Azariah the Prophet
The Holy Prophet Azariah, son of Oded
Prophet · d. 10th century BC (flourished under King Asa of Judah)
Commemorated 3 February — Commemoration of the prophet Azariah, son of Oded
Azariah, son of Oded, is the Old-Testament prophet who, "the Spirit of God coming upon him," went out to meet King Asa of Judah as he returned from victory and summoned him to reform: "The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you" (2 Chronicles 15:1–7). His word moved the king to purge idols from Judah and Benjamin, to restore the altar of the Lord, and to gather the people to a great covenant, so that "they sought God with their whole desire, and he was found of them." Azariah flourished in the early ninth century before Christ; the Church commemorates him on February 3. He is not to be confused with Azarias, one of the Three Holy Youths in the furnace, nor with the many other bearers of this common Hebrew name.
The word to King Asa
Azariah belongs to the company of the Old-Testament prophets who are known from a single decisive intervention. His name — Azaryahu, "the Lord has helped" — was one of the commonest in Judah, and the Scriptures distinguish him by his father, Oded. He appears in the Second Book of Chronicles at the turning of the reign of Asa, king of Judah (traditionally c. 910–870 BC), the reforming great-grandson of Solomon. When Asa returned from a great deliverance — the rout of the vast army of Zerah the Cushite (Ethiopian), which Judah had won by crying to the Lord — the Spirit of God came upon Azariah, and he went out to meet the king with a prophecy that is at once encouragement and warning:
The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law… Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded. (2 Chronicles 15:2–7)
The oracle sets before the king the whole logic of the covenant — that God is found by those who seek him and lost by those who forsake him — and grounds it in the memory of Israel's lawless times, when the nation had gone long "without the true God." It is one of the clearest statements in the historical books of the conditional blessing of the covenant, and it is spoken not in a time of apostasy but in the flush of victory, when a king is most tempted to trust his own arm.
The reform of Asa
The Chronicler records the fruit of the word at once: "when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 15:8). Asa gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the many out of Israel who had come over to him, to Jerusalem, where they offered sacrifice and "entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul" — and "they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets" (15:12–14). "And they sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the Lord gave them rest round about" (15:15). Azariah is thus remembered as the prophet whose single oracle bore the great reform of one of the few kings of Judah whom the Scriptures call good, "and the heart of Asa was perfect all his days." The prophet's own further history is not recorded; having delivered his word he passes from the narrative, his memory bound to the covenant he called Judah to renew.
Not to be confused
The name Azariah (Greek Azarias) is borne by many in the Old Testament, and two confusions in particular touch this prophet:
- Azarias one of the Three Holy Youths — the companion of Daniel in Babylon, renamed Abednego, who with Ananias and Misael was preserved unburnt in the furnace and whose Prayer of Azarias and Song of the Three Youths became canticles of the Church (kept December 17). A wholly different figure, of the Babylonian captivity some three centuries after the prophet.
- The many other Azariahs of the historical and priestly genealogies — including King Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah, and several high priests of the name — none of them the prophet son of Oded.
The prophet of February 3 is the son of Oded who spoke to Asa.
Feast and commemoration
Azariah is commemorated on February 3 (church date; Old Calendar civil February 16), among the prophets of the Old Covenant, on the day of the afterfeast of the Meeting. The Greek and Slavic calendars keep his memory on this day; he has no proper office, and is honoured with the common hymns of a prophet.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 2
Keeping the memory of thy prophet Azariah, O Lord, through him we beseech thee: save thou our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Appointed readings
Epistle — James 5:10–20 (the prophets as examples of patience)
10Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. 11Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. 12But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. 13Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 19Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Iconography
Azariah is depicted in the settled type of the Old-Testament prophet: a bearded man, often of middle years, in the tunic and himation of a prophet, his head sometimes covered, holding an unrolled scroll on which his oracle to Asa — "the Lord is with you, while ye be with him" — may be inscribed, and with his free hand raised in the gesture of address. As one of the lesser prophets he has no widely distinct type, and shares the prophetic register of the iconostasis prophet-row.
No storable public-domain image identified specifically to this Azariah has been found (the name's many bearers make an unverified attribution unsafe); the entry carries the iconographic description without a stored image, and an image is wanted.