eli (1 Sam 2:27-36). Zadok appears in lists and parallel statements in 1 Chronicles 6:8, 53; 15:11; 16:39; 18:16; 24:3, 6, 31; and 29:22. Statements without any parallel in Samuel or Kings are found in 1 Chronicles 12:26-28 and 27:17. In the latter of these Zadok appears as the ruler of the Aaronites. The earlier of the two says that the forces that accompanied David to Hebron when he became king included 3,700 Aaronites among whom was Zadok “a young man mighty in valor.” On the strength of this statement Well-hausen declared that Zadok was not a descendant of Aaron, but a military adventurer who had been given the priest hood by David as a reward for his services, and that because he thus displaced the descendants of Eli, an alleged prediction that the priesthood would be removed from Eli’s family was inserted in 1 Samuel (2:27-36), and a priestly descent from Aaron and Eleazar invented for Zadok. This theory, like so many others, is entirely imaginary. There is no reason why a young man of priestly family should not have been active in military operations while his father was still living and performing the work of the priesthood. There is also no reason for denying the possibility that the change in the priesthood should have been predicted in the time of Eli, unless, of course, one adopts the presupposition that predictive prophecy is impossible.

In Ezekiel 40-48 the term “sons of Zadok” is used four times (40:46; 43:19; 44:15; 48:11) as a designation for the priests.

2. 1 Chronicles 6:12 includes in the line of descendants of Aaron and Eleazar, seven generations after Zadok, a second Zadok with his father and grandfather bearing the same names as those of the first Zadok. While such repetition of names in a family line is not at all impossible, it naturally raises the question whether a scribe might at some time have copied the same line twice.

3. A Zadok appears as the father of Jerusha who was the wife of Uzziah and mother of Jotham (2 Kings 15:33; 2 Chron 27:1).

4-7. The name Zadok appears four times in the Book of Nehemiah. At least two individuals are involved, since Nehemiah 3:4 mentions Zadok, son of Baana, and Nehemiah 3:29 mentions Zadok, son of Immer.

Zadok, son of Baana, repaired a portion of the wall (Neh 3:4). Zadok, son of Immer, a priest, repaired a portion of the wall opposite his house (3:29). In Nehemiah 10:21 a Zadok sealed the covenant. Nehemiah appointed a scribe named Zadok as one of the three principal treasurers of the Temple (13:13). There is no way of knowing whether these represent two, three or four different individuals who lived in the time of Nehemiah.